Earth Matters: Why Should You Invest In Sustainable Living
There was once a time when kids used to indulge in collecting bugs, camping or just stargazing as a pastime. With the mushrooming of cities and growing urbanisation these nature-led hobbies have relegated to a dark corner of our memories.
Certainly, city-life is what inhibits children from cultivating nature-led hobbies. Sleep, study, ‘screen-time’ intermittently, daily commute to school and back, homework and sleep again is a rough summation of the daily drill of today’s children. The children are too hard-pressed for time to develop any nature oriented wholesome hobbies.
But living in properties that are ‘green’ can give families a chance to rekindle the simplistic joy of age old hobbies such as -
Bird watching: Where there are forests, there will be birds. Teaching your child to be more acutely aware of the fauna around them, identifying their songs and plumage. If your house has a garden, you can start this activity in your own backyard with a pair of binoculars and a book on birds.
Cycling and walking: Walkable communities (with cycling paths) are on the rise as homeowners are seeing the benefits of staying healthy and fit while being one with the great outdoors. It also promotes social health, as it encourages interactions with others during these exercise sessions.
Star-gazing: This is an incredibly powerful relaxing exercise that teaches kids calmness. You could even inject an astronomy lesson in there to make things more educational! During daytime variant ‘cloud-watching’ is also fun - where kids are encouraged to spot and identify interesting-looking cloud shapes that lead to boosting their imagination and creativity.
Gardening: With all the talk of global warming and carbon footprint, it is vital to create a pro-green generation. Planting, nurturing and growing life, even if it’s a plant, teaches children compassion and responsibility. At the same time, seeing the transformation from seed to plant would help them appreciate the wonders of nature.
Then there are numerous other hobbies for nature-lovers such as camping and bug collection, rock collection, or even Pokemon Go collecting (for new-gen gaming-enthusiasts) !
An investment in health and wealth
Apart from offering and creating priceless childhood memories for your little ones, sustainable ‘green’ properties can also double as a great financial investment.
Owners of sustainable properties that are dedicated to conserving energy and water, save exponentially in terms of operational costs (via lower electricity and water bills) that allow them to pay back their mortgage in just 1-2 years.
Secondly, the green location of these environment-friendly homes also results in improving the productivity and happiness levels of future tenants. Thus, those looking to give their green abodes on rent, can be assured to attract better tenants who offer to pay better rental rates.
Most of these residential projects, cocooned in greenery, are usually situated in the suburbs, yet within close proximity to key amenities such as schools, highways and hospitals. Thus, it ensures that your family is away from the environmental stresses of city life – adding to the health-led ROI, without compromising on your professional life and access to essential facilities. The forest township of Godrej Reserve Devanahalli is being built in one such lush and well-connected region of Bangalore - located right next to a self-sustaining forest ecosystem, business and IT parks and India’s third busiest airport.
Thus, investing in sustainable housing is the path to physical and mental wellbeing, apart from being cost-effective in the long term.Think of it as a ‘home for generations to call home’.
This article is authored by Uday Bhaskar, an independent urban planner