Tea Tastes of Culture… and Environmental Impact

According to Indian legend, tea was the divine creation of Buddha himself. Buddha vowed to meditate for nine years straight without rest, but was eventually overcome by exhaustion and fell asleep. When he woke up, he was so upset by his weakness that he cut off his own eyelids and threw them into the dirt. His skin is said to have taken root in that very spot, germinating into plants that bore leaves in the

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Choosing Organic Cotton Goes a Long Way

In today’s world of on-going environmental issues, it is more and more important for consumers to be aware and conscious of the products they are buying. As a consumer, we have the choice to decide what products we buy and where we buy them from. Choosing the right products can be very difficult if you don’t know what to look for. There are many options out there for sustainable, ethically sound products. Vegan, up-cycled, fair

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Why the World Needs Sustainable Tourism: Spotlight on Kerala’s Responsible Tourism Initiative

On October 20, 2017, Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan launched the Responsible Tourism initiative, a statewide program aimed at “making better places for people to visit and better places for people to live in” (Naguran, 2017). The Responsible Tourism initiative operates within the “triple bottom line” model often utilized by companies pursuing sustainability. The triple bottom line refers to responsibility and conservation in the economic, social, and environmental spheres. The project has existed on

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Circular Economy

As the threat of climate change becomes more imminent- with recent scientific studies declaring the year 2040 as an ultimatum for preventative action to be taken- we must look to alternative models for sustainable lives. One such model is a circular economy. In contrast to the traditional “linear economy”- in which raw materials are used for production of goods, generating waste with leftover materials- the circular economy redefines economic growth. With societal and environmental benefits

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The Need for Sustainable Energy

As climate change is starting to become an even greater issue on the national and global stage, many leaders and policymakers have been pushing toward adopting more sustainable energy practices. In particular, India’s solar capacity addition for 2019 is said to set a record. This addition is supposed to add an estimated 16 gigawatts of clean energy, and this is driven chiefly by large-scale solar projects. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, set forth a target

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