Our Life After Covid-19 vs. Climate Change
By Regine Choo @ Yongyang Solaroof
Currently, we are acting on the global call to stay at home to flatten the Covid19 pandemic curve. Interestingly, if you may have observed, the climate curve is sharing a similar pattern. We heard of how much carbon emission has been reduced since the many quarantines in several big population countries. So, we can actually learn the lesson in mitigating climate change just like how we handled the pandemic.
Sustainable Home Cooking
During the MCO in Malaysia, most have been staying home. Working from home also means spending more time cooking at home. Cooking during MCO becomes a way to keep us in sane as well as keep the whole family busy. Just rethink our consumption habits and cooking time. Have you ever wondered how much carbon emission is associated with your food consumption behavior?
Well, it is undeniably more sustainable to eat at home. Studies show eating out carbon emission is actually 3.67 times more than eating home. This is because, the actual carbon emissions associated with your food consumption is dependent on where, how much and what you eat, how the food is grown, transported, processed, prepared and what you do with the leftovers. In other words, the whole food chain supply. So, cooking and eating at home is a simple way to reduce your carbon footprint just by reducing the travel to grocery food and as well as take away from the restaurants. Nevertheless, eating home not only saves the earth but also healthier and saves money.
We may have heard of going vegan to save the earth. Well, the carbon emission comes from the transportation of inputs like fertilizer, water and animal feed to livestock farms, not to mention the vast land area used for these farms. Recently, we have also seen many people start home grown vegetables, ranging from the small kitchen or balcony corner to the backyard garden. Localization not only for the vegetables but also for the sourcing of fresh meats direct from local farms and sellers. This disruption in the supply chain also helps to reduce the carbon footprint.
Is Cooking A Right Brain Activity?
We could see from social media, various Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R) has been creatively adopted. Crisis creates opportunity as the saying goes. Everyone is crafting out the way for survival. As the business owner, hosting online team meetings becomes the new normal in observing the social distance while keeping the team work from home. Personally, I find putting on the right brain mode from time to time, actually helps to ease the zoom meetings fatigue. It can be learning cooking from Youtube or trying out newly invented recipes. All these are largely due to the aim to use whatever leftovers and ingredients. Other right brain hands-on activities like gardening and art are also gaining popular among our circles.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy vs. MCO
As our energy usage increases, it’s time to rethink energy efficiency and renewable energies. Efficiency means using less energy for the same usage. We probably could look into the aspect of equipment like buying energy star appliances. Using more daylights instead of artificial lighting whenever possible. Educate our family members to cultivate good habits to turn off the lights and air conditioner before leaving the room. For some, going forward investment in energy saving clothes washer and dryer makes sense now.
Nevertheless, the more energy we use contributes to more carbon emission due to the fact that 77% of our electricity system is still made of coal and gas. Hence, renewable energy is the best way to reduce this fraction. And Solar PV (Photovoltaic) is the easiest way for the public at large to participate to reduce the carbon footprint. With the latest Net Energy Metering (NEM) program, we could directly consume the solar energy and export the surplus of energy to the grid and thus reduce our total electricity bill. For some, net zero bill is possible when the total import of energy equals to the exported ones.
The figure shows the bill of a NEM solar system owner, enjoying zero utility bill since the installation of solar system. Since 2019, there has been a change of policy under NEM 2.0 whereby the surplus energy is compensated based on a 1-on-1 basis which is at the electricity retail tariff. This NEM scheme is available for electricity consumers of TNB for domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. The return on investment for the residential system is about 5 years, coupled with an easy payment scheme whereas for business the return is less than 3 years with government tax credit. Contact us today here to get FREE consultation.
Stay Home, Stay Safe, Let’s Flatten the Climate Curve
Mother’s Day Special 2020
A man’s work is from sun to sun, but a mother’s work never done.
In conjunction with the mother’s day celebration, we understand more home cooking requires durable quality cooking ware for your moms or spouse. Are you still scouting the perfect Mother’s Day gift 🎁for your mom or spouse? 💕
Just sign up our 12kW solar packages today to redeem this beautifully crafted Mother’s Day gift ie. Staub French Tomato Cocottee 25cm cooking ware. Why not surprise her with this as a token of appreciation of healthy and delicious dishes during MCO. This surely brings a gleam of joy as well as vibrant colours to her kitchen. And of course, more home cooked delicacies to the table!
*Valid from May 10th to 31st 2020, first come first serve basis*