ISKCON South Africa Annual Report - 2014 | Page 44

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Going Green
An Interview with ISKCON Durban Co-Temple President Vibhu Caitanya Das
by Rasa-sthali Dasi
Q: What is the inspiration behind the Go Green campaign?
Srila Prabhupada was careful about saving Krishna’s energy. Whether it was
a fan or a light left switched on in an empty room, he reminded or
sometimes chastised his disciples for doing so. In Mayapur specifically, Srila
Prabhupada trained the devotees who in turn trained the security that as
soon as you can see your hand in the morning then it was time to switch the
lights off. He also would notice dripping taps and request that it be fixed.
Srila Prabhupada did not want to waste a drop of Krishna’s energy. So that
is where the whole inspiration came from; not only do we save Krishna’s
energy but we save money, which is also Krishna’s energy.
Q: How cost effective is the Go Green campaign and how long will we
actually reap the financial benefit?
It does require lots of initial capital, but you will see the savings in a few
months or few years depending on what you are doing. We are beginning
with small things and we want more and more people to get involved. One
day we will be one hundred percent compliant. The highest goal is to be
completely off the grid. For now we have smaller goals and have begun
implementing some. But yes, to be off the grid…we will have our own solar
farm on our property. That will only be possible in a few years. Also SrimadBhagavatam explains that electricity and water will not last forever…we
can see it now with the load shedding and water shortages and as this is
the Age of Kali, the age of deterioration, we have to be self-sustainable.
Q: What have you done thus far in terms of going green?
Our first step was that we had an energy audit by Eskom and Renu, a
renewable energy company. We already have energy saver bulbs but we
have taken it one step further. The temple itself has 521 bulbs. As of 1st
November ALL temple bulbs are either energy savers or LED bulbs, including
the florescent tubes. From a 60W bulb we are now using a 5-6W bulb.
Sometimes energy savers can be dimmer, but after research we purchased
energy-saving bulbs that are actually brighter. We used “cool white” bulbs
for the outside and in keeping with the ambience of the temple we went
with “warm white”.
Over the past few months we have been composting waste from all our
kitchens: devotee, deity, restaurant, and Food for Life. We have
demarcated compost areas and will be able to use the compost on our
gardens and lawns.

We will be receiving our biodegradable packaging shortly , so “Goodbye
polystyrene!” Govinda’s Restaurant and the Deity Department will use only
biodegradable packaging, but we are using the paper plates for now.
Biodegradable packaging costs almost double so we are making changes
in small increments. The new packaging will not affect the prices in
Govinda’s; it is our service to the environment and to the customer.
The second part of electricity saving is our geysers. Renu recommended a
wonderful water filtration process where we can save our grey water. For
example, the water used in our kitchens can be recycled and used in the
garden and toilets, etc. but the process is too costly and requires quite a bit
of restructuring, and therefore impractical at this point in time. So we came
up with the simple solution of geyser heat pumps, which will be implemented
soon.
Q: What are the challenges?
Well, the most obvious one is financial, but also when it comes to change
people go on high alert, they are not so comfortable with change. It is not
easy to change peoples’ mindset, so we are trying to educate and remind
people that one day it is all going to run out unless we start living more
consciously now. Srila Prabhupada built temples to attract people to Krishna
consciousness, and with our Go Green campaign we will attract people
who are warriors of sustainable living.
Q: Other inspirations for the Go Green campaign?
We won the Tourism Landmark award last year at the Durban Chamber of
Commerce and Industry. So in order to attract more people to the temple
and to up our game in what we do and how we present ourselves, this is a
sure way to attract people.
Q: The temple has a substantial electricity bill. Do you have any plans to
reduce that bill, apart from the light bulb change?
Well, we pay less for usage during off peak hours. A major expense is our
bakery and we are looking into changing the bakery operating hours.
Q: By when do you want to implement the above?
We are going to implement by 2015, which is Sri Sri Radha Radhanath
Temple’s 30th anniversary. These are small steps but we have big plans, like
we want to have a solar farm on the property where we can generate our
own electricity. We also have lots of underground water and we are
researching on how to get our borehole operational. Again, it will cost a bit
in the beginning but in the long run will be exceptionally feasible.