Earth Hour is a powerful reminder of what is going wrong with the environment – but Earth Hour is not the answer to what is going wrong. Turning off the lights, even for an entire month, isn’t about to save the world. We need to turn off the lights whenever they are not required and turn down appliances at home when not in use. We need to curb our consumerist tendency that results in the waste of power.

At pepper square we will attempt to further internalise the idea of responsible consumption, instead of trying to return to an idyllic past of darkness that everyone actually hates (but loves momentarily because of the romanticism evoked by the darkness). We need to push back the darkness in our minds, rather than manage the one around us.

For the moment, at pepper square, we make a resolve that if we are going to leave our desk for more than 30 minutes, we will power down our desktop before we go. Small steps, when you think of it. But significant and sustainable ones for us.

Last quarter, pepper square moved – lock, stock and barrel. After seven years of operating from the  JP Nagar office in Bangalore, we moved a little distance away to a four floor, 8000 sq feet facility. The office overlooks a tree lined street and we can see the new Metro coming up at the other end. We can see Bangalore changing and it energizes us – and we can sense a change in ourselves.

Our new office has minimal air conditioning and uses a natural ventilation system that drives air upwards from the bottom to the top. The complete front of the building is glass, allowing natural light to fill the workspace. We use CFL bulbs when required. Everything inside is custom designed wood – real wood – or bamboo, coir and banana fiber. Everything is made from natural material. And we plan to plant the equivalent of the trees that went into this office. That’s because we want to regenerate, reuse, reduce.

But pepper square is not really obsessed with its carbon footprint. And that’s because conservation and recycling come easily to us (we use less than one sheet of A4 paper for every Rs 30,000 we earn). We have ways to consume water that are naturally respectful of how the water is used and ensures a minimum wastage.