Yesterday, I was scrolling my Facebook news feed and suddenly a video from a credible news agency appeared. After watching that video, being an optimistic citizen, I was on cloud nine. Then I decided to write on how this news is a matter of honour for all of us when the COP26 with more than 190 countries is going on in Glasgow.
Last Friday, an internationally recognized non-profit organization ‘The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE)’ awarded an international certification of ISO 50001 EnMS, making Aiwan-e-Sadr the world’s first green presidency running on clean energy.
I was curious to know about the mind, which made us proud and he was our honourable President Dr Arif Alvi. After assuming office in 2018, he had envisioned a Green Presidency Initiative to curtail President’s Secretariat energy usage and shift it to renewable energy sources.
Now, the presidency is generating 1MW energy through the solar system comprised of 2500 solar panels and fulfilling more than 90 percent of its needs from this system. The excess energy is added to the national grid. As a result, the whole process has helped save Rs80 million per year. More than that, this system is contributing to an annual decrease of 1400 tons of carbon dioxide emission.
For some people, it would not be a major contribution but they should think that the transformation of the mindset, from being a privileged person who uses excess energy, to being a responsible administrator, is itself a big achievement. When the whole world is facing the consequence of climate change, each little step to decrease the carbon dioxide has a lot of significance because it is also estimated that in coming 20 years, Pakistan could face the loss of $3.8 billion due to the climate change disasters.
But why is the Aiwan-i-Sadr the only a green energy building in Pakistan? Every institution should rethink their infrastructure and should follow the wonderful steps of the presidency in order to make Pakistan a country that operates fully on green energy.
Written by Wajid Ali | Lahore
