Eco-Friendly Mindset: Green Office & Clean Conscience

Eco-Friendly Mindset: Green Office & Clean Conscience

Assoc. Prof. Tipchan Wongchanta, Ph.D.

Preamble

The Biblical notion of a fallen world we are living in is, as days go by, increasingly filled with twists and turns that make our lives complicated, dispirited, and disappointing. Presently, we have been bombarded with all kinds of calamities and occurrents conspicuously detrimental to our physical, mental, and spiritual health. Global warming and COVID-19, not to mention the current wars between Russia and Ukraine or Israel and Gaza Strip, are clear examples of the fallen state of our earthly experiences and existence. However, human beings are not created to lose, but we are all innately endowed with a winning spirit to live a good and successful life. Mystically and historically speaking, we humans have, against all odds, survived catastrophe after catastrophe, ranging from the Ice Age, the Great Flood, the Great Depression, WW I, and WW II, to cite just a few life detours. Another ramification of those life detours today is none other than environmental damages, which have been of great concern across the globe. Nonetheless, the problems we are now facing pose no hurdle, visible or invisible, too high for the winning-spirited beings like us to cross over.

Green Office, the Visible

Environmental problems are the visible complications for the world’s sensible and eco-friendly inhabitants to rid collectively. This, in fact, has been brought to the attention of the United Nations, where global leaders gather to seek for practical solutions. The United Nations’ initiatives on sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the UI Green Metric that promotes “reducing the ecological footprint of the university and sustainability education and research” (UI GreenMetric, n.d.) then emerge as a promising means to ease the existing environmental predicaments, causing well-established organizations and universities worldwide to strive for constructive means to protect environment. Like many other educational institutions, University of Phayao, Thailand, copes with rising environmental issues through the intra-establishment of Green Office, succinctly defined as “a structure that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient” (Green Office, n.d.). Following are key issues related to creating Green Office.

All principles and categories of Green Office are tactfully adopted to make the University energy-efficient and, at the same time, to create a healthy environment for the benefit of faculty, staff, students, visitors, and all other stakeholders. However, collective efforts, commitment, and strong determination are required from all parties involved if the Green Office’s goal of having a healthy environment is sincerely expected.

Clean Conscience, the Invisible

It is to be noted that principles can be most beautiful and useful when they are acted upon by enthusiastic participants. We are to walk through the six categories of Green Office discussed above with poise and ethical behaviors. To do so, a good seed of responsibility for the world’s wellbeing must first be cultivated within every human being. By means of comparison, the Green Office’s methodology to clean environment from visible harms discussed can be applied to the cultivation of moral conscience within every human being. The table below graphically shows this comparison.

It is to emphasize that action, to the most profound sense of the term, is the very key to unlock the door of success in creating Green Office and Clean Conscience.

Conclusion

The law of reciprocity is neatly manifested in the making of Green Office and the cultivation of clean conscience. What happens outside largely affects what resides within, and vice versa. Whereas the visible/physical environment filled with pollutions (water, noise, air, etc.) needs Green Office’s principles to tend, our invisible/spiritual landscape also needs moral principles to guide. We humans are special beings, with innate wisdom and foresight to create and innovate. When the present world is incessantly swept by tornadoes of greediness, filthiness, calamities, and uncertainties, we cannot but become active and proactive actors, as opposed to passive or reactive objects to be acted upon. The strength within (the invisible), in other words, must be taken as something taking precedence over the occurrences outside (the visible). This beautifully resonates and underscores an age-old saying, “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” For the sake of sustainability, we must therefore take to heart the love to incessantly cultivate a clean mind and conscience before we can enjoy a clean and healthy environment.

References

Green Office (2023, October 26). In edie. https://www.edie.net/definition/green-office/.

UI GreenMetric. (2023, September 27). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UI_GreenMetric.