Ten Minutes with Green Man! Bangladesh Shonar Desh
Matthias Gelber comes from Burbach-Lippe, a small German village surrounded by the forest. He developed a strong connection with nature from a young age, and has been a passionate advocate of green living ever since. In 2008, he was voted ‘Greenest Person on the Planet’ in an online competition by 3rdWhale in Canada. Matthias lives in Malaysia without a car and a monthly USD$10 electricity bill. He also started Eco Warriors Malaysia, a community movement focused on taking positive action to combat climate change.
Matthias graduated with Masters in Environmental Science from Brunel University in the UK and went on to start a successful environmental consulting company in 1999. In 2007, he co-founded Maleki GmbH, a German company specializing in high performance, low carbon footprint construction materials. He also serves as a Board Member of Solexel Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Solexel Inc in Silicon Valley.
He visited Bangladesh in April 2016 and Environemntmove.com Editor in Chief Tawhid Hossain had an opportunity for a short interview during a conference in Dhaka. Here is the full interview.
Tawhid Hossain: hello,mr matthias, welcome you to Bangladesh.
Matthias Gelber: thank you Tawhid.
Tawhid hossain: this is our pleasure to invite you here in Bangladesh, Mr. Green Man.
Matthias Gelber: it is my pleasure to be here.it is green and red like my green color, right?
Tawhid hossain: very fine. it reflects our Bangladesh. You wear a dress which is presenting Bangladesh. Welcome you again. Tell us the mystery behind people call you Mr. Green Man.
Matthias Gelber: A lot of love from mother nature I grow up in a village in Germany. In 2008, I participated in a “Greenest person of the planet” competition and somehow you know my nick name Green Man emerge so that is where comes from.
Tawhid Hossain: so, how do u define or how do u classify a person as green man so if we put 10 people front of you and ask you to choose the green man? what will be the criteria you say that he or she is the green man or woman?
Matthias Gelber: to me, the most important objective measure is carbon footprint. we should evaluate the carbon footprint. how smallest the carbon footprint and what are you doing to actually make your life a carbon sink. Carbon sink means you plant trees, you do business that actually helps the planet by absorbing the carbon di oxide. So, if your life absorbs more carbon di oxide that it does not need, then you are a green man or a green woman. On the other hand, if you have a high electricity bill, you eat red meat all the time, you drive your cars or you do not do anything about reducing your carbon footprint, then you are definitely not a green man or a green woman.
Tawhid Hossain: So,do you think, that the tribal people all around the world those who live in the forest or those who live in the hills are the green people?
Matthias Gelber: yeah, they are green people to me. Because they live with Mother Nature. They live from the natural output of Mother Nature and they have a minimalistic carbon footprint, they do not interfere much with the natural balance. The impact of humanity is insignificant on the planet from the tribal.
Tawhid Hossain: Do you believe that the urban people can follow the life style of tribal people, I mean the urban area is polluted by introducing technology, life become faster with many cultural and other activities. But, do u believe that, in 2016, it is possible that the urban people can follow the life style of tribal people?
Matthias Gelber: they can try to tent to get back some of the tribal life style into the city. I do not say that the life style of city people must shift to tribal life style totally. But they can plant tree in the city as urban farming, urban gardening going back to understand the root of life. Even they can reject some activities like watching tv, picking phone calls all the time. They can talk with the people to share everything. I was in a tribal environment some months ago where there is no internet connection, proper phone call service but people speak one another, they connect with one another.
Tawhid Hossain: They are more social!
Matthias Gelber: Yes, we can bring some of that back in our modern life style.
Tawhid Hossain: You come to Bangladesh with a definite purpose. You are promoting green banking, green industrial practices un Bangladesh. what do you think, what are the scopes here in Bangladesh for practicing green banking in business sector?
Matthias Gelber: I think the scope is good. There is a move to watch green financing. There are some factors which are available for green technology and financing. I think, some owners of the factories realizing specially the area of garment industries. They actually need to focus on greening the factories, their manufacturing, eco-friendly in such a way that they can supply to the Europeian customers. So this is one of the aspects of making industry more green. We are looking at today, Bangladesh is already a leader in home solar system. People can make this a successful approach in a macro scale. To make a society more sustainable, we must practice green life style. We need people to buy green, to live green. They can shift the factories in green manufacturing. The green consumer should be emerged, then the manufacturing system may become greener. So our demand that we create should be eco friendly for our environment.
Tawhid Hossain: The industrialist says that, if we will produce more green productions, we need more money for the production and the price will be ultimately high. So how can we change this culture from the point of view of investors? Do not you think that this change should come from the supply side or the demand side?
Matthias Gelber: It must come from both side. It must be supported by the government. You know we have faced acid rain in our Germany, our forests are died. We are complaining for changing that. Industrial sectors are too expensive but you know Germany become the number one country in the world for exporting the green technology. So the innovation that was coming from industry was actually helping that is well to develop the green technology. So it is not simple. You people look the planet to make the environment sustainable.
Tawhid Hossain: You know, Bangladesh is one of the victim of climate change although we have contributed 0.35% for the global warming & and the global climate change. How can we reduce the global warming?
Matthias Gelber gm: Most of the developing countries start industrialization in the recent era. But our global climate changes already have been done by the developed countries. There is no question mark to the developing countries for changing our climate effectively. Europe, North America are highly responsible for the global climate changes. China is the number one polluter. You know that this is a very complicated subject. Bangladesh is supporting us to improve the conditions of climate. Even Germany has taken necessary steps to develop the conditions. I am very happy to mention that the government of Germany GIZ KSW are very active in Bangladesh to support climatic change, renewable energy, and solar home cooking system. We need to work more effectively. At the same time, the western countries need to provide more support. I think that German government is always interested to support them in this perspective.
Tawhid Hossain: This is third time, u have come in Bangladesh. Would you like to come to our country again and again to make an effective changes in this sector?
Matthias Gelber: O yes! Would like to come here more and more. I would love to come to work in this sector with many young people who are interested to make a good change. I would like to inspire the young people in this sector.Though only awareness is not enough but we need to take action, we need to take the next steps. I have that impressions with young people when I was with the Notre dame College Nature Club. I was so inspired by the positive response of the young people.I have a lot messages with young people told me “we will remember all of your speech, we are practicing already, we are implementing this”. So, its happening! I WANNA COME BACK.
Tawhid Hossain: Welcome!!!Thank you very much.
Matthias Gelber: My pleasure. My pleasure. Bangladesh shonar desh.
Stenography by
Mohammad Nayem Hasan
