Meet Dr Reema Lewis, a physiotherapist and pilates trainer, who has turned her duplex home in Vashi into a veritable green living space.

Born and raised in Bengaluru, she has always maintained a close relationship with nature and has a particular fondness for planting flowers and trees.

Reema and her husband decided to go solar back in 2010 when they were expecting their child.

“We had just bought a new house and thought that an eco-friendly home was the best gift we could give to him. One of the first steps we took was to install a solar water heater,” she says.

She adds that the bathrooms and kitchen are connected to the solar water system, and the water is used for bathing, washing veggies, cooking and drinking.

Four years ago, the family installed solar PV panels, and today, their entire home is powered by the 5 KW solar system.

This has brought the electricity bills down to under Rs 1,000 per month on average, says the couple.

“All the lights, fans, air conditioners, refrigerator and even my clinic, which is located at my house, are powered by solar energy,” she notes.

She also gave up her petrol-guzzling vehicle and adopted an electric car. While she used to pay Rs 9,000 per month for petrol, today it’s less than Rs 500 because she has an EV-charging unit installed in her parking space, which in turn is connected to her solar PV panels on the rooftop.

Aside from running her house on solar energy, Dr Reema has also opted for natural composting and vermiculture.

To this end, the waste generated is used as fertiliser in her terrace garden for a variety of plants, including mint, papaya, pumpkin, and cucumber among others.

“For vermicomposting, I use a special kind of earthworm called the red wriggler. They can degrade the compost faster than standard earthworms,” she says.

Meanwhile, the non-degradable waste is sent to various organisations to be recycled.

“Many people shy away from becoming eco-friendly because they feel it’s a time-consuming and messy process. Despite taking care of my family as a mom and an entrepreneur, I barely spend 15 minutes every day keeping my home green,” she shares.

If all of us took a page out of Dr Reema’s book, we would leave this planet in a better state than we found it.