By Lucy-Claire Saunders

She’s just one woman in a crusade for the environment but that never gets her down. For Shamala Subramanyam the challenge of going green is only natural for someone who is aware that humans live in an ever-shrinking world with finite resources.

This week, Subramanyam was named one of the top 50 finalists vying to be the Greenest Person on the Planet, a competition launched on Earth Day by Simon Fraser University associate professor Boyd Cohen.

"I try as much to be conscious about the use of resources which reflect in my daily routines," said the 28-year-old office worker who lives in Bangalore, India. "Since most people around me do not really care about the environment I often ask, ‘Is something wrong with me?’"

Subramanyam and the other finalists will have to wait until September 16 to find out who is in fact the Greenest Person on the Planet. Besides securing the title’s honour, the winner will have a pod of beluga whales adopted in their name through the Defenders of Wildlife based in Washington, D.C.

Subramanyam goes above and beyond for Mother Nature. Of course she does the expected, like taking public transit, using her own shopping bag and buying organic. But how many of us can say we reuse our laundry water to flush the toilet? The green warrior has also taken her battle to the McAfee India Center, where she works as a software engineer.

"I spearheaded the ‘Green Office’ at McAfee, where we have put in place a ‘segregation’ process," she told the Post by e-mail. "Waste from here no longer goes to landfills. Instead they are recycled. I am also currently working on the responsible disposal of E-waste."

Electronic waste, or E-waste, is fast becoming one of the most threatening environmental problems in the world, according to environmentalists. The United Nations estimates that roughly 20 to 50 million tonnes of E-waste are generated worldwide each year.

But an estimated 70 per cent of E-waste ends up either illegally dumped or crudely processed in many of the poorer Asian and African countries, including India, where workers handle toxic chemicals that seep out during salvage.

Critics say that Canada and the U.S have failed to take appropriate steps to stop E-waste dumping in developing countries where import laws are full of loopholes.

Growing up in Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, Subramanyam says she has seen a big change in the way the city has developed. No longer the Garden City, Bangalore is turning into a concrete jungle heavy with severe air pollution.

"Bangalore was an eco-friendly place, full of trees and laid back people who loved this place for good things like its weather and the greenery," she said. "But now, changes are fast paced and irrational. Everybody is out to add their grist to the mill and nobody’s worried about the supposedly least important and the all-giving environment.

"Bangalore is exploding and blotting out on the map."

Professor Cohen, who chose the top 50 from more than 600 entries based on a series of questions, says developing countries like India and China have to get on the green boat sooner rather than later.

"If (India and China) approach the per capita consumption patterns that our errant ways in the West have led us to, the whole world is in jeopardy," he said.