Guiding Gen Next towards zero campus waste

India CSR News Network

A direct relationship exists between water, sanitation, health, nutrition, and human well being. Consumption of contaminated drinking water, improper disposal of human waste, lack of personal and food hygiene and inappropriate disposal of solid and liquid waste have been an impediment to enhancement of India’s living conditions.

Today, India is aiming towards becoming an economic superpower and in such circumstances cleanliness and waste management becomes more logical.

As part of Godrej Group’s sustainability initiative, the Group aspires to create a more employable Indian workforce, a greener India and innovate for good and green products by the year 2020

Also, beyond taking measures to reduce, reuse and recycle waste in their manufacturing plants, Godrej has initiated community waste management projects with an endeavour to raise more awareness about the topic and involve senior stakeholders in such projects.

In 2016, the Group started implementing an urban community waste management project in 25 colleges across India’s commercial capital in association with Mumbai-based Stree Mukti Sanghatana (SMS).

Since 1975, Mumbai-based Stree Mukti Sanghatana (SMS) has helped thousands of women improve their lives and escape poverty. Parisar Bhagini Vikas Sangha initiated by SMS in 2005, is the registered organisation of self-help groups of women waste pickers and associated in the process of dry waste and e-waste collection. They are training waste pickers in sorting, composting and bio-methanation while initiating many zero waste campus projects along with college and corporate campuses by collecting their segregated wet waste and processing it. SMS has also started a school based programme for solid waste management with 5000 students annually.

Together, with Godrej Group they are building composting pits in the colleges across Mumbai to help treat organic waste to produce high quality manure and recycle the dry waste. With the college administration, the team is also raising awareness among college students in managing waste and involving them in the process.

Activities like waste audit (wet waste and dry waste), selection of site for compost pit, construction of the compost pit, awareness sessions for students, local operators and canteen staff, dry waste management campaign forms the major part of the programme.

The larger aim of the project includes:

Waste to be treated as a resource

Spreading the message of segregation at source

Improved environment and production of high quality manure and recycling of dry waste

Saving space at the dump yards and reducing air water and soil pollution

Contribution of the people working in the waste sector management to be recognised

The message of clean and green Mumbai to spread among students

Currently, the team has started working with below Mumbai colleges and the list of the waste recycled so far:

Training the local waste operators, students and staff is an integral part of this project. The ready involvement of the local operators and municipal authorities has helped in transferring the know-how. This has made it easy for the college and operators to collect and recycle basic waste and operate the compost pits.

With the sustainable nature of the programme, Godrej is now focusing on designing a training module to handle hazardous waste that will help in managing the complete waste of the college. In the recent past, Godrej also hosted the third annual Good & Green conclave on Waste Management to addresses the changing needs of managing waste. The conclave highlighted policies for waste management, role of the government, industry and people, and the need for creative solutions.

Established in 1897, the Godrej Group has its roots in India’s Swadeshi movement. Founder, Ardeshir Godrej, lawyer-turned-serial entrepreneur failed with a few businesses, before he struck gold with the locks business that you know today. One of India’s most trusted brands, with revenues of USD 4.1 billion, Godrej enjoys the patronage of over 600 million Indians across our consumer goods, real estate, appliances, agri and many other businesses. You think of Godrej as such an integral part of India that you may be surprised to know that over 25 per cent of our business is done overseas.