“Schooling is the formative phase in ones life and the idea is to reach out to as many school children as possible. Yi and Carrier have created through the Green-I contest a nucleus effort to inculcate environmental responsibility and shape future citizens of India" - Deepa Sathiaram, Environment Chair Yi National
The Green-I contest for school children is a joint national level initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians (Yi) and Carrier Aircon. The contest aims to create awareness and encourage students to think about conservation and instill environmental responsibility among school children of today and future leaders of tomorrow.
The contest topic is “Evaluate various measures that can be taken to reduce your school’s carbon footprint. If you were to choose and implement 3 of these measures in your school, what would those be and why?”
The contest materials have been sent to over 1900 schools across 19 cities all over India. The last date for receipt of entries is August 15. A preliminary review of the submissions shall be done end of August of which 5 top teams shall be selected for the finals that will happen on September 09, 2009 in conjunction with the All-India Green Congress at Hyderabad.
The winning school shall get a grant of Rs. 7.5 lakhs towards implementation of their green ideas within their school campus.
The pilot version of the Green-I contest was initiated in 2007 in Chennai and in 2008 the contest went pan India with participation from over 400 schools across 16 cities in India.
Also Read
The contest has made a great impact in terms of influencing students to think about the environment and be aware of the various measures that can be taken to minimize the negative impact on the environment. The winning schools in the last 2 years have implemented many of these green measures within their school campus with the grant from the contest. In the 2007 winning school, we have set up a root zone waste water treatment system in their school of about 8000 liters per day capacity to treat their sewage water and recycle the same for landscaping, cricket pitch washing and other purposes. In 2008 winning school, we have set up a roof garden in their school and also are in the process of setting up solar hot water generators and a rain water harvesting system to collect and store rain water for reuse. The key thing is these schools are not only implementing them practically in their campus but more importantly as serving as a model which these schools are now using to further educate new students on various environment issues and spreading awareness on the environment.
We are very happy that the contest has succeeded in its effort to spread the much needed environmental awareness with the youth of India and this year with the contest going pan India we hopes to reach out to many more school children.
"Carrier in India has been associated with Green – I since its inception in 2007. Through the Green-I, Carrier is reaching students and encouraging them to develop an aptitude for environmental conservation in order to create a better tomorrow.
Carrier believes that industry leadership demands environmental stewardship, and sustainability is an integral part of our company culture. We believe a green company will show measurable results in four key areas – products, people, production and practices. "Spokesperson: Krishan Sachdev - Director, Marketing & Strategy, Carrier.