PRACTICE 2
Clean and green campus
Objectives:
To create sensitivity and responsibility towards nature among the young and to adopt life style changes contributing to the protection of the environment.
To contribute our mite to Swachh Bharath, an ambitious project of new India.
To put in measures to face the challenges caused by environmental degradation and waste generation. To review our environmental policy and how it impacts the campus.
To ensure that development and expansion of infrastructure takes place with minimum impact on the greenery and retaining the open space.
Context:
The depletion of natural resources and the huge quantity of solid waste generated and its impact on the environment is a serious challenge faced by people all over the world.
The present generation of Philomenites has inherited a pristine campus with a good number of trees and heritage buildings. To preserve this sprawling 25 acre campus and its ambience requires consistent and sustained effort
Modern life style with flagrant use of disposable items and plastic goods generate unmanageable amounts of solid waste. Consumerism is also adding to the deterioration of environment.
Practice:
Water being a precious resource, effective management and judicious use of it is very important. Rain water harvesting,
, recharging of bore-wells,
Energy saving: Buildings are planned and constructed with high-ceilings, cross ventilation and open spaces in between. This ensures natural cooling, fresh air and sun-light during the day. Solar lights have been installed to light up the campus at night reducing the electricity consumption required on the vast campus.PG Block roof is planned and built with provision for installation of 100KW solar panels.
Reducing Solid waste: Instead of disposable plates reusable ones are used on campus. RO plants have been installed in every block to reduce single-use plastic bottles. Guests are welcomed with saplings instead of bouquets.
Awareness is created among students and teachers, by organizing activities to make sure the 4R‟s are practiced in life. Refuse to use things which are harmful for environment, Reduce the use as “the more you use the more you pollute‟, Reuse as much as possible and segregate the waste to make sure things can be Recycled wherever possible.Paper re-cycling, compost making, and steam-cooking are all part of the sustainable practices followed on campus to convert waste in to useful products.
Planting of saplings on various occasions has enriched the greenery of the campus which is higher than the national green coverage. Especially on World Environment Day, mass planting of saplings is undertaken.
In April 2015, an International Conference was organized with the theme “Climate Change – Inconvenient Truths – Status and Way Forward”. The pre- conference events included inter-college competitions with the objective of conscientising the young people towards safeguarding nature and resources.The whole year the activities in the college both curricular and co-curricular were centered around this theme.On March 6th 2017, a Model United Nations (MUN) Conference was organized to highlight the environmental challenges faced by various countries and put forward feasible measures to mitigate the negative impact.Another MUN conference conducted on December 17 2018, focused on tackling pollutants and strengthening standards and laws.Competitions and debates are organized by various departments, highlighting environmental issues and getting the young people to be partners in problem- solving mechanisms.
Evidence of success
The clean green ambience of the college bears witness to the fulfillment of our objectives and continuing efforts. The follow-up programmes organized in the form of 3 MUN‟s with environment as the theme.
Use of plastics and disposable goods and solid waste generation on campus has been reduced considerably. Waste generated is re-cycled and reused in an effective manner.
The syllabus for Environmental Studies is updated, incorporating relevant topics like impact of disposable goods and consumerism.
Problems encountered:
In spite of extensive debate in electronic and social media on environmental issues, there is a general indifference and lack of commitment. This is a hindrance in implementing any programme to protect the environment effectively. The need for infrastructural development that comes with expansion is a challenge in maintaining the green ambience and retaining the open space of the campus. The campus is spread over 25 acres and requires lot of human resource to maintain and preserve the landscape. This involves huge financial input. Water requirement necessary to keep the campus green is another constraint which the management overcomes through rain water harvesting and the use of grey water. The present generation is so used to plastic and disposable goods that it is challenging to convince them to adopt life-style changes in favour of the environment.
Perspective plans:
By 2023, the college intends to
- Have a zero waste
- Harness solar energy to conserve conventional
- Cultivate Azolla for use as biofertilizer and cattle
- Establish a plant for converting plastic waste into
- Have a centralized e-waste collection