Sustance — Issue 20
A weekly newsletter on the sum and substance of Sustainability.
Earth Is Getting Greener All Thanks To India & China, Says NASA
Satellite data provided by NASA shows that over the last 20 years, there has been an increase in the leaf area on plants and trees which can be equated with the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests, reported BBC. The study has reportedly been published in the latest edition of Nature Sustainability and it showed that at least 25% of the foliage expansion globally from the mid-2000s came from China followed by India. In 2017 alone, India broke its own world record for the most number of trees planted after volunteers gathered 66 million saplings in just 12 hours. Reportedly, researches first observed the greening activity in the 1990s but didn’t know that it was due to human activity.
Top CEOs from India are raising funds to set up a technology university
India’s top entrepreneurs and businessmen are pooling their resources to build a technology university aimed at teaching emerging technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The university, which hopes to become the ‘Stanford of the East,’ is backed by over 40 Indian entrepreneurs and CEOs including Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani, Neeraj Aggarwal, Chairman of Asia Pacific, Boston Consulting Group, Hellion Ventures’ co-founder Ashish Gupta, chairman of Genpact and Clix Capital Pramod Bhasin, Hitesh Oberoi, Infoedge and Naukri.com Managing Director, among others.
Together, they are raising ₹20 billion to build Plaksha — the name given to the university — and have already raised ₹4,000 million. The university will be launched in 2021.
The idea behind the university is bringing technological solutions for society, Gupta said, adding they hope its ideas will help solve India’s challenges in areas ranging from food security, environment sustainability, health, education or innovation in manufacturing.
Earthy, boxy, boring: Do sustainable clothes have a standard look?
While there are exceptions, a fair amount of slow fashion is restricted to a neutral or earthy colour palette (white, beige, indigo, black, salmon pink), has loose or boxy cuts and follows a distinctly minimal aesthetic. Upon digging deeper into this phenomenon and conscious designers, sustainable bloggers were quizzed if they also thought this was true.
Another obvious difference between fast and slow fashion is the use of responsibly-produced, natural fabrics like cotton, silk and wool, which have no give as opposed to lycra and polyester, which have in-built elasticity. This naturally speaks to the tendency of conscious clothing being roomy or boxy, instead of having fitted and cinched silhouettes.
One of the most harmful by-products of producing apparel is the chemical dyes that get released into the environment. The counter solution employed by multiple conscious clothing labels is to use vegetable dyes instead which are made of natural ingredients and aren’t harmful to the planet. This plays into the specific colour palette usually seen in slow fashion clothing.
Sustainable clothing may veer towards beige-toned basics, but those with a will, will always find a way of expressing their personal style without compromising on ethics.
India in third position in list of LEED green buildings
India is ranked third with more than 899 LEED-certified projects totaling more than 24.81 million gross square meters of space, as per the US Green Building Council (USGBC) ranking.
“India is leading the green building movement in the Asia Pacific region, with maximum number of LEED projects in 2018. Apart from the commercial buildings, LEED projects are also seen in sectors like education, manufacturing, hospitality to name a few. LEED-certified metros and LEED for cities are also adding the momentum to the green building movement in India,” said Gopalkrishnan Padmanabhan, managing director — APAC & Middle East, Green Business Certificate Institute (GBCI).
To ensure cashew industry’s sustainability and meet future challenges, the producer nations have emphasised the need to join hands and exchange information for co-operation and preventing competition.
Call for regional co-operation among cashew producers
“India, Vietnam and Brazil — the largest producers, processors and exporters of cashew — should co-operate and learn from each other for further growth. There is a need for a consensus on pricing, quality control methods, commercial contract terms as well as collecting and publishing reliable data,” said Adama Coulibaly, Director General of Cotton and Cashew council, Ivory Coast, at the international buyer-seller meet-cum-exhibition organised as part of Kaju India 2019.
He pointed out that cashew exporting and processing countries should control misinformation and spread of rumours on social media over cashew consumption. To explore new markets, these countries should carry out aggressive campaigns for the promotion of cashew products. He also invited Indian cashew processors to set up processing units in Ivory Coast.
Bengaluru Techie Single-handedly Revives Lake in 45 Days, Plans to Save 45 More by 2025!
After months of research and study on the city’s lakes, 38-year-old Anand Malligavad is all set to rejuvenate 45 lakes by 2025, with the work already in progress!
Speaking to The Better India, Anand shares details of a few recent successes that gave back Bengaluru its prized lakes.
The first, he says, was the 36-acre water body, Kyalasanahalli Lake near Anekal, which was restored in only 45 days! Anand designed and executed the rehabilitation procedure with the help of nearby communities, including several techies from Electronic City.
“We began the work on April 20, 2017, with a budget of Rs 1 crore and 17 lakh, provided by Sansera Foundation. We needed help and reached out to the nearby community with the help of a senior citizen, B Muthuraman (74). Together, we covered almost 400 houses to spread awareness. Eventually, people began to show up, and joined hands to work long hours to make this possible,” says Anand. He was Sansera’s CSR head at the time. “A total of 18,000 saplings, 3,000 fruit bearings of 22 varieties, 3,000 native species of plants, and 2,000 ayurvedic plants, now populate the lake area, providing it with a bounty of natural treasures,” he adds.
Two canals of the stormwater drain were diverted 1.8 km away, and then the September rains showered their magic, restoring life to a lake which had been dead for the past 35 years.
The work eventually followed with the plantation of saplings and the creation of two Japanese Miyawaki forests on the lake. On June 5, 2017, the lake was entirely transformed, paving the way for Anand, a lake conservationist, to save the rest of the lakes, independently.
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