Green Initiatives
Green Initiatives
The Green Initiative focuses on three areas of critical importance:
- Advance research and understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the world of work arising from a green transition.
- Forge policy responses from the world of work in all sectors to ensure decent work and social justice for all.
- Build strategic partnerships at national, regional and international levels.
With various environmental issues, like climate change, pollution, habitat destruction and filled landfills, students everywhere want to make the earth a healthier and better place to live.
Sustainability goes beyond reducing, reusing and recycling, although those three practices are still essential. Going green involves ensuring that future generations have the same, or better, opportunities you have today, from an environmental, social and economic position.
Students, professors and leaders on college campuses can make a significant difference in both their campus communities and communities beyond by starting to make small changes in habits in their day-to-day lives.
Green Campus Guidelines
- Bring food only as per the requirement to avoid wastage
- Promote ink pens to prevent the accumulation of plastic waste through discarded ballpoint pens
- Food and drinking water should be brought in stainless steel utensils and disposable materials should be avoided
- Create facilities in the school, college and university campuses to segregate waste into biodegradable, non-bio degradable and hazardous categories
- Avoid paper and plastic cups and plates in public functions where food is served. Instead, use utensils that can be washed and reused.
- Set up a compost facility to turn biodegradable waste into compost. This should be used for cultivating organic vegetables in grow bags and pots.
- Plastic and paper should be cleaned and segregated to be handed over to scrap dealers
- Instead of discarding waste paper, deposit it in a common Materials Recovery Facility in the campus
- Store electrical and electronic waste and hand it over periodically to scrap dealers to ensure its proper recycling
- Avoid flowers draped in plastic covers and flex items during public functions in campuses.
NSS gives emphasis on reducing the generation of waste material and its proper disposal in the campus through the philosophy of “reuse, reduce and recycle”. A prudent budgeting approach is adopted in the collection, segregation, disposal, and the 3 r’s philosophy. The generated waste is separated to Solid, Liquid and E-Waste and they are effectively disposed of by the college to make the campus clean and healthy. There are different ways adopted by the college to manage these wastes
As part of the Green initiative in the campus, the college always tries to reduce the waste through reuse, reduce and recycling which ensures the cleanliness and eco-balance in the campus.As part of the plastic-free campus initiative, the college ensures the green protocol in the various programs of the college. Green Campus Campaign authorities ensure the adoption of the green protocol in all the programmes conducted and posters used in the campus to reduce plastic pollution. The Initiative for paperless office through office automation, consistent efforts to reduce the plastic carry bags and use of public addressing system helps to reduce various forms of solid waste in the campus.
The major solid waste materials generated in the college includes food waste, plastic and papers. The food and plastic wastes from the campus are collected by placing waste bins at various locations in the campus. The collected wastes are segregated into bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable wastes and biodegradable wastes are further processed in a biogas plant and vermin-compost unit in the campus. College canteen and the girl’s hostel are equipped with Biogas plants and the collected food waste is deposited in the biogas plants. The gas produced from the Biogas plants are used for cooking purposes. Other Biodegradable waste materials are processed by using Vermi-compost unit in the campus with the firm endeavour of promoting recycling of waste and the manure is utilized in the campus garden, hi-tech vegetable garden and for sale. Organic farming is done to aware the students on sustainable agricultural practices and encourages the staff and students to purchase the produced organic vegetables. Various departments and clubs conduct different programmes like decorative items from waste, paper bag making, paper pen making etc to sensitize students for sustainable living practices. The college organized various programmes such as plastic free campus campaign, recycling plastic campaign and awareness classes on world environment day, world wildlife week, world ozone day. Instead of buying bottled water student took the initiative to buy refillable to carry around campus.
The major liquid waste includes effluents from toilets and the laboratories. These are collected in the separate septic pits and allowed to settle into the soil. Since the effluent pits are not located near the water bodies and the college is situated in the soily area, the effluent water gets naturally filtered. The college management planned to implement a wastewater filtration plant and to utilize the filtered water for irrigation purpose, about 30,000 litres of water is expected to be filtered through this system per day.
The college following Good Laboratory Practices to ensure the safety of the personnel and adheres to a strict protocol of liquid waste disposal in its laboratories. Indiscriminate use of chemicals is discouraged during practical classes and laboratory liquid chemical waste are safely disposed of. Any glassware used in the laboratory is rinsed with minimum water and placed in the liquid waste container. The liquid waste is segregated into organic and inorganic waste. Inorganic wastes such as concentrated acidic or alkaline solutions are neutralized before disposal. Sodium bicarbonate or Calcium oxide (lime) is used for the neutralization process so that the neutralized liquid contains no harmful substance. The organic waste yield of the college is limited till date and therefore treated with cow dung for decomposition due to the action of micro-organisms.
The institution has adopted improved techniques of irrigation to encourage suitable water management. Sprinkler irrigation method is an easy and simple method of irrigation in present times. The waste water from the sewage treatment plants is used for the irrigation of plants using sprinklers suitably placed in the garden.