They are now shelling out lakhs of rupees on solar power and rainwater harvesting, and investing time and effort in terrace gardening and growing their own vegetables.
BENGALURU / KOLKATA: At the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, around 7,000 handmade bags made from plastic waste were distributed. The message, coming just a few days ahead of World Environment Day on June 5, was loud and clear — green’s the way to go.
It seems India Inc, too, has been doing just that, with some CXOs taking the effort to go green on the home front, apart from driving environmental initiatives at the workplace. For these head honchos, waste segregation and water aerators are a thing of the past. They are now shelling out lakhs of rupees on solar power and rainwater harvesting, and investing time and effort in terrace gardening and growing their own vegetables.
Green drives at the workplace get added impetus when company leaders walk the talk and push for sustainable initiatives at home, experts say.
JB Singh, the CEO of InterGlobe Hotels, has a cottage in the hills of Uttarakhand — one among five that he designed and constructed jointly with friends.
The five cottages have ‘butterfly roofs’ — a standard roof that is inverted to give a Vshaped appearance — that trap huge amounts of rainwater through a network of gutters and pipelines.
Amid water scarcity in Sitla, the nearest village, this has ensured self-sufficiency for Singh and his neighbours. The tank stores a whopping 50,000 litres of water.
“In the pipeline are plans to create small recharging pits to use water lost during heavy rains, and an increase in the current storage capacity to 2 lakh litres,” Singh told ET.
In Bengaluru, AMD’s India engineering lead Jaya Jagadish has invested Rs 25 lakh in powering her house completely using solar energy. The extra units generated flows back through the grid to the state’s electricity board. The initial set-up took about a couple of weeks, Jagadish said, and the house now runs seamlessly on solar power.
Uma Rajarathnam, head of applied research and collaboration at global energy and water specialist Enzen, has been promoting afforestation efforts in Bengaluru.
She collects seeds of trees, transfers the saplings to nearby fields and also donates them to schools and resident welfare associations. “So far, about 2,500 saplings of tree species like rain tree, rosewood, and fruit-bearing trees like mango and avocado have been germinated and saplings distributed/planted,” said Rajarathnam, who also uses recycled water at home.
Other top executives are implementing sustainable initiatives within the apartment complexes they live in, with a few even growing their own produce.
Rajan Aiyer, the managing director at Trimble India and SAARC region, has adopted kitchen composting in his Chennai apartment complex where all organic waste is developed into manure for use in its gardens. Aiyer is also pushing for drip irrigation to water trees and plants inside the complex, to cut water consumption by almost 90%.
Rangarajan Ramaswamy, regional business director at Grundfos Lifelink – Grundfos APAC region, has taken to terrace farming. After a company initiative that inspired employees to start terrace gardening in their homes, Ramaswamy, along with 108 employees, started growing vegetables, including tomatoes, flat beans, cluster beans, okra and radish, in his terrace. He is now planning to increase the number of such plants. “The vegetables we grow at home are completely organic because of the use of natural manure,” Ramaswamy told ET.
Other leaders are making small, yet significant changes.
Renu Riswadkar, who heads the design team at talent retention and analytics firm Jombay, has a farmhouse — designed by her architect husband Salil Riswadkar — built using mud blocks made from local soil. The farmhouse has natural crossventilation to eliminate the need for ACs, and the family reuses waste and discarded material for various purposes.
Swati and Rohan Bhargava, co-founders at CashKaro, grow their own herbs in their Gurugram home, while in Swati’s hometown Ambala, organic vegetables are grown in the garden.
The top executives, it seems, are showing a green light for others to follow.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes
