This website is my first step towards sustainable-living. In order to achieve my goal of sustainable-living, I attend a few conferences/workshops that help me explore more on the topic. One such conference that I attended recently was the 'Go Green, Chennai', a symposium (and expo) dedicated to sustainable practices/green living, held at Hyatt International hotel on Saturday, August 17.
I will highlight some interesting products that I came across in this expo, later on. In this post, I will highlight some interesting takeaways from the conference, that included some prominent speakers. This conference was organized by Inner Wheel District 323.
The event was inaugurated by Mr. Vikram Kapur, Commissioner, Chennai Corporation. He gave a small briefing on the priority accorded to waste management by the Corporation of Chennai. He advocated the principle of: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. He also mentioned that waste segregation is being implemented in various wards, in Chennai.
Waste segregation is a process of separating organic waste (vegetable, food, fruit leftovers, etc) from inorganic waste (plastic bottles, paper, electronic waste, etc), at source. That means, we need to have two dustbins, one for organic waste and another for inorganic waste at our homes and hand-over them separately to waste collection persons. This is a very very important step for waste management and almost all speakers repeated the importance of this process. Only if we get this right, there is any chance of recycling/reusing waste.
The next speaker was Ms. Deepa Sathyaram, who is a sustainable-consultant. She outlined the methodology that could be followed for sustainable-living, which is - IDDP: Interest, Desire, Demonstrate & Propagate.
The next speaker was Mr. MD Nirmal from EXNORA International. His presentation was a very impactful presentation as he showed us how he had converted the space around (and inside) his concrete jungle (aka apartments) into Green living spaces by planting so many varieties of plants. It seems, he is growing more than 2000 plants in his compound! The presentation and pictures were truly inspirational. Appeal to the speaker: Dear Sir, if you happen to read this article, please send me the presentation so that I can put it up on my blog and many more people could get inspired.
The next speaker was Mr. Ribu Vohra from WasteLess. He highlighted the importance of reducing our waste (production) which will in turn reduce the amount of waste we need to dispose off/manage. He highlighted that 76% of all waste is industrial waste and hence, when we throw away working cell phones for newer models, throw away shirts for new ones, we are contributing directly to this industrial waste. He also highlighted the various play-methods developed by his organization for school students that could sensitize them on waste management topics, at an early age.
The next speaker was Ms. Mangalam Balasubramaniam from Exnora Green, Pammal. She showed us how she successfully implemented waste segregation in this sub-urban area and how she produces electricity and gas for cooking using the organic waste generated. The biogas plants/anerobic digester unit she has installed in Pammal now powers over 100 street lights (6 hours per day) and gives cooking gas for the neighboring hostel. It seems, 15 Tonnes of organic waste is dumped in Chennai alone, using which 3 MW of power can be produced! Just imagine how much power can be produced all over India, using all the organic waste.
The next speaker was Mr. Vishwanath Kadur, an expert on organic terrace gardening and the organizer of Oota from your Thota, in Bangalore. With the rising costs of vegetables, it is imperative that at some point we need to consider growing our own greens/vegetables at our home balconies/terraces. We can grow so many types of vegetables right at home! He also emphasized on the health-aspects of organic farming, and how pesticide infested food is bad for our health.
The next speaker was Mr. Gopi Sankarasubramani from Navadarshanam, a community founded 20 years ago to explore sustainable-living practices including alternate energy concepts. Their community is totally powered using renewable energy. The speaker is an expert on permaculture approaches and has been applying it for land management, forestry and farming practices at Navadarshanam.
