Sustainability benchmarks
Human sustainability issues originate out of their lifestyles. Material and energy consumption are at the heart of all sustainability problems that humanity faces today. It is also true that the material and energy sustainability problems originate out of our thinking. We have tried to manage the material and energy sustainability problems objectively. We believe that through proper understanding and management we could start our journey towards attaining sustainability. The equations given in this section are indicative. We welcome practitioners to come with better these equations. We have started with five themes but there could be more. All human practices that consume material and energy should be actually covered. Practitioners are welcome to add new themes.
We Believe
We believe that life on Earth is the ultimate example of attaining material and energy sustainability. The principles that life process follows are:
Make living beings at temperature that can be achieved by the solar radiation.
Bring together material to make living beings using energy from the Sun.
Every living being has the power to reproduce itself.
Upon death the material and energy in a living being are recovered completely.
The purpose of life is to change the environment of Earth to support more life. The change that life processes bring provides time for most species to evolve. Human being does not make a single thing that abides by even one of the principles life processes follow. Human sustainability problems originate out of this inability.
Sustainability Awards
Sustainability programs for schools
Wipro Earthian
Wipro earthian has completed a landmark 14 years in the space of Sustainability Education. It is one of India’s largest programs of its kind for schools and colleges and is designed to act as a catalyst for fostering excellence in sustainability thinking and action. This program is a natural intersection of Wipro’s commitment to the key domains of education and ecology.
Generation for Climate ActioN (GenCAN)
The Generation for Climate ActioN (GenCAN) is a Leadership Challenge for schools initiated by HCL Foundation and CEE. This is a sustainability and climate change education initiative to engage schools with their teachers and students to communicate, collaborate and cooperate in learning about climate change to develop their own action plan for reducing carbon footprint
Green Schools Programme
The novelty of CSE’s Green Schools Programme lies in the fact that it moves beyond theories and textbooks and concentrates solely on ‘doing’. It is an environmental education programme directed to subtly sensitizing students to the environment through hands-on and thought-provoking activities. It is also an environment management system that audits, through students, the consumption of natural resources within school campuses and helps schools become good environmental managers by deploying pragmatic solutions to reduce wastage of precious resources.
Paryavaran Mitra
Paryavaran Mitra is a nationwide initiative to transform 2 crore students into Paryavran Mitra through participation in curricular and co-curricular activities and projects.
A Paryavaran Mitra student demonstrates environmental leadership qualities through positive change in behaviour and action at individual, school, family and community levels. Thus, every Paryavaran Mitra student becomes a change agent for sustainability.
Blue Flag
A world-renowned award trusted by millions around the globe, the Blue Flag programme is run by the Foundation for Environmental Education and is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. In order to qualify for this prestigious award, a series of stringent environmental, educational, safety-related and access-related criteria must be met and maintained. Through close collaboration with our members on any and all issues they may have, the Foundation for Environmental Education works tirelessly to ensure the programme's expansion, and that the unrivalled standards of the Blue Flag are maintained internationally.
Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI)
SSI is an internationally recognised environmental initiative in partnership with the Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), Ministry of Education, and sponsored by Bp, allowing youth to explore the environment and learn ways to reduce their ecological footprint, while creating a sense of ownership and responsibility towards the future by addressing their own environmental impact. SSI is one of our Environmental Education flagship projects due to its quest to promote environmental sustainability addressing school communities.
A Paryavaran Mitra student demonstrates environmental leadership qualities through positive change in behaviour and action at individual, school, family and community levels. Thus, every Paryavaran Mitra student becomes a change agent for sustainability.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The UAE’s Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was known for being a visionary leader whose contributions changed the course of history for the UAE, the Gulf region, and the wider world. He looked beyond the borders of the UAE, providing support to those who needed it most, regardless of geography, race, gender or religion. The UAE's deep-rooted sustainability values are due largely to Sheikh Zayed’s commitment to conservation and protection, and many of the programmes that he initiated to preserve the environment are still in place today.
Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP)
The mission of the GEEP is to create a vibrant and inclusive learning network designed to build capacity in countries around the world to strengthen environmental education that leads to a more just and sustainable future.
Tide Turners Plastic Challenge | UNEP - UN Environment Programme
The Tide Turners Plastic Challenge - supported and funded by the UK Government’s Department of Environment Food & Rural Affairs, Norway and the Global Environment Facility - was developed as part of UNEP's Beat Plastic Pollution campaign with a focus on building the capacities of young people to tackle plastic pollution by raising awareness, fostering community engagement, and advocating for policy changes.