SARDAR PATEL VIDYALAYA OF NEW DELHI WINS THE NATIONAL GREEN I CONTEST, 2011- A initiative of CII's Y

This is to bring to your notice that Sardar Patel Vadyalaya, New Delhi emerged as the winner of Green-I, 2011. Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi, Vasant Valley School, New Delhi, Sri Aurobindo International School, Hyderabad, Sai International School, Bhubaneshwar and Choithram School, Indore made it to the top five and presented before a panel of jury consisted of Mr. Gaurang Pandya, Managing Director, Carrier India, Dr. Kath Williams, Sustainability Expert, Green Building, USA and Mr. Karan Grover, Eminent Architect. The Green-I Contest for school children is a joint national level initiative of Carrier India and the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians (Yi). The contest aims to create awareness and encourage students to think about environmental sustainability.

"Carrier in India has been associated with Green – I since its inception in 2007. Through the ‘Green-I’ competition, Carrier reaches out to students encouraging them to inculcate an aptitude towards conservation and sustainability of environment, in order to create a better tomorrow. Environmental stewardship is a core Carrier value that we think about every day – in our products and services, in our operations and in our culture. We're building on a strong legacy of sustainability.”
Gaurang Pandya, MD, Carrier India
“The intent of Green-I is to create awareness and instill a sense of environmental responsibility among the future generations of India. Young Indians (Yi), the youth arm of CII is working very closely with schools and students to empower them to become green ambassadors for the future.” Deepa Sathiaram, Director En3 and part of CII’s Young Indians

The Green-I Contest for school children is a joint national level initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians (Yi) and Carrier. The contest aims to create awareness and encourage students to think about conservation and instill environmental responsibility among school children of today and future leaders of tomorrow.

The Green I 2011 competition is the fifth edition of the initiative. The contest topic for the year is “By the year 2030, you need to make your school one of the premier institutions in India that is not only green & sustainable through its campuses & activities but also a leading school in imparting environmental education to students. The ultimate goal of the education shall be to embed respect for the environment into the DNA of the future citizens of the country”

How would you go about planning the metamorphosis of your school from its current position towards achieving this goal? Also highlight how you propose to use the Green-I grant money of Rs. 7.5 lakhs towards achieving this goal”

The contest invitation was sent to over 2300 schools across 25 cities all over India. The contest has received an overwhelming response from all parts of the country. We received over 100 entries from schools. The last date for receipt of entries was 30 September 2011. A preliminary review of the submissions was done by 01 October 2011, of which 5 top teams, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi; Vasant Valley School, Delhi; Sai International School, Bhubaneswar, Sri Aurobindo International School, Hyderabad and Choithram School, Indore have been selected for the finals that will happen on 19 October 2011 in conjunction with the International Green Buildings Congress at New Delhi.

The winning school will get a grant of Rs. 7.5 lakh towards implementation of their green ideas within their school campus. The pilot version of the Green-I contest was initiated in 2007 in Chennai and from 2008 onwards, it has become a flagship initiative of Young Indians. The contest has made a great impact in terms of influencing students to think about the environment and be aware of the various measures that can be taken to minimize the negative impact on the environment. The winning schools in the last 4 years have implemented the green measures within their school campus with the grant from the contest.

In the 2007 Sishya School, the winning school from Chennai has set up a root zone waste water treatment system in their school of about 8000 liters per day capacity to treat their sewage water and recycle the same for landscaping, cricket pitch washing and other purposes.

The 2008 winning school, Kola Perumal Vaishnav Senior Secondary School, Chennai set up a roof garden, in the school and have set up a program wherein every student will contribute a plant on his/her birthday to the roof garden and will be responsible for watering and maintaining the plant till they pass out of the school. Also solar powered external street lights have been installed in the school for lighting up the roads, entrances and playgrounds of the school. The school has also set up a composting unit to compost the entire kitchen waste to produce manure, which will be used in their roof garden plants.

The winner of 2009, Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata replaced their tube lights with energy efficient 28W T5 Lighting System conserving 40020 kg of CO2 emission. The winner of 2010, The Daly College, Indore installed a paper recycling plant,drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation, packaged electricity transformers with underground cabling and Wi fi controls etc.

The key thing is these schools are not only implementing them practically in their campus but more importantly serving as a model which these schools are now using to further educate new students on various environment issues and spreading awareness on the environment.

We are very happy that the contest has succeeded in its effort to spread the much-needed environmental awareness with the youth of India. This year with the contest concentrating on Green Buildings, it would be an opportunity for students to learn and create awareness on environmental friendly buildings and understand new technologies in this space.