SUSTAINABILITY – THE NEED OF THE MOMENT

Sustainability has now become a priority for people, companies, governments & nations of the world. People are realising and adopting eco-friendly practices, be it individually or in groups in the hopes of making a greener, happier & brighter future for the generations to come.

SMALL YET SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES

This movement is less about mind-blowing jaw-dropping changes. It’s more about simple sustainable changes & substitutions in people’s everyday habits to collectively make stark differences together to positively affect us and the future. It’s about how tiny changes have the power to change the face of the planet, quite literally.

THINK GLOBAL & ACT LOCAL

At VKP, we positively believe in ‘Thinking Global & Acting Local’. This sole philosophy has helped us achieve feats in our few years of operation. What this means in a country like India, where the majority of the population stems from the grassroots, is that we must start acting beyond the corporate horizon & the cities and beyond messaging that disappears after we’ve said it. It’s about immediate action. If all the people of the country could make slow, sustained & significant steps from wherever they stand, be it in the cities or the villages, tech parks or the grassroots, an unimaginable and unbelievable amount of carbon footprint will reduce. When this continues over hours, days & years, then our planet will start thriving and hurtling towards a brighter future.

CHANGING HABITS TO CHANGE LIVES

This leads us to our first step – changing our habits & practices – a push to create and achieve momentum towards a bigger, greener picture. And it must start right from the Grassroots to end at the Global scale.

GREENING OF GRASSROOTS ENTERPRISES

The greening of rural grassroots enterprises is more than just putting the planet first. It’s about putting the people first. Sustainable natural resource management in rural communities reduces poverty and enhances their economic progress. Greening of the production processes creates more jobs and also strengthens the climate resilience of rural communities for the future.

BUT, WHAT DOES GREENING LOOK LIKE FOR RURAL ENTERPRISES?

The Greening of a rural enterprise looks no different from the greening of any other business. It involves trying tested methods & processes that

1. Improve Resource Productivitye., using resources as effectively as possible when producing goods and services to reduce and avoid waste,
2. Enhance Environmental Performancee., bettering the impact of an organisation’s policies, services & products on the environment.

These measures or practices implemented in the business activities & production processes end up reducing negative impacts on the environment and are called Green Practices.

4 AMAZING BENEFITS OF GREENING GRASSROOTS ENTERPRISES

Greening rural enterprises and businesses is a holistic initiative which would lead to multiple benefits for the people and the planet. Diving a little deeper, here are 4 key benefits it would yield in the long run.

1. Improved Natural Resource Conservation
2. Reduction In Negative Environmental Impact
3. Strengthening The Climate Resilience of Rural Communities
4. Contributing To Climate Change Mitigation

IMPROVED NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION

As grassroots businesses have direct easy access to natural resources like soil, water & land, implementing effective green practices for managing these resources alone can potentially make a huge contribution to a greener Earth. Such green practices can help foster water conservation, groundwater recharge, reduced soil erosion, increased soil fertility, conservation of biodiversity, crop cover, green manure, non-timber forest products etc. All of this would cumulatively lead to increased agriculture outputs and improved livelihoods derived from agriculture, forests & pastures – a win-win for everyone.

REDUCTION IN NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

Greening of grassroots businesses can effectively reduce and reverse the negative environmental effects of development like pollution, waste generation etc.

Here are a few potential practices that rural enterprises could implement

• Solid And Liquid Waste Management improves local sanitation and hygiene, prevents contamination of ground and surface water sources and thereby, improves the well-being and health of residents.
• Use of Locally Available Resources such as rice husk ash and fly ash as fuel sources reduces the petrol/diesel required to transport manufactured materials over long distances, thereby, reducing the environmental pollution.
• Organic Farming and Sustainable Harvesting of NTFPs (Non-Timber Forest Products) reduces the carbon footprint and improves the green cover.
• Use of Renewable Energy like solar power for irrigation etc. helps save energy, costs & the planet in the long run.

STRENGTHENING THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE OF RURAL COMMUNITIES

Greening of grassroots can literally turn tides and move mountains when it comes to rural areas. It reduces the impact arising from climatic change and combats extreme events such as droughts, floods and cyclones. Afforestation, plantations, fodder development and vegetation belts in coastal areas build livelihood resilience and improve local communities’ coping capacity towards possible climate problems. All in all, they not only help increase biodiversity but also make the local ecosystems more resilient.

CONTRIBUTING TO THE CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Here is one of the more obvious but profound benefits of greening grassroots enterprises. Implementing large-scale forestry and soil conservation measures can reduce greenhouse gas emissions & even reverse carbon footprints. Initiatives in afforestation, plantations and vegetation belts can help sequester & isolate carbon, thereby reducing carbon emissions and contributing to a big-scale move to address climate change.

GREEN ENTERPRISE – OUR NEXT LEVEL OF COMBAT

While implementing green practices i.e., the greening of grassroots enterprises by itself will have significant impacts on the people, the biodiversity & the planet as a whole, a green enterprise, created especially to help make our Earth more sustainable takes it to a whole new level.

A green enterprise facilitates the creation of new enterprises or the diversification of existing enterprises to produce & deliver green goods and services.

A green enterprise not only has a minimal negative impact but potentially a positive effect on its local environment, community, society, & economy.

Apart from the already aforementioned benefits of greening, sustainable green enterprises also create jobs and improve livelihoods with zero compromises on the environment.

VKP’S BIT IN EMPOWERING GREEN ENTERPRISES

At Vaazhndhu Kaattuvom Project, we have put our heart and soul into creating and empowering several Green Enterprises for the betterment of the people, the nation, the planet and everything in between. Some of the green grassroots businesses VKP facilitates include

1. Organic Farming
2. Vermicompost Manufacturing
3. Biogas Production
4. Bio-Fertilizer Manufacture
5. Plastic & Paper Waste Recycling
6. Palm Leaf/Coconut Leaf Product Production

Over the years, all of these ventures at the local level are helping tackle global environmental issues arising from climate change. They are standing examples of how small changes locally can make big differences globally. In this spirit, we urge everyone from every community, household & business to look beyond the present and make an investment for the generations to come, to adopt and implement tiny little changes for the greater good of mankind & it’s only habitat – our Earth.