Global Development starts from Rural Development : Green Initiatives of CSR

A very essential element to ensure a developed society  is to embed Sustainability. Today’s demands should be met keeping in mind the needs of future.

We need to cater to self- sufficient, economic and sustainable ideas for  the world that is already geared to its future needs. According to the Earth overshoot Day which fell on Aug. 2 this year, humans have already used up their allowance for water, soil, clean air and other resources on earth for the whole of 2017. Humans are on a “credit” from the Earth for the rest of this year.

Individuals can help reverse the trend by eating less meat, burning less fuel, cutting back on food waste.

This, however, is not a over gone conclusion.

CSR can concretise  efforts to reduce humanity’s ecological footprints and profoundly alter this picture.

Balancing how much renewable natural resources we use with how much is generated is paramount if mankind is to thrive on this Earth.

CSR can help with this opportunity to participate: the choices we make everyday  as consumers and citizens actively contribute to the world that we’ll leave to future generations.

STEPS TO TAKE ACTION:

• GO VEGETARIAN
• LOWER THE HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Electricity contributes to 38% global carbon footprint)
• COMMIT TO REDUCE PAPER WASTE
• ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION (30% less CO2 emission)

Well, these are suggestions for individual effort, which, no doubt, can have a significant impact. But in broader terms, CSR’s actions and policies should be proactive to provide enough space for long term goals of environmental protection and intergenerational considerations. Here comes the concept of Environmental CSR or Green Initiatives of CSR.

Coming down to the roots to make an impact, CSR measures to benefit the Rural Societies should be on the fore. Because no country can prosper leaving behind its Rural arena.

Especially India which is majorly dependent on its Rural areas for many things.

A Green CSR Initiative for Rural India can be “Compost Bank.”

The problem is that Farmers use pesticides & other fertilizer to give extra life to their crops but there are potential disadvantages as well namely killing of useful insects in soil & causing cancer & water pollution as serious threats to humans & environment. Moreover rural areas lack proper disposal of waste & increases pollution. 61% food samples contaminated due to fertilizers and 22 lakh farmers committed suicide due to debt, unable to pay for costly pesticide.

This degradation of environment, life and land is a great threat to sustainability and development.

Green CSR can revolutionize this through Composting.

Composting is a cornerstone of sustainable development, yet it is often neglected. Over 50 percent of waste stream could be readily composted.

Composting is a simple process where optimization efforts are used to increase the rate of decomposition (thereby reducing costs), minimize nuisance potential, and produce a clean and readily marketable finished product.

Composting helps to increase the recovery rate of recyclable materials—household source separation of recyclable paper, metal and glass is already common in many developing countries.

If Banking is applied for the waste management and compost generation, two problems can be solved with one shot.

The idea of a  “Compost Bank” is like a barter of organic waste  collected by ruralites to transform into useful Compost that can be exchanged for Compost, which can be used as  a natural fertilizer.

• This compost  can be produced and processed with a major contribution of locals & the villagers can be asked to contribute waste, all required to make compost…they can pool in all the biodegradable items available such as household waste: Organic material and feedstock like kitchen wastes, dry leaves from the garden and flowers used for pooja, food, farm waste, animal waste etc.( which may otherwise create pollution) & process it into compost.
• This contribution will be stored in form of credits, which will be supplied in the form of compost, to the farmers who need fertilizer for their plants. In this storage bank -the more you give, the more you get i.e. the more waste you collect & give the more compost you’ll get.
• Craftsmen, laborers etc. who aren’t involved in direct field work & don’t really require fertilization process, can also indirectly participate by selling their share of compost to those who need it & it’ll ensure active participation by maximum people.
• For removing rural poverty it is necessary to ensure full participation and involvement of the ruralites in development programs. People have their personal accounts made by this bank that can be made based on the contribution they make  and will result in their share & supply of compost or credits.
• Villages can gain carbon credits by composting feedstock that would otherwise emit greenhouse gases in atmosphere.
• The Delhi Municipal Corporation processed 2 lakh tonnes of solid waste into compost through aerobic technology & received Rs.25 lakh as carbon credits from the UN .
• Villages that are tagged ‘dirty’ can be source of carbon credits, which India can trade in as well. Waste can be an asset to ruralites.

As a part of the Corporate Social Responsibility if we  study our Rural foundations and cement them, then no one can stop us to reach a global impact.

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