Best Practice

Title of the practice - Nurturing Environmental Consciousness

Goals

• To nurture environmental consciousness among students and staff of the college
• To undertake various majors for the protection of the environment on the college campus
• To arrange various programs and activities through the NSS unit of the college for creating awareness about environmental protection among the people of the nearby area

The Context

The phenomena of the Global Warming has read alarming Bell among all over the world regarding environmental degradation of the globe and its subsequent consequences many thinkers and environmentalists has wormed the humanity about the same they have pointed out that it is a high time to undertake appropriate measures so that we can prevent environmental losses and save the globe and our future generation from disasters consequences of environmental problems the educational institute must play a key role and must offer their contribution by adopting various measures and undertaking several activities with the help of which they can motivate young generation and seek their contribution for mitigating the problem of endangering the environment.

The Practice

Green Campus

• The institution has a system for green-auditing of its facilities. The use of plastic bags is avoided on the campus. Students and staff are motivated to use jute bags or cotton bags.
• The students and staff have planted several tree saplings during various tree plantation programs organized by the institution through the NSS wing and all these trees are taken care of and maintained by the students and staff.
• Care is taken to ensure that the college environment has low levels of carbon emission and low pollution levels so that the campus is healthy for all.The college is declared as ‘No Tobacco Zone’

Energy conservation

• The College conducts awareness programs on energy conservation and adopts measures to ensure that energy is conserved wherever possible.
• The institute follows a policy of switching on power only when required and switching off when not in use.
• Many Classrooms have very wide and long windows with a high roof of almost 12 ft which ensures that the use of lights and fans would be minimum as ventilation is naturally enhanced.
• Many classrooms, departments, administrative offices and the Principal Chamber of the college are airy and well illuminated for the maximum use of natural lighting during the day time. Tube lights are used instead of incandescent bulbs wherever the natural lighting is insufficient to minimize power consumption.
• The institution strictly observes to see that no electric equipment runs unnecessarily. Thus enough measures are taken to use electricity carefully.
• Almost all the computer monitors in use are either LED or LCD types to ensure minimum usage of electricity and also to reduce the level of radiation.
• Water harvesting Rainwater harvesting project has been implemented in the college. The water thus harvested has been used for watering the plants and gardens since 2018.

Efforts for Carbon neutrality

• Plantation of trees and green grass on the college campus. The College has made appropriate arrangements for the parking of the vehicles of the students and staff near the entrance. This helps in keeping the campus as clean as possible.
• The campus is also smoke-free. The dead leaves and waste papers are not allowed to be put on fire. The dead leaves and waste papers are scientifically decomposed by burying them in the soil.

Plantation

• Tree plantation drives are organized regularly to create a clean and green campus. The NSS and DLLE wings of the college take up planting saplings regularly at the college campuses and also at nearby places. The Botany department of the college maintains a Botanical Garden which houses a large variety of medicinal plants and a wide variety of plant species.

Hazardous waste management 

• The college generally does not generate any hazardous waste in any manner. However, the college strives to generate minimal waste and tries to reduce the use of plastics whenever possible.
• Waste is segregated as biodegradable and non-biodegradable.
• The use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals in the garden is replaced by adopting organic methods of gardening wherever possible.
• In order to dispose of the acid fumes, chemistry labs are equipped with exhaust fans and fume hoods.
• Mild chemicals are used for cleaning and maintaining the campus. Sterilization is performed by autoclaving and then the remaining wastes are properly disposed off, in accordance with standard waste disposal norms.

e-waste management

• Printer Cartridges are generally refilled and not disposed of. Wherever refilling is not possible, the cartridge is returned to the manufacturer.
• Paper waste is sold off to vendors who send it for recycling.
• Computers in satisfactory working condition, but are obsolete for the system, are usually used for teaching-learning purposes of Computer Architecture and Hardware courses. Similarly, computer parts and peripherals are reused in other systems.All damaged or non-functional electronic materials (e-waste) are returned to the manufacturer.UPS batteries are exchanged for a nominal cost (buyback offers) with the vendor of the new batteries.

Activities for creating environmental awareness among the citizens

• NSS Unit of the college has undertaken various activities and programs like tree plantation, construction of vanarai bunds, participation in Swachh Bharat mission Abhiyan, arrangement of various rallies, etc. All these programs and activities in the adopted village as well as in the residential camp have proved very influential in creating awareness about environmental protection among the citizens.
• To create awareness among the citizens, particularly among the farmers who are used to creating fire with the help of drivers with this so that they can have a good build of the crop in the rainy season this prevailing misconception becomes one of the hurdles in the protection of local environment NSS has started awareness program so that this practice of putting fire on trial uses should be stopped.

Evidence of Success

Students and staff of the college have started to adopt various green practices like minimum use of papers, avoidance of plastic bags and proper disposal of garbage on the campus. Students have started to plant and nurture various types of trees at their homes and also in their native villages. The green practices which have been observed by the students on the college campus have also been reflected in their day-to-day life at their respective homes. Due to awareness among the students and also among the villages of the nearby village, people have started to install LED bulbs in their houses instead of old types of bulbs which consume a lot of electricity.

Problems encountered and Resources required

• Students are initially reluctant to adopt various green practices like avoidance of plastic bags, minimum use of electricity, saving water and less use of personal vehicles as most of them become habitual to use all these modern amenities.
• In our area, there is a practice of putting dry leaves together in the month of April and May and setting them on fire so that the land could be prepared for a good yield of the crop of paddy in the next rainy season. There are a lot of misconceptions among the local people. Initially, they are reluctant to stop this practice as they believe that the practice is good for having a good yield of crops. To handle such types of problems, we need some more efforts and proper planning of creating awareness among the students as well as among the local citizens. If we are able to convince students and citizens that avoiding many anti-environmental practices will certainly be beneficial for their life, the people will certainly corporate and contribute themselves to the protection of the environment.