April 22, 2011
School of Engineering, Bengaluru
 

A Billion Acts of Green mark this year’s Earth Day celebrations. This theme is meant to inspire people from around the world to initiate green actions.
 

Top Acts listed on the Earth Day Website include planting a garden at school or at home, reducing waste and using water and electricity wisely. Alongside each Top Act, a number of people have pledged to make these green actions a part of their lives.
 

So far, Acts of Green and Counting totals 72,358,011.
 

Anyone can make a pledge on the site, but can everyone honor their promise?
 

Amrita’s Bengaluru students may not have made a formal pledge on the Earth Day site as yet, but they have already kept their promise. After attending environmental workshops this past year, they acted fast to create their own environmental advocacy club, Prakriti.
 

The impulse to set Prakriti in motion was not different from the inspiration behind Earth Day celebrations. Both seek to increase environmental awareness through education. Helping students recognize the importance of eco-friendly practices in today’s world, Prakriti promotes awareness programs, as it strives to make Amrita a greener campus.
 

Examples of the club’s recent eco-efforts include campus cleaning, posters promoting the conservation of water and electricity and ECO-BIN installations for waste segregation at source, throughout the campus.
 

Keen on Green is the motto of the club.
 

It has already hosted events that make going green, fun. Classes titled Art from Waste and Green Art were conducted during weekly Wednesday meetings. Aiming to find new uses for campus waste, these courses showed how waste could be transformed into something beautiful.
 

Learning to apply green principles, like cooking without a flame, students received a taste of yet another way they could lead an eco-friendly life.
 

The local environmental advocacy group Bhumi conducted seminars on Consumerism and Good Life, Food Health and Climate Change, to inform students about the importance of adopting eco-friendly behavior.
 

“We are encouraging students to see the world through green eyes,” noted a faculty mentor of the club.
 

Amrita’s Bengaluru students are honoring their promise, but maybe they should also make a formal pledge.
 

In fact, in celebration of Earth Day, perhaps students at all of Amrita’s campuses should pledge … to make every day, Earth Day.