On June 7, 2019, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham joined European Union (EU) missions to India and more than 14 others and signed the “Green Pledge”, extending the commitment to a number of sustainable measures including reducing plastic use, managing waste responsibly and reducing water and electricity consumption.
Inspired by Sri. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita’s environmental initiatives are aimed at innovating solutions in sustainability defined by simple, practical steps that can be adopted on a large scale. Several of the projects and events have been formally recognized by UNESCO as part of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development.
As part of the Green Pledge, EU embassies that have reported on these steps are Slovenia, Sweden, Delegation of the European Union to India, Germany, Finland, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Czech, Italy, UK, Lithuania, France, Spain, Poland, The Netherlands. At this EU in India event, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was represented by Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Director, Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology and Associate Professor, School of Biotechnology, Amritapuri,.
On Amrita signing, Dr. Diwakar added, “Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, following the inspiration of Chancellor Amma has been leading sustainability and nature harmony efforts by involving students and communities in planting trees, recycling organic wastes, treating waste dump regions with biologically natural methods, advanced research towards waste water treatment and reuse, plastic degradation, amala bharatam clean up campaigns in line even before Swacch Bharat Abhyaan, building 300+ toilets and training women to build and maintain them across India, green technologies have been the core since the University was set up. Now, we are scaling to make nature and humanity a step closer involving student, alumni, faculty members and staff.”
Partners, who signed the Green Pledge and joined the “Lead the Green Change” campaign at India Habitat Center in New Delhi, include Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), four leading universities, namely Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore; Jadavpur University, Kolkata; Savitribai Phule University, Pune; and Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati; three Delhi based luxury hotels -The Park, The Oberoi and The Lodi Hotel; leading civil society and developmental organizations including Development Alternatives, Project Mumbai, International Institute of Waste Management, Karo Sambhav, the Holy Cow Box, and Ploggers of India regional sports associations including Karnataka State Cricket Association, Goa Football Association and Assam Cricket Association.
