It was two weeks back that I posted about the energy efficiency classes that were held at a school. Since then, I have conducted another class for the same students. This class was focused on ‘why energy efficiency is important?’. It is always best to describe using pictures or movies rather than just showing text. What better movie than Home, the movie by Yann Arthus Bertrand.

Apart from this,

• We are also creating rainwater harvesting pits at Vijayanagar park. Hopefully, this would benefit the trees planted there.
• Arun Padaki showed a presentation on “streets for pedestrians and cyclists” to a corporator here. The corporator, Nandeesh Preetam is an eco-conscious person who has designed widening of roads in such a way that trees are not cut. Arun showed him that a cycling path can also be provided by the roads so widened. The corporator has welcomed it well and has agreed to take the plan forward. We are promised of a meeting with the city commissioner and we are hopeful. For a better idea on this topic: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/streetdesignmanual.shtml

G V Krishnan had a suggestion about doing a household energy audit with the help of school children. He has written about it here: Household energy audit. I have acted on this and have started a small program for school children. Vidyavardhaka school in Kuvempunagar, Mysore showed tremendous interest in the energy efficiency education program and asked me to conduct a program for 7th grade. Today was the first class and the students seemed to take it really well. Here is the presentation on slideshare.

This is a presentation with a purpose of educating school kids (7th grade) about the importance of energy efficiency and also connecting energy usage with the larger picture that is Earth. This is a first of a series of presentations I am doing at Vidyavardhaka school in Mysore. Before the presentation, the students were already aware of the concepts of electricity generation, transmission etc. After the presentation, the kids were able to say that a proportionate amount of coal was burnt every time they wasted electricity. I quote one student who said at the end of the presentation, “Sir, why can’t they replace the bulbs (incandescant) in Mysore palace with CFLs? That would save a lot of coal from being burnt and prevent a lot of pollution”. I asked this student whether he could write a letter to the government in his own words so that I would pass it on to the concerned authorities. He was very happy to do it. I hope the enthusiasm of the student stays.

You can see in the presentation that I have given the students an activity of energy audit at their own home. Next week, I’ll be taking the second class at the same school. Also, another school, Vijaya-Vittala is intent on conducting such a class. I will update once that is confirmed.

Venugopal who works as a software engineer in Bangalore  was in Mysore on the weekend. He could have slept till late on Sunday morning but he decided to join us in planting a few trees. And that made a difference to the world.

You too can make a difference. Plant a tree today.

After an initial burst of activity last year, things happened pretty slow at sapgreen. This year too, we made plans on Devaraj Urs Road, showed it to the corporation and got it approved too. However, the action was still not there. Opposition from some of the shop owners didn’t help things at all.

Somehow, certain good things happen without any planning at all. Aditya and Aniketan, both students of SJCE Mysore and also volunteers at Vivekananda youth forum got in touch with me for planting a few trees. We planted the first set of 22 trees in a park in Gokulam towards the end of May. Based on Aditya’s inputs, we adopted some new practices in planting trees. Charcoal was put inside the pits initially so that the water retention capacity of the pit increases. Children from the neighbourhood were made to plant the trees so that they don’t disturb the trees thereafter.

The next thing we had planned was to plant  many saplings in a empty section in Vijayanagar. We approached the corporation authorities for the requisite details of  the place and found that it was to be developed by the corporation itself. As a result, we thought of going back to the first park taken up by Sapgreen. Here, many trees had not made it past the summer and as a result, we had to replant some of the saplings. I had always paid laborers to do such work.

Aditya’s theory was that, unless we get our hands dirty, we won’t be able to mobilize people. I on the other hand was always of the view that it would be a waste of time to do manual work when we had the capability to do ‘higher level’ work such as talking to the government, writing them letters etc. Yet, I accepted Aditya’s suggestion since I knew that my view of avoiding manual work had not yielded the results I had expected in the past year. So, I thought there was no harm in trying out Aditya’s suggestion. Another reason I accepted it was because I thought it would be a good form of physical exercise. So, our routine started as follows:

1. Reach park by 6AM with 2 saplings, pit digging tools, tools for cutting thorns and a little bit of manure generated at home.
2. Dig 2 pits which takes about 20-30 minutes and cut some thorns from the nearby thorn bushes.
3. Collect additional decomposable waste by asking sorrounding homes.
4. Plant the sapling, protect with thorns and then get water from a house, a new house every day.

The first 2 days, I did things only with a view of staying fit. 10 days into this mode of work and my earlier views are all proven wrong. Although it is too early to say, some things have started to work to my own surprise. Neighbours have been watching us do this and have suddenly started appreciating the effort. One neighbour especially informed me that she would be able to collect funds from the neighbours if we were to develop it into a full fledged park under the JNNURM scheme (This scheme is promoted by Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and according to this, if a neighbourhood collects a certain amount of funds for park development, the government matches it with 10 times the amount). Interest among people is slowly building and I am really surprised.

I talked to the Mysore corporation about this today and found that they too are supportive of this. Also obtained a letter of approval to continue with our work here. On Aditya’s suggestion and also based on my visit to Kennametal yesterday, I suggested rain water harvesting in the park and the corporation has welcomed the idea. So, over all, I now am better convinced now.

Also, if anyone is in Mysore on any day, you could join us in the activity; happens every morning at 6AM. Either drop a mail at ashwin@sapgreen.com or just call me on 9900199201 to know the details. Also, if you have an interest to get involved in some other form, please fill in the form: http://www.sapgreen.com/get-involved

In order to get more inputs on the DD Urs Road tree planting plans, my business partner and friend, Suraj met someone who had already did this earlier. It seems that he is the one responsible for the few trees that exist on the road now. The road boasted of many more trees some years back, most of those planted by him. Indifference, rowdyism and dishonest motives of people with respect to trees of the road have taken their toll on him. These days, he plants trees at places which are not likely to be touched by people. He claims to have planted about 10,000 trees till date which is easily believable considering his knowledge of the trees.

Here is a real incident as narrated by him: “Some years back, I asked the local corporator to join me in planting a tree. He came, planted the sapling himself, posed for the photos and left. A few days later, someone had vandalized the sapling and I planted another one in its place. The reason for the vandal was that a advertisement board had to be seen in place of the sapling. This time again it was vandalized. After the third one perished, I went to the corporator who had planted the tree. I came back with an indifferent advice from him, ‘Someone wants to make money by displaying his ad. Let him make money. Why do you bother about a tree?’ “. There were more stories from him. All of a different type. His advice to us now is, “Channel your efforts on some other place. It would be far more useful to the environment”.

I won’t be taking his name here. The story is what matters. My question is, does it really help the cause if we do not solve the problem areas first? Anyway, our job at Sapgreen is to take this proposal forward. The result though is not in our hands. We won’t stop our efforts though.

And finally, do check out this page: Sapgreen Accounts. All our financial details are published to the best possible extent here. Its an effort with many motives. One is to make our operations more transparent. This could also serve as a case study for tree planting. Also, we could benefit if it interests you and you provide some feedback on this.