Adar Poonawalla Clean City Initiative

Our Oceans: Our Responsibility June 8th—World Ocean Day—is more than a day on the calendar. It's a time for reflection, a time for awareness, and most of all, a time for action. Our oceans cover over 70% of the planet's surface, support 80% of all life on Earth, and create over half the oxygen we breathe. They help regulate the climate, support billions of humans with livelihoods and food, and yield unparalleled beauty and biodiversity. And yet, the oceans are in crisis. The Current Reality: A Deepening Crisis Our oceans today suffer from alarming levels of pollution, overuse, and abandonment. Millions of tons of plastic trash are carried into rivers and oceans each year. Plastic bags and bottles to microbeads and fishing nets, this waste kills marine life throughout all levels of the food chain. Sea turtles confuse bags with jellyfish. Birds and fish eat plastic bits. Coral reefs are damaged by chemical runoffs. Worst of all, industrial effluent, raw sewage, agricultura...

Every year people around the world celebrate ‘Earth Day’ on 22 nd  April . The day was proclaimed as International Mother Earth Day ( https://www.unep.org/events/ un-day/international-mother- earth-day-2025 ) through a resolution adopted in 2009. It is a powerful reminder that this planet is the only home we have, but this home is faced with deepening environmental challenges that need to be addressed urgently.   What a beautiful Planet! One doesn’t’ need to travel far to experience this. It is just around us. Whether it is the hills with refreshing green cover and native trees, whether it is the water coming down the hills, colourful flowers, dense forests, whether it is the free-flowing river or the limitless oceans captivating the diverse ecosystems and marine life, whether it is the free flowing breeze that gives us the refreshing touch, every creation of the nature is a visual representation of its power and tranquillity.   But what have we done… As h...

The term 'Net Zero' has gained prominence, particularly in the sphere of policymaking aimed at mitigating climate change. As nations convene to deliberate on targets for net zero carbon emissions, what does it signify for individuals and the general populace? In truth, every global citizen holds a pivotal role. Simply put, the critical concept of Net Zero entails attaining equilibrium between the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and their removal or offsetting. Its objective is to restrict global warming to levels substantially below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. Net zero doesn't entail eradicating emissions entirely; rather, it involves reducing emissions to a point where any residual emissions are counterbalanced by the removal of an equivalent volume of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. While the notion of achieving net zero might appear daunting, it's imperative to acknowledge the potency of incremental changes...

As the World embarks on a challenging journey towards Net Zero, waste management and citizens engagement is of paramount importance. And in waste management apart from the macro level issues, one of the mounting issues is the litter we see on the roads and public places. Most of the times we are ignorant and tolerate litter and trash around us as if it doesn’t make a difference. But the fact is that, one small step of picking up a plastic bottle, a chit of paper, a discarded household material or product and putting it into a bin will make a huge difference. Our culture emphasizes keeping our surroundings clean, our text books teach us ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’. Despite this we see people carelessly throwing litter especially in public places, others are bystanders as if it is not our responsibility. If we remain ignorant of the growing litter, it will add up to the already overburdened landfills, deface our public places, beaches, tourism sites, and add to the already c...

  Climate Reality Project ( India )  along with Adar Poonawalla Clean City Initiative (APCCI)  is working with campuses in Pune   to convert them into green campuses. This result oriented impact driven program enables schools and colleges to conserve natural resources like water and biodiversity, optimize energy efficiency, manage waste and provide clean air etc . These are the five parameters on which the program is based with a definite methodology.   This is a student driven program, where the youth take responsibility for their campuses under the guidance of their educators and management. With their support, the students are able to come out with solutions which can easily be  implemented. The program starts with a basic orientation and continues with training programs aimed to create awareness on climate change, sustainable development and build capacity inside the campus by training facul...

We call our ‘Planet’ or ‘Earth’ as ‘ Mother Earth’ and for a reason. It is our home, it is because of which we are alive. Yet we have been so indifferent. We forgot to live in harmony with nature and kept on damaging it. Climate change, man-made changes to nature, deforestation accelerated the speed of destruction of the planet. The consequences of climate change has reached each and everybody on our planet.   The World Earth Day 2023 will be celebrated on 22 April. The theme every year underlines particular environmental concern. This year the theme is “ Invest in Our Planet ”. Garbage is one of the contributing factors to climate change. It also affects human health and overall aesthetics of the city. It is a major cause of land or soil pollution.  The pace of consumption of goods by human and the waste and garbage generated is so huge that many places on our earth are simply unable to manage the garbage properly resulting in compounding problems. Although the...