Students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have launched an initiative to boost start-ups and businesses working on sustainability.
The aim is to achieve five of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals (SDG).
SUSPIRE, an initiative of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell, has proposed to reach out to over 5,000 individuals and motivate them to adopt at least one concept of sustainable living. It plans to support and promote 20 start-up teams, working in the sustainability domain; formulate 100 solutions to revolutionise industrial process and propose 50 policies that government can adopt to achieve at least five of the SDGs.
“Each year we come up with a social campaign. In 2018, it was education, to inculcate 21st century entrepreneurship skills in school students. In 2019, we targetted digital well-being. In 2020, we had ‘Pankh’, to uplift small and medium enterprises that faced COVID-19 challenges,” said C. Dinil, head of marketing and public relations team at the entrepreneurship cell.
His partner Kush Ganatra, a third year chemical Engineering student, said, this year it was proposed to inculcate in people a sustainable lifestyle. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram would be used to enthuse students to take to cycling or walking for reducing carbon emission.
Even small steps like removing the charger from the socket when it is not used could reduce carbon emission, Kush said.
The competitions will begin in January. The students are targetting clean water and sanitation (SDG 6); affordable, clean energy (SDG 7); infrastructure, industrialistion and innovation (SDG 9); consumption and production (SDG 12); and action to combat climate change (SDG 13). The finale of the competiton, would be conducted in March.
