Gajera Trust Schools Foster Green Initiatives
The earth has been facing sizeable environmental concerns lately, ranging from global warming, ozone depletion, water scarcity & pollution, and climate change to waste management. The threats to our environment are putting the posterity of all species at risk. Biologist David Attenborough once rightly said, “While it's true we can never go back to the stable, benign climate that enabled us to flourish for the past 10,000 years... we can reach a new stable state." Likewise, it’s important for us to acknowledge that the smallest of changes can still make a significant difference and begin taking individualised green initiatives.
Since the inception of Gajera Trust in 1993, we have been tirelessly working towards three key goals: improving education, healthcare and the community. However, we began our initiatives toward protecting the environment around , and pledged to make the world a better place for posterity by inculcating eco-friendly living as a habit in our 50,000+ students instead of merely motivating them to lead a greener life.
Our Green Education Model
Introducing Environmental Sciences as a subject for kids in their primary and secondary years is not uncommon in India. We wanted to take it a cleft higher and introduce environmental aspects in every subject as projects and activities. We strive to give our students hands-on experience to engage with different aspects of nature, identify imbalances and employ their creative thinking to come up with eco-friendly solutions
With the Green Educational model employed in our schools, students do not just learn about plant life, their characteristics and maintenance but they also get to grow their own plants and experience them first-hand. To decipher the amount of water they need to provide their plant with, they use math and arrive at a number based on the water inlet and wastage. They learn their theory in class but retain that knowledge by practically experimenting with the concepts.
Students across our 18 schools in Gujarat are mindfully brought into the habit of segregating waste and reusing or recycling to the fullest. From recycling activities, art events and skits to plastic collection drives, our students have taken our Zero Plastic initiatives to new heights, with efforts from our Centre for Environmental Education.
Mindful concern and action for the environment
As an institution that believes in bringing about impactful changes immaterial of how small they are, Gajera Trust strives to move one step forward towards protecting the environment by fostering habits in young children that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. We aim to sensitise our students about pressing issues like climate change and the importance of restoring biodiversity alongside reassuring them of how their green habits can make a difference.
A sustainable way forward
We, at Gajera Trust, strongly believe that action creates change. In efforts towards our green initiatives, we aim to bring in tactical waste management across all our institutions through rigorous waste segregation and its subsequent treatment. While we put our best foot forward in reducing our overall carbon footprint, we aspire to use 100% sustainable products that are recyclable and reusable and pledge to be plastic-free as much as possible.
Sustainable living is a practice, a way of life. Through our green education model and initiatives taken across all campuses, we seek to make sustainability an easier, organic choice that occurs to us naturally. The small steps we take would snowball into a significant change in totality, over time. We thank our staff for their involvement and our students for their enthusiasm for contributing to our vision.