Namrutha Ramanathan

I am an enthusiastic Hydrologic and Water Resources Engineer with special love for nature and environment around me and currently working as a Project Associate in the Department of Civil Engineering under Prof. Balaji Narasimhan in Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM).

PROJECT

I am currently working on the Real Time Flood Forecasting for Chennai and Tamiraparani basin. In addition to that, I am also working on the modelling of Low Impact Development (LID) practices for water use and conservation. I would like to learn more about the climate resilient water management practices both in agriculture and domestic use of water.

My main aim is to make the state self-sustainable in water resources through the application of principles from Hydrology, GIS & allied areas and to help the society in that endeavour. This basically led me to idea for climate resilient water management practices especially considering the spatial and temporal variation of rainfall in India.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

My motivation for a sustainable planet comes from my roots in the rural background of Kallakurichi where I grew up in the midst of animals, birds and a big forest. I strongly believe and feel that nature is the most important and potent force and we need to respect it.

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Pursuing research in construction & demolition waste management. Basically, a Civil Engineer with a master’s in construction engineering and management. An aspiring entrepreneur with a passion for waste management and environmental conservation. Feminist who wants to fight for underprivileged women and girl children.

PROJECT

My project involves developing a circular economic model for urban areas where construction materials can be sourced within the city. Construction & demolition waste disposed of within the city will be used as a source of raw material for new construction projects. On one hand construction materials such as sand are exploited beyond regenerative capacity and on the other hand tonnes of materials are disposed as waste within city damaging the environment. Handling C&D waste is a complex and tough task for the city authority. The circular economic model would address both problems of resource exploitation and waste management in one go. Reusing waste materials as resources would reduce the environmental impact caused by sourcing, production, and transportation of virgin materials.

My constant observation and interests towards waste management led me to pursue environmental management course from IISc Bangalore. The importance of environmental conservation and need for research over C&D waste lead me to pursue PhD. Over the period of research I came to understand that Netherlands and few other countries are achieving more than 90% diversion of C&D waste from landfill whereas in India it is less than 1%. So, I decided to make a convincing model for the city to highlight that recycling C&D waste could bring benefit to people,planet and economy. We were surviving without hurting environment and coexisted with nature centuries before, the rapid development in technology and running towards money have to led to a life where we prefer luxury and comfort over the wellness of nature. There is a dire understand that ‘mental and physical health is unachievable without a healthy planet’.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

I have had a passion for the environment from my school days. Mentorship of TVR sir from IISc Bangalore and my zeal towards business have led me to build a robust waste management business model that saves the planet and brings profit to people.

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Muskan is an entrepreneur working in the field of sustainability, helping companies measure, reduce and offset their footprint!

PROJECT

It has always been a challenge to quantify and measure sustainability parameters, be it with companies or cities. Unless we have a system to measure, quantify and monitor progress it becomes challenging to set goals and move towards the right direction. Hence my project focuses on mapping these indexes to help cities make targeted decisions towards decarbonisation and mitigation strategies.

When I was working on reducing carbon emissions, I realised it was difficult to set baselines for me to compare to and focus my work on, hence It made sense to build something that would help map sustainability metric across the city and help monitor progress on a platform.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

I have always been someone that is deeply connected with nature and wanted to ensure the work I do, contributed to a better tomorrow. Sustainability is universal and connects people across the world, be it any age, gender, colour! I wish to inspire people to take accountability in their own hands and take action together.

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Smrithi Prasad is an Architect and holds a Masters degree in M.Plan, specialized in Urban Design from CEPT University. She has more than 2.5 years of experience in the research and planning of sustainable mobility projects. She is currently associated with ITDP and is extensively supporting the team with high-quality research on various developments in the field of sustainable mobility which includes bus systems, shared mobility, informal public transport, gender and transport and electric mobility.

PROJECT

Micro-mobility refers to small, lightweight vehicles that typically operate at speeds below 25 km/h, which can be human-powered or electric, shared or personally owned and are ideal for short trips up to 10 kms. By encouraging micro-mobility, public transportation can become the fastest, cost-effective option for most trips, yielding benefits such as better first-and-last mile connectivity, urban resilience, improved air quality, increased physical activity, better health outcomes and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. However, despite these potential benefits, micro-mobility still remains nascent to the city of Chennai. This project of micro-mobility focuses to provide a real tangible solution to bridge the first-and-last-mile transportation gap by identifying a potential precinct in Chennai, integrating various modes of public transportation with cycle-share facilities, collaborating with localities to analyze the potential walkable and cyclable routes within the precinct for the people to commute to the transit stations, designing a good street network for the people to walk/cycle within the precinct, creating social media awareness campaign etc., thereby sensitizing the people of Chennai about the adoption of green transportation. Scaling up more such neighbourhood level planning will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, liveable and healthier cities with interconnected walking and cycling street networks.

As cities face rapid population growth, the need to move more residents through existing transportation networks is becoming ever more pressing. While mass transit remains the most efficient means of moving large numbers of people long distances, getting people to and from transit remains a perennial difficulty—the much-discussed first-mile/last-mile challenge.If people lack a convenient, affordable way to get on a bus or train, they are far more likely to opt for a personal vehicle, contributing to the gridlock and poor air quality that plagues so many cities. Micro-mobility integration with public transport offers a tantalizing solution to address the first-mile/last-mile problem and to shrink the transit deserts in the city.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

The covid pandemic emphasized the significance of micro-mobility in various cities and as a way forward towards sustainable mobility, we should rethink our transportation networks with micro-mobility as a critical mode. Being an urban designer, it is my responsibility to take individual action against climate change and I believe in the concept of making a few small alterations in our ways of living to collectively create a big impact.

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Her Mentor

Aswathy Dilip

I am pursuing my under graduation in Urban Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal. I previously interned with Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and got an opportunity to attend the Sustainable Urban Planning Workshop on Mainstreaming Resilience in Metropolitan Planning for Chennai Metropolitan Area under the India-EU urban partnership. I was also a part of Tamil Nadu Climate Leadership Programme conducted by Sustera and Poovulagin Nanbargal. I was also recognised as a winner in the IIT Bombay AICTE Mapathon, 2022 in which I presented my project on “Flood Susceptibility Analysis for Chennai Municipal Corporation area”.

PROJECT

According to the IFMR report, Chennai is one of the South Asian cities with the highest GHG emissions and other criteria pollutants, especially NOx and PM10. Vehicles significantly contribute to carbon emissions. Bus is the most popular form of public transportation (PT), followed by suburban railway and metro rail in Chennai. The use of public transportation has decreased from 31% in 2008 to 28% in 2018. The percentage of private modes has increased from 31% in 2008 to 37% in 2018 and  n on – motorised  trips dropped from 34% in 2008 to 28% in 2018. The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) focuses on multimodal integration. MaaS platforms enable users to plan and book door-to-door trips using a single app, eliminating the need to locate, book, and pay for each mode of transportation separately. This will also help in analysing the demand for various modes of transportation relative to trip purpose and length. In order to track passengers in real time and offer hassle-free travel, the public transportation can be integrated with IoT. The advantages of Maas include its environmental sustainability, where effective planning of public transportation and integrating it with different modes will reduce the dependence on private vehicles and contribute in lowering carbon emissions.

Rapid urbanization is increasing the percentage of privately owned vehicles on the road, causing congestion. Congestion on our daily commute causes increased fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Despite the fact that public transportation has a 28% modal share in Chennai, usage is lower and the percentage of privately owned vehicles is increasing. The economy will also be negatively impacted by congestion in cities such as Chennai. To lessen reliance on privately owned vehicles, it is therefore necessary to efficiently plan public transportation and integrate it with other modes of transportation.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

As a future Urban Planner I take the responsibility to plan climate resilient cities for the future. Climate change is an overriding issue that has to be addressed. I see value in localising SDG’s. SDG 13, which focuses on Climate action is also interlinked to other SDG’s like 1 (no poverty), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 10 (reduced inequalities) and 11 (sustainable cities). There is a need for a bottom up approach to ensure its implementation. I believe that there is also a need to create awareness among people on how our day to day activities contribute to climate change. Climate justice and the politics around it is always given less focus which should be given attention as it directly affects the vulnerable population. The urban poor are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and they should be given special emphasis in planning. I also would like to work on sustainable solutions to make climate resilient cities for the future.

I am Janani Venkitesh, an environment, and solid waste management, enthusiast. With a background in commerce and cost and work accountancy, I was looking for answers to a major global issue that we are all facing, Climate change and global warming outside these numbers and the comfort of my sweet home and the alluring social media pages. That led to the formation of an association, ROKA (Residents Of Kasturba Nagar Association) whose primary focus and concentration is solid waste management (SWM) and other environmental-based projects. Nearly 6 years of experience working and volunteering with communities, institutions, organizations, and other corporations/municipalities in implementing source segregation of waste.

• A good knowledge of Solid waste management (SWM) and sustainable practices across cities.
• Focussed and determined in seeing 100% results.
• Self-motivated and high stamina for fieldwork projects.
• Passion for the environment and reducing environmental impact
• Ability to work efficiently in a team and be persistent.
• Ability to get the community together to participate in activities
• Organized and independent problem solver who can come up with innovative and sustainable solutions.

Impact made:

70% source segregation of waste achieved by my team in about one and half years’ time.

• In a span of 6 months after a thorough D2D awareness/demo on source segregation with follow-up and monitoring with a team of volunteers under my leadership, achieved 1.5Metric Tonnes of organic waste per day was sent from Kasturba Nagar for composting.
• Facilities set up for solid waste management like Ring well composting/MCCs and MRFs after strong representation from ROKA.
• Collection drives conducted across the city over the last 3 years resulted in diverting 13 Metric Tonnes of e-waste alone from the landfill.30 Metric Tonnes of clothes and 7 Metric Tonnes of mattresses, footwear, and others were sent for processing with the recyclers.
• Recharge wells at multiple locations were installed in 2019 after the city went through a rough phase of drought during the summer.
• 100 plus indigenous tree saplings planted and maintained well by a set of volunteers under ROKA and more spaces are being identified for the same in the near future.

PROJECT

100% Source Segregation of waste: The beneficiary here that we are talking about is us,” The Human beings”.The impact of source segregation is both a long-term and short-term one. If you look at the short-term impacts, there are many. A community or area that source segregates wastes and sends them for processing, will not have to deal with street bins that may be overflowing and cause health hazards. Overflowing street bins are always an eyesore. Black spots and littering can be majorly avoided with 100% source segregation. Once the garbage is mixed, it cannot be fixed and it will only end up in the landfill. The quality of work of conservancy workers also improves if the community segregates its waste at its source. The funds allocated for solid waste management can be drastically reduced and used in other sectors if a decentralized system of collection and processing is in place. If you look at the long-term impact, it is huge with just a simple act of source segregation and processing Landfills, where all the unsegregated waste ends up, are the largest source of METHANE, a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2 and a major contributor to global warming and climate change. Reducing methane could almost immediately curb climate change, because it stays in the atmosphere for a short time, unlike CO2 which lingers for a century or more. Landfills are one of the main sources of human methane pollution along with livestock and the oil and gas industry. Once a prototype is set, it can be taken across the country. Coming to the benefits, are the same as the impact in this case. Residents get cleaner and greener streets. Things are more systematic and organized when it comes to garbage/debris/garden waste etc. The community gets together on various occasions to discuss other issues and work on them. It gives immense confidence in the corporation and the government amongst the public as a whole and a very healthy relationship exists which is crucial for society at large.

I have been working and volunteering in solid waste management since 2017 and initiated source segregation of waste in my area. I have always believed that solutions to bigger problems are always simple. Climate change and global warming are terms that we have been hearing more frequently than ever before and also see their adverse effects almost on a daily basis. I was ready to make changes at my individual level but within a few days realized that that was not enough. I had to move out of my comfort zone, go door to door and convince people to segregate their waste.I did not stop with that, I also connected with the corporation officials and the waste management company and make sure that the segregated waste went for processing. Managed to gather a team of resident volunteers and expanded my work. I was also invited by other communities and corporations to help them with awareness and implementation of SWM. I would like to achieve 100% source segregation of waste not just in my area but also replicate the model in other wards and zones through this mentorship program.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

“We do not inherit our earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”- This is what I strongly believe in and have been working very hard to make tangible impacts in the last 5 years. With a good knowledge of Solid waste management (SWM) and sustainable practices across cities and the support of this program, I am sure to see a better planet. I am self-motivated and have high stamina for fieldwork which is a required skill when it comes to SWM. My passion for the environment and the planet I live on supersedes everything. I also enjoy and work efficiently in a team and am persistent.

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