IIM Sirmaur Celebrates World Environment Health Day
On the occasion of World Environment Health Day, Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Management (CSEM) at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur in collaboration with Corporate Social Responsibility Club “Sankalp” hosted a webinar on ‘Be an entrepreneur for creating valuables from plastic waste’. The webinar focused on Plastic Waste Management. The invited panelists are active in the field of environment management and relevant areas.In 2011, the International Federation of Environmental Health (IFEH) declared to observe World Environmental Health Day on 26 September.
Professor (Dr) Neelu Rohmetra, Director IIM Sirmaur congratulated organizers for taking initiatives in organizing such an event. She appreciated the CSEM for bringing a pool of distinguished and prominent panelist representing industry and academia on a single platform to brainstorm and share their views on plastic waste management. She said that that one of the objective of establishment of CSEM at IIM Sirmaur is to connect students, corporates, academicians, NGO and the community. The focus has been to start some thought process in this direction and debate on issues related to community. “Through CSEM, IIM Sirmaur is able to create such a platform which may also help students to think and develop interest in this directions”, she said. She suggested that management education institution can also write success stories by addressing the problems of community. “Issues related to environment management relate to community and management institutions can play a role in undertaking research and projects in this regard as a contribution” She said.
Earlier during the webinar, Dr Arpita Ghosh (Coordinator of CSEM) began the webinar by introducing the panelists. Subsequently, the panelists shared their experiences. In the introductory session, Dr. Suneel Pandey, Director, Environment and Waste Management Division, TERI, Delhi addressed ongoing plastic waste issues in society and its environmental impact on living beings. The session focused on creating valuables from plastic wastes. Dr Pandey emphasized how pollution of plastic has become a global problem. He highlighted the fact that only 25 % of plastic waste gets collected for recycling and remaining plastic waste ends up in landfills and oceans. He also discussed about different business opportunities for recyclability during design stages of products. During the second session, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Principal Scientist, CSIR-IIP Dehradun shared his research knowledge on chemically converting plastic waste to fuels, petrochemicals and aromatics. He also addressed the importance of chemical conversion over mechanical conversion to save our environment. The next speaker Dr. Priyank Arya, Corporate Head, EHS, Dabur India Ltd stressed upon segregation of plastic waste starting from household to Industries. He shared his experience on Plastic Waste Management Rules and Extended Producer Responsibility. He said that no waste is waste if citizens are conscious about segregation and recycling. Later, Mr. Ashish Jain, Founder Director, IPCA NGO explained campaign that he headed which is titled as “My 10 kg plastic” in collaboration with East Delhi Municipality Corporation. The campaign focus upon behavioral change among the residents for segregation and collection of plastic waste. He also discussed about the objectives, challenges of being an entrepreneur. He shared his startup experience journey and set an example to the young audience for being an entrepreneur in the field of plastic waste management. More than 200 students attended the webinar from different parts of the country. The webinar strived to link up the research findings with the industry perspective. Prof. Amrinder Singh, Chair of CSR, IIM Sirmaur gave vote of thanks.
