Chat Archives

Chat on "Environmental Education" dated July 18, 2006

Susan Welcome to IWC chat on "Environmental Education"

Susan Today , 18/07/06, the chat moderator is Lima Rosalind, Director Environment Education, WWF (I)

lima Hi susan

Susan Hi Lima

Susan People will start coming in by 7.35 or so let us wait. Thank you for being on time

lima other than the moderator, I wonder what makes people sign in to chat

Susan let us ask that question to our first guest

lima hi santosh

Santhosh Helo, I am Santhosh from Kerala

Santhosh Helo to Lima and Susan

lima What do yu do in Kerala?

Susan Santhosh, good to see you. Lima is here to answer any questions you have

Susan Welcome Nalin

Santhosh I am a sustainable and heritage tourism consultant and presently, representing Green Globe Asia Pacific for their Green Globe 21 Certification, similar to ISO 14000, but specifically for tourism industry

Santhosh I had been to UK last year as a British Chevening Scholar (and one of my team mate was Srabani Das from WWF - do you know her ?) for Env Mgt and Sus Dev from Uni of Wales, Bangor

lima Yes,She is a colleague of mine from the Fresh Water Programmes

Susan Welcome Arka, pl. inroduce yourself

Arka Hi every one!!!

Santhosh Lima, do you (WWF) have Env Education programme for Politicians and/or govt officials ? Because, they are the decision makers who needed to be "educated" first.

Arka Hi Lima!!

lima Yes,Politicians and the Govt. officials are one of our target groups and we do have trainings for them

lima Hi Arka

lima You know there are many Politicians who do know the importance of Environment but political complusions are very strong for some

Arka Well Lima If You remember I had written to you about volunteering for WWF would like to know about that off this disscussion....

Arka i know the topic is different now!!!

Santhosh How do you organise it - if I need to organise one in Kerala ?

lima You can volunteer for WWF-I if yu know how much of your time and skills you would want to give us.

lima There are many trainings schemes under the MoEF

lima Besides at the State level,one can approach the State Department of environment

Arka Well I am an employee with Hindustan lever based in Mysore.

Susan Are there any specific programs aimed at govt officials by WWF?

Santhosh What do you think is the biggest hurdle(s) in Env Education in India ?

lima Yes under the MoEF schemes. we do train Forest Officials every year

lima Lip Service

lima No body wants to put money where their mouth is!

Arka well Lima I Have my weekends Free and can work full time for one month At Max.. so what kind of volunteering options do I have???

Santhosh MoEF (Forest Officials), but that is just one of the categories - what's about MR of Companies (under ISO 14000) or programes for each industry sub categories etc ?

lima Arka, we should take your case another time on the mails if you don't mind

Arka sure not a problem ....

lima CSR is big thing ... only in name!

Susan What makes you want to volunteer Arka,? You have obviously been educated on environ needs -in school?

Santhosh For example, when we went to UK, we learnt that Aluminum industry has self governing system by which company is sharing its experiences to others to make them more eco friendly

lima There are some industries who do have initiated EE programmes with us

lima Singarani Colleries in AP, Tata Chemicals in UP are working with us

Santhosh For example, under Green Globe programme, we have case studies circulating to others, examples and methods for every one to "COPY" or follow

lima Globally Tetra Pak has the best recycling programme

lima They are now warming up to share thier knowledge

Santhosh I am not talking about individual companies associating with WWF - do you have specific programme for a particular industry - say Automobile, Cement, Mining, Tourism, Civil Aviation etc ?

lima sure that could be one way of Showcasing some of the good practices in the induatrial sector

Arka well Though I am an engineer by education I have a lot of interest on the environ front and have learnt many things on wild life...and i have also been associated with the local animal organizations for some time now....

lima WWF- has a policy globally not to associate with

lima companies like the mining ,cement, Coke etc.

Susan Nalin, you are a silent participant

lima Training programmes can be tailor made for any target group - that is not the issue it is where are the takers!

Santhosh Lima, what I am saying is to come out with Benchmarking / Best Practices / Ranking or other methods for industry so that the individual companies could be learning from within the cluster ???

lima No we donot deal with that level of work with the industries

Santhosh Exactly, if there should be TAKERS for your training programme it should have a WIDER acceptance and the content should be worth spending the company's money. For example, when CSE (Delhi) came up with Ranking for Paper and Cement industries, it must have resulted in a better self analysis of the individual companies under the industrial sector, isn't it ??

Susan I think time has come to take env.edn to a higher level - to practioners in industry and decision makers. The gap in this field can be filled by a body like WWF

Santhosh Who will be interested to listen to the PROBLEMS ? The Env Education should focus on SOLUTIONS, especially, if the target is Companies.

lima Sure, its the right time for us to look at Industries and Corporates

Arka Lima,If Environmental programs be taken up as a part of the community services programes by companies like Hll at a local level .... how do you think can this be worked out???

lima Best practices in Environment Management with the local participation could initiate further action

Arka I mean how Will WWF help if i want to carry out some thing like this in my organization

lima WWF-I could help you strategise the programme keeping in mind certain deliverables

Santhosh I am very happy to tell you that, Green Globe Asia Pacific (GGAP) - www.greenglobe2.com - has already gone in this direction to a great extent and the participants are BENEFETTING from the programme - by increased ENV proactiveness, reduced cost of operation (which is the most attractive element) and better marketing tool (international branding). Organisations like WWF, can learn from the experiences of GGAP to come out with SOLUTIONS and EDUCATION programmes for the industry - which are more EFFECTIVE and with far reaching positive impacts

lima Thanks Santosh I will take a look at the site

Santhosh As far as WWF's efforts for bringing Env Education to the Wider public, you are doing a good job. but, don't you think that there whould be more PRACTICAL alternatives also to be suggested along with the campaigns ?? FOr example, if "NO PACKAGED DRINKING WATER" is the campaign, then what should be the alternative for safe drinking water ?

Arka Santosh Could you plz giv some Exampls where Envi Education Is used as Cost Reduction Tool by Corporates...

lima But you see we are a conservation organisation in the realm of conservation of natural resources and thier sustainable management

Santhosh Ok "conservation of natural resources and thier sustainable management" - if the campaign is "NO FOREST WOOD" - it should also FOCUS on what are the alternatives, how to know if the wood is from forest or Agri field ? I am suggesting, the campaigns (and education programmes) should also focus on (in this case) Alternatives Wood (cane, Agri Wood, treated rubber or even plastic?).

Santhosh sorry the site is www.greenglobe21.com

lima Is water available for drinking for all in India? Where we work is to make more water available for human consumption by changing agricultural practices that grow thirsty crops like Sugarcane and Cotton!

lima Change in behaviour from wasteful water usage practices

Santhosh To make Env Education to MOVE out of the ELITE - orgns like WWF should be able to work with Education Department (to make it as a part of Education Curriculam) etc. In Kerala, the DPEP - State Syllubus is a good place to start this

lima Yes certification of wood harvested from forests which are raised for the purpose is another imp area of our work

Santhosh Did you get my last 2 postings ??

lima We have a presence in Kerala and in 25 other States linking up to the EE curriculum both at the State and the National level

Santhosh I am DEAD - helooooooo

Arka no we can read you, Santosh!!!

Susan We are nearing closing time. Can we conclude, Lima ? You can sum up

Arka Well Can A network Be developed At the Major industrail Belts Across the country to teach the factory workers at a nominal charge???

Santhosh Ok, Lima, its time for you to sum up, it seems.

lima EE should lead to positive action which is sustainable at the personal, community, polity and policy levels.

Arka Lima , I would be looking forward to your help on the volunteering front!!!!

lima It is not only orgs like WWF-I who bear the flag for a sustainable world but it s the individual responsibility and whereever possible one should reinforce this fact.

lima Yes Arka,

Santhosh All the Best for your efoorts, Lima, please let me know if I can be of any help in the Sustainable / Heritage Tourism field. I can volunteer for WWF-I for the EE in this field.

lima yeah sure!

Santosh.thanks

Arka thankz a Lot!!!

Santhosh My contact details could be found from www.thaniillam.org

Santhosh Or just ask Srabani

lima ok

Susan There is such a lot to be done - Everyone in this chat room have contributed to understanding EE needs Thanks everyone.

lima Thanks Susan for inviting me on this Chat

Susan Any suggestions on next month's topic?

Arka Hopefully!!!

Santhosh Lot of things to do, but it should start from individuals, their attitudes and lifestyles. Only then, we could move out of Lip Service to real imapct oriented ACTIVISM

lima Rain water harvesting - Are we doing enough?

Arka hey Susan I have joined the Chat for the first time , plz tell me when will the next dsscussion????

lima Susan that is a suggestion for next month

Susan How about sustainable tourism?

Arka Ya Rain water harvesting will good one!!!

Santhosh I can volunteer for "sustainable tourism" - as monsoon is already here, rain water should have been in April - May

Susan Rain harvesting - yes that is also possible

Susan The chat timings are fixed on 18th every month.

Arka this in the time you need to harvest the rain water right???

Susan So we will have achat on both topics with santosh and Lima as moderators for each one

Susan Signing off and thanks to all , Lima in particular!

lima Hey I can suggest a good moderator for RWH