Tata Steel’s Green School Project kicks off workshop series at Sukinda in association with TERI
Sukinda, September 19, 2017: Tata Steel, in association with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), started the first series of workshops for students at their Sukinda Chromite Mine (SCM) in Jajpur, Odisha under their Green School Project. This initiative is aimed at creating awareness and understanding about environment issues in school campuses in the operational areas of Tata Steel.
The workshop, ‘Be Ecomatic – Eco-friendly intuitively’ was kicked-off by Mr. M C Thomas, Executive-in-Charge, Ferro Alloys and Minerals Division, in the presence of Mr Rajesh Patel, Chief, Mining, SCM Tata Steel, Ms Shruti Agarwal, Senior Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Tata Steel, representatives of TERI and teachers and students of the identified schools in and around Sukinda. Mr Thomas also launched waste paper recycling kit, which will be given to all the identified schools. The workshop will run till September 23, 2017 in all the identified schools across raw material locations of Tata Steel.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Thomas said the project promotes environmental stewardship in identified schools through classroom and outdoor activities to improve critical, interdisciplinary and holistic thinking. The overall objective is to create awareness amongst students on climate change and how sustainable lifestyle can help mitigate the adverse impact of climate change.
‘Be Ecomatic – Eco-friendly intuitively’ is a week-long student workshop aimed at raising awareness among students on environment in general and conservation of resources in particular. It is a unique programme that goes beyond promoting awareness by encouraging schools to act. The Green School Project was launched in April this year in schools across operational sites of Tata Steel in Odisha and Jharkhand.
Since its inception, the project has worked with teachers and eco-clubs to instill a sense of responsibility in the target groups to take ownership of their surroundings and to take a conscious voluntary step towards sustainable living.
The workshop focuses on spreading awareness and building capacities on four themes – waste, water, energy and biodiversity – among the school community depending on their needs. The need assessment survey was also conducted in April and May to identify the priority areas per school, thus making it location-specific. Activity-based style of learning has been adopted for students and the programme involves interactive sessions with experts, movie screenings, quizzes, and hands-on activity. Besides, the schools have been provided with recycling kits to recycle waste paper and make useful products. During the workshop, there was also live demonstration of recycling waste paper in which the students participated very enthusiastically.
