Executive Education: Stepping into Leadership
November 5-8, 2012
Hyderabad
ISB Digital Summit 2012
November 9-10, 2012
Hyderabad
Executive Education: Strategic Real Estate Management
November 7-9, 2012
Hyderabad
Harita Vinnakota , Director of Operations & Sustainability Council (OSC) from the PGP Class of 2013 has spearheaded several environment-friendly initiatives at ISB. Vinnakota reflects on her role in OSC, her successes and her learning from it all.
“Light, fan anni off cheseva?” (Telugu for “Have you switched off the light and fan?”) was my mother’s greeting as I walked out of my room in the mornings. This insistence on energy conservation probably saved my mother and others in her generation from a “power crisis.”
But things are different now. Sustainability is not just a hobby, it is a way of life and to me it implies – reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I decided to bring my passion into the OSC. We arrived at the OSC team after elaborate discussions with Nalin Srivastava, Director, Operations and Sustainability at ISB, such that the structure reflected every key operational aspect of sustainability including waste management and bio-diversity.
OSC comprises nine members who spend about half of his or her working hours on sustainability issues. Every decision we make incorporates a sustainability concern. I owe OSC’s success to the team.
At the ideation stage, we opened up our Scribble Pad to the ISB community. Used flex sheets were put up in the atrium to collect suggestions on sustainability. A scribble pad is also updated on the intranet, the atrium. So far, we have received suggestions from around 200 people, including the dean, and are working on implementing the 70 ideas that have been gathered. An important lesson learnt through this exercise is that we must reach out to people in fun and creative ways. “Be creative and leverage available resources” became our mantra.
Sustainability and the idea of “Green” require acceptance and support from all stakeholders – students, faculty, spouses, and staff (including service providers). So, inclusivity is at the core of our strategy. As part of this approach, we organised two 2-hour sessions with the Sahayaks (gardeners, kitchen staff, security personnel and housekeeping staff). During this session we screened an episode of the popular television show Satyamev Jayate hosted by actor Aamir Khan, on water conservation. A lively discussion on water conservation followed with viewers contributing their opinion on the issue. “Paani ke bina humein bahut dikkat hui hai, aise hi chala to humare bachhon ko ek lota paani ke saath sara din guzaarna padega” (At times, I have suffered a lot without water. If we continue this way, our children will have to manage with one mug of water per day), lamented a participant.
The success of this workshop has encouraged us to plan an energy conservation workshop for the Sahayaks. Since inception, the OSC has organised numerous activities:
While we have achieved a lot this year, this is just the beginning. The most important step for us now is how we pass on the baton to the Class of 2014.