25 May,2015 07:12 AM IST | | Shreya Bhandary
Adding to the growing list of city institutes that are going green, Welingkar Institute of Management recently installed a biogas plant on its premises
Adding to the growing number of educational institutes in the city that are adopting eco-friendly ways on their respective campuses, the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research is the latest entrant to join the bandwagon. It has been learnt that the institute recently installed a biogas plant on its campus premises.
The recently inaugurated biogas plant at the Welingkar institute. File pic
The biogas unit will use the wet waste generated in the cafeteria to produce clean energy that would be later used to fulfil a part of its energy consumption. The six cubic metre unit was installed by the collective efforts of private firms and teams of MBA students after an extensive four-month study.
Officials claim the eco-friendly initiative will enable the institute to manage solid waste at its source in an easier and efficient manner. They said it would help reduce usage of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.
"Institutions like Welingkar collaborate with all stakeholders for creating awareness, to change all mindsets and empower them for better governance, economic prosperity and sustainable environment.
With this, we expect that our young managers should become responsible citizens by moving from responsive to transformative contributors to the society," said Uday Salunkhe, institute director.
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Welingkar is not the first educational institute in the city to turn its campus into an eco-friendly place. In the last 10 years, St Xavier's College has installed three separate solar panels on their college terrace, and certain departments are operated using the solar energy.
For example, computers at the institute's cyber laboratory are operated exclusively using the solar energy harvested by one of the panels installed on the hostel terrace. The very first solar panel (installed in 2004) is being used to heat a 4,000-litre water tank on the hostel terrace.
The heated water is later supplied to the hostel and the college canteen kitchen. The solar panel on the library building provides electricity to the lecture rooms, the reference library, and the hall. Similarly, Sathaye College, Vile Parle, has a vermicomposting pit dug on its college campus, where all the canteen waste is diverted.
The generated manure is used in the college garden. At D G Ruparel College, Matunga, solar panels set up above the hostel buildings facilitate electricity generated through solar power. Besides, the institute was also one of the first in the city to introduce rainwater harvesting on its campus.
At the Somaiya campus in Vidyavihar, while waste is managed through vermiculture, its rainwater harvesting programme, introduced in 2010, ensures reuse of 1.25 crore litres of rainwater from the catchment areas annually.
"All this work is a collaborative effort of everyone on the campus; from students segregating waste and respecting trees and plants on campus to teachers incorporating environment awareness in the curriculum.
We believe that our students should enjoy the nature, and, so, the landscaping of our institute is done in a way that students can sit and study amidst nature. Students are not only made aware of the importance of the environment, but they also themselves understand the importance of contributing to it further," said Samir Somaiya, president, of the Somaiya Trust.
