World Environment Day on June 5 is usually a time to take stock and redirect our energies on ensuring that every decision we take is with the long-term health of the environment in mind. Today, multinationals and corporate organisations, and businesses big or small, understand the urgency of prioritising sustainability as a policy, at a time when the conversation has progressed from pushing towards incremental impacts to building a business model that embraces net-zero carbon emissions.
World Environment Day is a day given over by the United Nations to increase awareness of and urge action on protection of endangered ecosystems around the world. In this regard, we asked five brands to share their plan of action.
Turing
Remote work is one of the simplest solutions for effectively utilizing existing resources. Through its core philosophy of connecting Silicon Valley companies with remote developers worldwide through the push of a button, Turing is helping fuel the remote work ecosystem, one of the core sustainable solutions going forward. The pandemic and the shift to remote have made people aware of the possibilities and benefits of remote work that extend far beyond improved productivity. Turing is an AI-driven deep jobs platform that makes the remote hiring journey easy and rewarding for both companies and developers.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of people opting for work-from-home opportunities, as well as organizations saving precious resources by hiring remote workers. The shift to remote work is not just an intelligent step from a business perspective but also an ecologically sustainable one. This shift can massively help in the conservation of resources. And Turing is at the helm of facilitating this change through its AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud that helps source, vet, match, and manage distributed teams of developers. Going forward, this will define work cultures across the world,” insisted Niraj Agarwal, director, strategy & operations at Turing.
Ashoka
As per its mission statement, Ashoka, which identifies and supports social entrepreneurs around the world, envisions a society in which everyone is a changemaker, where all citizens contribute to change in constructive ways. In India, its Ashoka Young Changemaker initiative is empowering Indian youth to take the lead in highlighting environmental issues by offering solutions—to a polluted river passing through their city, for example, or a local factory filling the air with toxic smoke.
“We are seeing more and more young people educating adults on the calamitous effects of global warming. They are empathetic to climate issues and are stepping up to take charge. Young people are critical for the global climate change movement and give us hope that the future can be better. We need more and more young people driving this change," shared Yashveer Singh, the Co-Founder & Global Director of Ashoka Young Changemakers.
Ahuja Residences
Through its AIR Conscious Living initiative, Ahuja Residences is putting into practice its core beliefs—of designing and constructing hotels and service apartments that take as little as possible from, and strive to give back more to, the environment. Among the features of AIR Conscious Living include EV charging stations on the premises; generating as much as 33Kv of solar power from a grid of rooftop panels; utilisation of heat pumps over boilers, geysers, etc., to reduce carbon emissions and use of fossil fuels; and investing in energy and water conservation techniques.
‘’Ahuja Residences places great store on building for a better and sustainable tomorrow by cutting down on unnecessary energy consumption today. While hotels expend a great amount of energy, it is not beyond our means to make a substantial difference by integrating green technologies into our buildings. Because, nature is not so limitless in resources that we can continue taking from it,” maintains Jaideep Ahuja, MD and CEO, Ahuja Residences.
CodeQuotient
A learning and career platform for aspiring programmers, CodeQuotient knows that the classroom and lecture hall will continue to play a vital role in higher education, but that conventional ways can be enhanced through alignment with the latest technologies. While the practicality of virtual education has been proved, established approaches remain as relevant as they have always been. Still, it’s obvious that remote study does lead to a noticeable drop in the carbon footprint, besides helping save on paper, electricity and fuel.
“There will always be space for traditional learning and there is no reason to think why it can’t exist alongside the features that online education offers. Indeed, both can complement each other, for the overall benefit of higher education. Online study can never be a replacement or substitute for brick-and-mortar academics but we believe that to survive and prosper in this age and in the coming years, colleges and universities need to be empowered with technology,” believes Arun Goyat, Founder & CEO of CodeQuotient.
CardByte
Ecological mindfulness is a theme that runs in everything CardByte does. It may come as a surprise to some, but every year 7.2 million trees are cut down just to print paper business cards, 88% of which are thrown away within the 1st week of exchange. The CardByte platform not only saves millions of trees every year, but also plants new ones on behalf of all its subscribers. The aim of this initiative is to spread awareness about critical environment issues such as global warming and climate change while also supporting individuals and businesses in and reducing their carbon footprint.
“CardByte was launched with a vision to transform how individuals and businesses connect & interact with each other while making more sustainable choices. A lot of people want to contribute towards the environment but are not sure where and how to start. CardByte helps then in not only making more eco-friendly choices by going paperless, but also plant a tree on each user's behalf every time they purchase a subscription. I hope people understand the urgency of the situation and participate in making the planet livable for the coming generations," feels Navinn Kapur, Co-Founder & Director, CardByte.
