The student delegates who attended the Round Square International Conference in Canada in October -2008 were deeply influenced by the issues related to the preservation of the natural environment so the student community decided to form a Green Club to address the issue of conserving environment which has a membership of more than 200 people ranging from age group 12-18 years and includes adults through a democratic process. Six office bearers were elected from the student community.
VISION STATEMENT OF THE GREEN CLUB
- Our vision is of The Daly College, Where everyone’s need is met in a way which safeguards the future of the environment.
GOALS OF THE GREEN CLUB
- Green Clean Daly College
- Spreading awareness among the Daly College Community about environmental issues
- Preservation of trees
- Conservation of water
- Conservation of energy
- Measuring carbon footprint and reducing it
- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
The Green Club has proposed the following for the immediate consideration -
- Reduction in Vehicular Pollution
- Water Management
- Reduction in Power Consumption
- Generation of Bio Gas
EXISTING MEASURES
- Recycling of water from boarding houses. Recycling plant in school recycles 40-60,000 L water /day. The recycled water is odorless and is used for gardening purposes.
- Recharging of wells through rainwater harvesting
- Minimizing the wastage
- Paper recycling plant in the school recycles about 15kgs of paper /day.
- To reduce Power Consumption we have a wind mill which produces sufficient energy that can light the street lights near the main building.
ACTION PLAN OF THE GREEN CLUB
- To provide 10 drinking bird baths for peacocks and other birds dying in the vicinity
- To design one or more lakes for rainwater harvesting.
- Install water treatment plant to feed lake from bathwater.
- Create water channels to feed lakes during monsoon months.
- To study the requirement for bores for water charging of campus.
- Naming of trees on campus to spread awareness among students.
- To create bio-gas from the organic waste from the dining hall.
- The recycling of note-books at the end of the year.
- Pollution control through Traffic Management.
REDUCTION OF VEHICULAR POLLUTION
- Promote the idea of car pools
- Usage of college bus to encouraged
- No private vehicles are allowed to enter the school campus during drop offs.
WATER MANAGEMENT
India depends mostly for its supply of water on annual rainfall and the rivers are fed by the monsoon rain.Madhya Pradesh [The Central Part Of India] is facing acute water shortage. Indore which gets most of its water from Yashwant Sagar dam on the Gambhir river and river Narmada has been facing Water scarcity for over 2 decades.
At present, its posh colonies are receiving water for one hour every alternate day. In poorer localities water is supplied through tankers. Inadequate supply has led to a spurt in bore-wells. As a result ground water level has plummeted to between 122 meters and 244 meters from about 12 meters in 1970’s.
According to the Central Ground Water Board that explores and manages ground water in India, the annual per capita replenish able ground water district is 200,000 cubic meter but the availability is only 20 cubic meter per person with every passing year, the rainfall is decreasing and the depth of the tube-wells is increasing. The problem is augmented by the growth of population in the region.
To preserve the seemingly everlasting and rapidly degrading water, our school has been regularly recycling and processing use water to put it to different uses.
The water conservation plans also include building of a water reservoir to promote a flourishing bio-diversity on campus and collecting water in the fields by creating bunds at the boundaries so as to flood the fields and maximize ground seepage.
CONSTRUCTION OF LAKE
Construction of a lake on school campus has already started which will not only help in conserving water and developing bio-diversity but also add to the aesthetic value of the school.
REDUCTION OF POWER CONSUMPTION
The Green Club is also quit active in promoting general awareness amongst the school community for reducing power consumption. We will gradually move to LED street lighting on school campus which will no only reduce the maintenance, cost and decrease electric cost up to 60% but also enable us to earn carbon credits as an institution
Advantages Of LED Lighting are-
- Long life
- Reduction in maintenance cost
- Decrease of electric costs up to 60%
- Low heat generation
BIO- GAS DIGESTER
Bio- Gas is a natural fuel which is derived from organic waste. It can be used for cooking, lighting and combustion. As it does not harm the environment our school has decided to produce and use bio-gas as a supplement to L.P.G. It can be produced with the help of a bio digester which is a device that an aerobically decomposes the organic waste to produce gases like Methane, Carbon dioxide, Hydrogen Sulphide, Ammonia and hydrogen.
Our school is going to build a bio-digester to produce in the school itself. All the organic waste in the school kitchen is going to be used to produce bio-gas. Along with the organic waste, We will add cow-dung in the bio digester which would help to introduce the anaerobic bacteria which would decompose the matter inside.
After 35-40 days the bio gas digester would be ready.
Then we would separate Methane gas from the other three by putting a pipe at the top of the bio-digester. As Methane is the lightest gas it would come out easily. This would be used as cooking gas in the school kitchen.
