Hyderabad: The IT and ITES Industry Association of Andhra Pradesh (ITsAP) today announced various activities in celebration of Earth Day on 22nd April 2014.
The initiatives are planned to promote environmental awareness and support the company’s sustainability efforts. As part of the program, the IT industry employees will give time during their work day to nonprofit organizations, and participate in activities related to Environment.
“Giving back to the communities where our employees live and work is an important part of our Industry here,” said Mr. V Rajanna, President, ITsAP.
“Whether it's planting trees, revitalizing distressed neighborhoods or cleaning local lakes and parks, IT employees will again come together and work to strengthen the communities where we do business”, added Rajanna.
Some of highlight of these initiatives taken up on this Earth Day include “All Bus Day” and “Dry Waste Collection”. ITsAP gives a call to all IT Employees (nearly three lakh of them working in about 300 plus companies) to shun the usage of cars and private transportation and observe “All Bus Day” on Earth Day on 22nd April.
Which means employees are advised to use public transportation instead of commuting to office in their own private transportation. This is being done to volunteer towards reduction of carbon footprint by refraining from individual transportation. This is a small sacrifice for the long sustainable environment, says Pradeep Gadicherla, Coordinator CSR Forum of ITsAP, who is also the Sustainability Champion for CA Technologies India.
Adequate arrangements will be made by APSRTC to ply more buses in these existing and regular routes from Ameerpet, Lingampally, Mehdipatnam and Bachupally. And if it works out well, it is our sincere wish to make this a regular event once every month, he informed.
By far this is going to be the biggest ‘No Car Day’ ever observed in the city, looking at the sheer numbers of the IT and ITes employees in the city. The mood in IT Campuses is to “Get involved and get going with Earth Day!”
Further, Dry Waste Collection will also be taken up from 21st April to 25th April. During this period, employee will carry dry waste of their houses to their respective offices’ collection points where they will dump it. The waste will be collected, segregated and recycled by ITC Limited, which is supporting this initiative.
The objective behind this move, Mr. Pradeep Gadicherla, explains is to sensitize IT employee on 3 Rs of waste management — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. So that they can minimize the burdens that their waste creates: reduce waste, reusing waste when possible and recycling it into goods for tomorrow. And this will help to cut down on the amount of waste thrown away by them. They conserve natural resources, landfill space and energy.
Further this initiative will encourage them to set up recycling plants/units in their communities and welfare associations to sustain this movement.
