Painting Dust Bins at Sangam Trip : Honeywell : 14 Dec 2008

Honeywell sponsored a trip and items required for the painting of bins at Sangam (confluence of Arkavathi and Cauvery) picnic spot.

There is no report from this trip. This trip coordinator was Pradeep Singh. Sandeep sent detailed notes on the procedure and items required as a preparation for this trip. Which is a Painting Bin 1-0-1 at its best. Refer group mails for the same.

Clean Up Trip to Mutthathi : Wipro Cares 22 Nov 2008

The Wipro Care trip to clean up Mutthathi was preceeded with a short corporate presentation to the volunteer group, conducted by Deepa.

This trip too does not seem to have followed the trip report format. There is a personal post by Deepa Mohan.

http://deponti.livejournal.com/468244.html

The formal notes of the Clean Up Event
On the 22nd of November, the Wipro and the Clean and Green Volunteers left rather later than usual, as the caterers did not deliver the food earlier.

Meanwhile, Roopa had spoken to the Forest Department officials regarding our use of their campus for lunch.
It was nice to meet the people from Wipro, and luckily for us, though it remained cloudy for most of the day, the rain held off. We had breakfast on the bus, and Geetha organized tea/coffee from a nearby teastall as we stopped.
However, we were in for a further delay, as the bus got diverted at Kanakapura town, due to ongoing road work; we had to crawl over very bad roads,and reached the cleanup site at 11.30 am... a record of sorts for such a cleanup I think!
Deepak and a few friends had also found the going pretty rough but had got there by car and were waiting for us.
I gave the volunteers a short talk about C'n'G and our objectives, and also about how to segregate and collect the plastic. Rakes, sacks and gloves were unpacked and the volunteers fanned out and set to work. I must say that in my opinion, the picnic area trash has come down in volume.
Once the work was under way, Deepak, Anush, and I went to Bheemeshwari and met Mr Sundar Raj (landline 08231 694248/695249/218252/ 218232, mobile no. 94495 99768, email: Sunder@gmail.com) , the Resident Manager of JLR, and told him that the sacks would be ready for collection in a couple of hours' time. He said that he would send a jeep at about 5.30pm.

Mr Sundar made the suggestion that instead of concentrating on repeated cleanups, C'n'G could change its approach. He said that for Rs.6000 p.m, he could organize the local tribals to patrol the area and clean up the litter regularly, and the practice of collection by JLR and delivery to KK Plastics could continue, and that he could supervise this.

He pointed out that probably the cost of that day's cleanup was more for Wipro; so, if we could organize a regular supply of money from the corporates, it would be a sustainable way of dealing with the trash. Deepak feels that this should not pose a problem at all. I think we should meet and have a discussion about this, and if we really can organize a regular source, then putting the tribals to work on a daily basis would certainly be a better solution than repeated cleanups. We have to work out the modalities of how to get the money, and also, how to disburse it in the most effective way possible.
After about two and a half hours, we called a halt to the trash collection, and the sacks were stitched up and weighed; a total of 167 kgs was the day's collection. I must say that the Wipro volunteers showed a lot of enthusiasm! It was great to work with them. The rakes, sacks and gloves were packed away (Roopa, do let us know where they are being stored now...are they with you?)
Roopa spoke to several of the Forest Department officials, and the locals also. can give the details of her conversation. The Forest Department was supportive, as always.
We all walked to the Forest Department campus where lunch was served and eaten;in spite of the caterer's warnings that lunch should be consumed at 12.15, the food was still perfectly good at nearly 3pm!
Many of the volunteers then opted for the pleasant walk (4 km) from Muthathi to Bheemeshwari, and the others packed up the food, and came in the bus, picking up anyone who was tiring, on the road. It was delightful to walk down, and Anush and I managed to spot several birds as well, and I had earlier seen a couple of mongooses on the path too, so it was truly a Nature walk!
The way back proved slightly less tortuous, but still the diversion at Kanakapura took some time. We stopped to have tea/coffee at Harohalli, and came home, tired but happy with what we have achieved, at about 7pm.
Sandeep Sanwal of Wipro has already joined the egroup as a C'n'G volunteer. I am sending a separate email to Geetha to be forwarded to the volunteers, giving the details of how to join the egroup, and where to upload the photographs that one volunteer took. I have already uploaded the photographs I took to the C'n'G Photobucket site and have forwarded them to Geetha too.

We must all thank Geetha for a lot of hard work that she put into this day's outing; I think the food, in particular, cost her a lot of effort! But she not only did a great job, but was smiling through it all, even though she has a tremendous backlog of work to address!


Looking forward to getting more volunteers to strengthen our hands, and hoping that the next meeting will bring about more fruitful solutions to the ever-present problem of trash,

Clean Up Trip to Mutthathi : Wipro Cares : 30 Aug 2008

Sandhya Ranjit : Wipro Care and Vee Clean and Green join hands to conduct a massive clean up drive at Mutthathi on 30 Aug 2008. See the excerpts (duly edited) of the thank you note from Sandhya to members of Vee Clean and Green in the note below

From: sandhya.ranjit @ wipro Date: Sep 1, 2008 12:59 PM
Subject: thanks for making it
Hi, A big thank you to all of you for making the visit to Muthathi happen last Saturday. And a bigger thank you for the opportunity you gave us to contribute our mite to the environment.

….now that we have done it once, we will be at it on a regular basis. Wiproites enjoyed it very much and want to have more such trips.

Clean Mutthathi Trip with Honeywell : 14 Jun 2008

Number of Volunteers : 28 from Honeywell + 4 from Clean and Green

- Trip Briefing:

On Saturday, we all went by bus for a Clean and Green cleanup drive to Muthathi. We left Bangalore at about 8 am and reached Kanakapura about an hour later, and we halted for a hot breakfast at Ratna Upahara, our customary joint! The other bus with Roopa and the medical camp volunteers went independently to Alathahalli village.

Post-breakfast, we arrived in Muthathi village, and drove up to the picnic spot, where all of us alighted, and brought out the rakes, sacks and gloves. Sandeep gave all the Honeywell volunteers a short briefing about the different kinds of plastic to be picked up...bottles, plastic covers and cups, composites like Kurkure packets, and so on. He advised them not to pick up glass, to drink plenty of water, and use gloves if necessary.

The volunteers fanned out and began working with a will. Meanwhile the Range Forest Officer, Mr Kempe Gowda was invited over to the site. He came along with a few of his colleagues, and inspected the work going on. He also gave Sandeep the quotation for making boards at the picnic site. Clean and Green is glad for this support from the Forest Dept, and hope to be able to put up the signboards and place some waste bins soon.

Several visitors to the picnic spot were curious about our work. "How much are you getting for all the stuff you are collecting?" one lady asked Deepa. The concept of cleaning up the waste, and how it might affect the area if left unclean was explained to her. She looked thoughtful as she left!

It was great to see the Honeywell volunteers working so hard. Mutthathi needs as many volunteers as we can have for every clean up. All of us stopped from time to time to exchange jokes, drink water, or wash our faces...it was rather hot, dusty and sweaty work. The volunteers displayed great enthusiasm!

The work went on until about 1.30pm, when all the trash that was collected was stuffed into the HDPE bags, which were sewn up, and weighed. This was also great fun, with Sandeep asking, "how much will THIS sack weigh?" and estimates being made loudly, from 10 to 30 kg (that particular sack weighed 12 kg) We found that 31 volunteers had collected 74 kg of plastic!

All of us then got into the bus and adjourned to the Forest Department campus, where we all had a much needed wash and then had the delicious lunch which Honeywell had brought along. We also invited Mr Kempe Gowda and his colleagues to join us. Meanwhile, Sandeep had made a very valuable contact.

Mr D C Raju, a social worker who works for an NGO, and who is a member of the EDC (Environmental Development Council.) His mobile no. is 98456 02265, and his landline (residence) no is 08231 698002. He has promised to let us know, a week in advance, when the next EDC meet is going to be. Getting our foot in the door at the EDC meeting is very important for us to have a dialogue with the villagers, so this contact is really important.

So leaving some people to clear up lunch and wind up at the Forest Dept, the rest of us set off on the walk. On the way, we saw a goddess astride a tiger being taken in a procession to the river.

The road to Bheemeshwari was green and beautiful, as it meandered along the banks of the Cauvery. We had lovely view, and we really enjoyed walking along.

At the JLR camp there, we were unable to meet Lokesh,but met Mr Pampapati, and told him about the trash waiting to be collected at the usual place. Some of the volunteers had a look at the JLR property (oh, the Giant Grizzled Squirrel was very much in evidence today!) and then we all drove back contentedly to Bangalore.

All in all, the cleanup part of the day was a great success, and I got to meet several people and exchange views.

Kind of plastic collected:

The usual Bottles of Water, and other beverages, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

- Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 74 Kgs of plastic

Clean up Mutthathi with Honeywell

Week of Giving in Jun by Honeywell. The second time with Clean and Green. In tandem a Health Camp at another village in Mallavalli District.

Honeywell's CSR group joined hands with Clean and Green again to conduct a Clean up trip to Mutthathi on 14th Jun 2008.

There has been a lot of activity since Apr. Sun Micosystems Clean up at Sangama, Kiosk at HP, Presentation at Wipro and now again a cleanup with Honeywell at Mutthathi.

Medical Camp at Allathahalli : 14 Jun 2008

The Honeywell as part of their Week of Giving, on 14 Jun also organised a medical camp at a village close to Mallavalli, called Allathahalli ..

Close to 800 villagers were assembled at the school village to greet the volunteer team when the team reached at about 10am. Young, old, men, women.. educated, aware, completely unaware.. there were all of them. Waiting to pour their woes and get free medicines..

We assembled to for a bit of a "do", of lighting the lamp and soon after that school children were engaged in various competions. In the meantime, the doctors - a GP, a Gyeanec, Optho, Nuero, ENT and Dentist setup their respective consultation rooms. Each of these rooms were assigned numbers. The volunteers setup benches where the people were recieved, name, age, weight were entered in slip. The volunteers would ask the people what the primary complaint was and put the room number they had to go for consultation to.

For the very old a volunteer would lead them by hand to the room they had to meet the doctor at. Much commotion prevailed all through the day, as the weary people did not want to wait their turn. The problem was, they had assembled at 6am for the medical camp to start. Yet the volunteers tried to streamline the people/patients to some extent. This was extremely tiring but the exchanges were generally pleasant during the entire transaction.

Breaking up for lunch proved even more difficult as the patients all wanted to sure, they were examined before we left.
The wash up, the simple lunch at the caterer's house (who works on a contract basis with Honeywell), the simple hospitality, the amble back to the school made one feel very welcome in the community. Genuine respect for what the volunteer represented felt appropriate.

Time at the dispensary that was setup was very well thought out.. The recieving of the prescription, filling it out, the handing it out the correct patient, explaining the dosage, worked well, almost without hitches. The experience of setting up a mobile medical camp. the logistics involved, the coordination that takes place in the background to put together a camp of this size, which appeared effortless, was am sure an outcome of tireless work by many in Honeywell.

Clean and Green Kiosk at HP : 9th and 10th Jun 08

World Environment Week !! Here we come ! Sharing the same space as the Environment espousing giants such as WWF. Clean and Green made its presence the large cafeteria of HP in their CV Raman Nagar facility.

A small table, a few pictures a banner and a few spirited volunteers behind the desk complete the picture of the Clean and Green kiosk at HP.

With interested employees coming to the kiosk to get more information about the group, the common comment has been .. this is a wonderful initiative.

The whole exercise enabled Clean and Green to socialise its philosophy with the HP employees. Some of the enthused employees are now members on the e-group of Clean and Green

Fotos on display at the Kiosk :

Presentation at Wipro Electronics City

Mail and telephonic discussions with Wipro and we decided to do a plastic awareness presentation and on how to responsibly use and dispose plastics at each of the 15 locations of the Wipro offices. Each presentation is to be followed up with a trip to clean ..

The first of the Shrinkhala or series is set for the 30 May ...

Deepa Mohan conducted the session, at the Electronics city office .. Notes from her mail about the presentation.

I was really happy that there was a lot of questions and interaction from many members in the group after I finished speaking...and I found that many of the members of the audience were brimming with ideas, not only to partner with Clean and Green, but also about trying to make a
difference in small ways on their campus itself.

I was very happy to see that we were addressing individuals who are already pretty socially
aware.

Citizen Matter : 29 May 2008

Clean and Green has been media shy for a long time, wanting to truly make a difference than just talk about it ...

Yet when one of the key volunteers is also a regular contributor to one of the most read blog in the country / definitely in the city.. some drums to sound .. some trumpets are raised

Here is the Latest write up about Clean and Green @ Citizen Matters : Titled No Talk, Just Clean and Green by Deepa Mohan
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/209-no-talk

Sun Microsystem : 2nd Year Running

Well, what do you say when you are overwhelmed .. I guess just the trip report and allow that to speak for itself..

Yet a few noteworthy highlights ...

2nd year with Sun Microsystems and the operations are much smoother, operating on a groove. The discussion that Adarsh had with some of the shopkeepers to have them maintain the Sangam picnic spot..

Clean and Green – Trip to Clean

Date: 26 April 2008

Place: Sangam [Arkavathy and Cauvery]

Number of Volunteers that participated: 65 + 8 = 73

Trip Report:

Sun Microsystems kicked off their World Wide Volunteer Week of 2008 on 26th April from Sun office, where two buses, full of volunteers, started at 7:00 AM for a Clean up Drive. This year the location was Sangam, Confluence of Arkavathi and Kaveri rivers. 100 Kms from Bangalore under the forest, this place is one of the favorite places for picnickers.

73 people from all walks of life, Sun Employees, their family and friends, students form UVCE college, BITS Pilani and volunteers from Clean and Green participated in the trip. The team stopped for breakfast at a school campus in a village. The team reached Sangam little before 11:00 AM.

Here people formed small teams. With rakes, sticks, gunny bags and gloves in their hands volunteers were collecting and segregating plastic under 3 categories. From the stretch of the bank on both sides of Arkavati river, bringing the loads of plastic in gunny bags to the team doing stuffing, stitching, weighing and loading of these bags.

At 1:30 in afternoon the vehicle from KK Plastic Pvt Ltd., was fully loaded with the plastic. After a quick lunch all the volunteers took some rest under the trees.
Sun Microsystems, sponsored 5 dustbins for the Sangam, which we installed there a week before the trip. The tempo took the collected plastic to KK Plastics, where it will be used in the bitumen mixture for laying roads. One Bus started back at 3:00 PM. Some people stayed back to explore the Mekedattu and started back in second bus at 5:00 PM.

Highlights of the Trip:

• 5 dustbins sponsored by Sun Microsystems
• Sponsorship for 2 signboards approved by Sun Microsystems. Clean and Green needs to implement
• Discussion with local shop keeper, with one of the shop keepers suggesting that he can take on the onus of cleaning up Sangam on a regular basis for a small consideration.

Kinds of Plastic Collected: Water Bottles, Toffee Wrappers, Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, Ice-Cream cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups.

Amount of Plastic collected in volume: 226 Kg of plastic !!!!

Sponsors: The complete trip end to end was sponsored by Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems also sponsored 5 dustbins at Sangam, that was placed at site a week before the trip.

Other Expenditure : NA

Expenses Shared By: NA

Dust Bins at Sangam

As part of the Recce trip in preparation for the Sun Microsystems upcoming WWVW Clean up trip on the 26 Apr, Pradeep Singh and Anitha Majji, went on bike to check out the facilities at Sangam for a large group.

The major accomplishment on this trip has been that they coordinated the purchase of 10 cement rings, forming 5 dust bins at Kankapura, transported it to Sangama and placed it at vantage points.

This is a major accomplishment, kudos to them for making this happen with no prior plans either !!

Way to go !!

A Month in Advance : Sun Microsystems

The World Wide Volunteer Week for Sun Microsystems starts on the 26 Apr 2008, so the plan is to kick it off with a Clean up trip to Sangama [instead of Muththathi].

So the planning has already started ... with still a month to go for the event ... Gives us loads of time to figure out all the details ...

Lull Before a Flurry ?

Just a few meetings and a lot of finding out about how to progress the Greening Part ...

A sudden one to one meeting with Wipro, Honeywell sharing thoughts sometimes

Then some more meetings.. at least we are meeting sometimes.. It is not completely out of circulation

Honeywell Trip : 29 Dec 2007

Here is the usual trip report from the first activity with Honeywell... After the initial discussions with Paramesh and his team a while, this has now come up and successfully completed. Dont have any snaps from this trip ...

Anitha's injury is another thing ...

Clean and Green – Trip to Clean

Date: 29 Dec 2007

Place: Mutthatti

Number of Volunteers : 27 from Honeywell + 3 from C & G

- Trip Briefing:

Anitha joined the group at Banshankri and the Honeywell team with 2 volunteers from C & G were on the way to Mutthatti. Sandeep the other trip co-ordinator had left earlier as he was on a camping trip. Roopa had risen early to deliver the rakes to the Honeywell office,while Rakesh and Anitha had procured 30 pairs of gloves. Food, drinking water in the bus and a team of enthusiastic volunteers were speeding down the highway when a speed breaker taken at high speed levitated Anitha and her head hit the air-conditioning vent above. A cut in the scalp and probably a mild concussion was the result.

After breakfast at Kanakapura the team reached Mutthatti. Sandeep joined the group soon thereafter and after the customary briefing the volunteers were at their task. Lunch break was taken at 1.15 pm in the Forest Dept. premises.As the RFO was not at Mutthatti it took a bit of convincing to allow the guard to allow the team in but the words 'plastic' was understood and the rest was easy.

- Kind of plastic collected:

The usual Bottles of Water, and other beverages Ghutka Wrappers and other variants of it, plastic cups, plates, food content wrappers, soft drink bottles, soft drink cups. Volunteers had to go further into the picnic spot to pick up the plastic.The cement bins placed by the last clean up team were hardly used.( Education and supervision required if visitors are to made to use the bins).

- Amount of Plastic collected in volume and weight: 7 sacks weighing 55 kg was collected.

Logistics: The trip planning was done by Honeywell and Clean and Green. All the logistics of the trip was shared. Equipment for the trip was arranged by Clean and Green, transport etc was by Honeywell.

Sponsors: Honeywell sponsored the entire trip and paid for the transport, food and the gloves. Jungle Lodges supported the effort by agreeing to dispose off the waste in their jeep.

-Volunteers in action:

Some pictures.