This article was sponsored by Wingify Earth.  Someone once said that “One man’s trash is another’s treasure,” and setting yet another example of how, is the Kerala government undertaking Autokast Ltd, a ferrous foundry manufacturing unit.  As per a 2021 report by The Hindu, the company generates 700 tonnes of foundry waste sand every month. They have innovated a technique that will help convert sand into bricks that can be used by the construction sector. This was developed by the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) at Pappanamcode in Thiruvan ..read more

This article has been sponsored by Wingify Earth. When Tarun Jami, a civil engineer, was driving around in the national capital during a trip in 2019, he says he “almost crashed the car due to smog and low visibility”. “I even felt affected health-wise,” he recounts, adding that when he probed into the deteriorating air quality in Delhi, he was astounded at the statistics. “Stubble burning contributed to 44 per cent of Delhi’s poor air quality,” he says. Hence, Tarun decided to take it in his stride and do something about this problem. Today, his company GreenJams, founded in 2017 in Vishakhap ..read more

Every year the Delhi-NCR region is covered in smog due to the burning of stubble in winter. But an invention by an engineer named Shubham Singh not only deploys farm waste in the process but also provides a homegrown alternative to wood, which is imported in massive amounts from Malaysia, New Zealand and China. This machine uses farm waste as the raw material, thus saving trees, and reducing air pollution. Shubham’s startup Craste provides farmers with a secondary income and tries to match India’s huge demand for wood. Find out the unique technology that his machine operates on here: Shubham ..read more

Welcome to the 21st year of the 21st century, where many businesses and individuals are focusing on operating buildings in an eco-friendly manner by using solar energy or reducing water usage through Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) systems. However, only a few are focused on following sustainable construction practices. According to reports, construction amounts to 30 per cent of air pollution in India But, an eight-month-old Chikmagalur-based Sunyata Hotel is a building that has both — sustainable construction while its residents also use eco-friendly practices. Spread across 6,000 square feet, th ..read more

Listen to the twitter of birds, enjoy the flutter of myriad coloured butterflies and maybe, if you are lucky, see streaking tiny lights of fireflies at night — all without leaving the city. Residential, corporates, hospitals and complexes are being constructed with trees growing on their walls, balconies and rooftops. These aren’t small potted plants of herbs, flowers or shrubs grown in small balconies, terraces or rooftop gardens. They are vertical forests — trees growing up to three, six or even 20 feet, on 20 to 30 or higher storeyed buildings. The number of trees exceeds 200 to sometimes 9 ..read more

It was a conference that made Parameswaran Krishna Iyer realise his calling in life — to be an advocate of bamboo in India. In 1998, a young Parameswaran was the caretaker of an apartment in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, drawing a meagre salary. One day, a resident businessman requested him to arrange for a few hanging lamps to go with the ‘jungle’ theme of a conference he was organising at the Kovalam beach. But after a quick look, he found that no shop in the city made furniture out of bamboo. He then spotted an ongoing Onam exhibition where one of the stalls was dedicated to bamboo artefacts ..read more

A study published in 2019 suggests that India is one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. However, the same study also says that over 63 million people did not have access to adequate housing facilities. While many live in temporary houses such as straw huts or shanties, others live in discarded shipping containers that are not suitable for warm weather conditions. This forces them to have to continuously relocate or rebuild their homes. To address this issue, Perala Manasa Reddy (23) a resident of Bommakal village, Telangana has innovated Hong Kong’s ‘OPods’ in India. ‘OPod Tube Hou ..read more

Binish Desai is a Gujarat-based innovator popularly known as the Recycle Man of India. He is the founder of the company BDream which is focused on designing technologies to recycle industrial waste to make sustainable building material. After his earlier innovation, P-Block bricks, that were made from waste produced in paper mills, he has come up with another similar product — P-Block 2.0. The difference is that these bricks are made from COVID-19-related biomedical waste. According to a report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in the National Green Tribunal, India generates about ..read more

The Charminar is one of the most magnificent monuments in the country. Synonymous with the city of Hyderabad, it is a local and national treasure. Built in 1591 by Mohammad Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutub Shahi dynasty and also the founder of the Hyderabad, the structure, which has been standing tall for nearly four centuries, was constructed at the intersection of the trade route that connects the markets of Golkonda with the port city of Machilipatnam. The Charminar is known for its stucco decorations and arrangement of balustrades and balconies. The floral designs are varied a ..read more

MS Sunil, a retired professor, has done remarkable work to help the homeless in her district of Pathanamthitta Kerala, an area where extravagant houses mark the divide between the rich and the poor. When she found out that one of her students was suffering from the lack of proper shelter, she was motivated to do something about it. It is now her life’s mission to give poor families a roof over their heads. Find out how she managed to create 78 homes for the underprivileged in the last 11 years here! Featured image courtesy: Flickr/Emmanuel Dyan Like this story? Or have something to share? Wri ..read more