Social Awareness Week at HFI - Dec '07

As a part of CSR efforts at Human Factors, we recently concluded a Social Awareness Week at our workplace. This small effort helped in giving light to some of the less-talked-about issues (especially within India) like global warming, corporate community development and other social and environmental effects.

We tried to convey the theme of "being socially aware" in every part of the campaign.
1) The paper used across the campaign was single-side printed paper that is otherwise thrown away or shredded.
2) The posters stuck in the office were made by cut-outs from old newspapers and magazines.
3) The prizes for the competetions were made by NGO's and a part of the total cost was contributed to their cause.

The award winning documentary by Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, was also showcased as a part of the event. The "Awareness Quiz" where the participants were divided into two teams turned out to be the major crowd-puller with almost 100% attendance.

Pankhudi All India Meet 3 - Dec '07

Pankhudi All India Meet 3 - Reflections

An event Pankhudi volunteers wait for, year after year, was hosted this time by Bangalore Chapter.

Pankhudi Foundation's All India Meet 2007 on child-related issues was attended by speakers, volunteers and representatives from different parts of India.

Hours of discussion sessions were followed by an overnight team outing to 'Nandi Hills' which rejuvenated the participants on the concluding day of the conference.

The Six Sins of Greenwashing

Green-wash (green'wash', -wôsh') – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.



Terrachoice - an environmental marketing firm - describes the 6 sins as:
1) Sin of Hidden Trade-off
2) Sin of No Proof
3) Sin of Vagueness
4) Sin of Irrelevance
5) Sin of Fibbing
6) Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils

Increase your Gyaan about the 6 sins ...

CII to launch CSR Rating Programme for Indian firms

Click on image to read full article.

Going Green: What can you do?

From daily smog to the rising threat of global warming, it’s pretty obvious that we all need to clean up our act a little.

Morgan Stanley releases Little Green e-Book with a daily dos-n-donts to make your life greener and help tackle climate change.

Much has been said about how to go about doing this at home, but what about in the workplace? Copiers, computers, even old floppy disks, can make a huge impact on the environment. Working Green explains 50 ways to reduce your office’s waste.

Fastcompany gives another half-a-hundred options, from the universal (catch that rainwater!) to the specific (lose the plastic bowls!).

Time to GO GREEN guys !!!

Education at Primary School in Punjab

I was amazed to see how kids are taught English language in some rural areas in India. Learning English by reciting poems in morning school assembly seems shocking.

10 ways Design can fight Climate Change

A British design firm "Thomas Matthews" has released a design manifesto (PDF) for sustainable design. It’s worth thinking about, and here`s a summary:

1. Re-think
2. Re-use
3. Use eco-friendly materials
4. Save energy
5. Share new ideas
6. Design to last
7. Stay local, buying ethical
8. Support what we believe
9. Inspire, have fun
10. Save money

Design and Responsibility

Finally after giving it a lot of thought, I plan to change the focus of my blog. With my growing interest in the social sector, I found myself reading lots of stuff in social domain and hence would like to share with you guys.

The name "Design and Responsibility" comes from my intimate affair with Design and passion to work in Social Responsibility domain.

Hope you find the forthcoming posts interesting and thought provoking :)