[Music]
the theme of sustainability and
environment conservation is something
which has really consumed me ever since
I was a teenager this definition may not
be a password today but back in 1987
1988 this was really a buzzword and it
influenced me a lot during the period of
1988 and 1990 I was almost consuming
every piece of environmental literature
the Brundtland report water protocol and
everything and all of them saved my life
and I made it a point that I’ll make my
life and in my conservation for some
reason cities became the pivot of all my
work and that’s what I’m going to be
speaking about and the whole idea about
how we can make sustainable cities how
we can reduce their back on the ecology
on the planet and at the same time how
they can give great quality of life
everybody was staying in them as really
being the center of a lot of my work and
a lot of time when we talk about
sustainability or preserving the planet
it’s very scary it almost seems that our
lifestyles and saving the planet isn’t
compatible and in a lot of ways possibly
it is but what I’m going to touch in my
presentation is that there’s so many
things which we can do which can make US
cities more sustainable and in the
process we can make great quality of
life for all of us
so in 1991 I was 16 years old and I
remember tracking my father to the World
Wide Fund office at 4:00 in Mumbai to
become a student member of Google Earth
and right early on I got exposed to this
very powerful phrase think globally act
locally and shaped my life completely to
that time I was growing up on David
Attenborough Jobs who stole a terrific
magazine battousai girl sanctuary all
the headline-grabbing big admirer
campaigns the amazon forest elephants
tigers everything but suddenly this
phrase made a lot of sense if you really
got to make a difference to Tigers to
the forest a lot of things a lot of work
has to begin with what happens in our
immediate community and our area of
influence and so it’s been think local
act local
ever since and I will be sharing some of
my work and I hope it inspires you and
motivates you could do your bit for the
community and for the cities you live in
so this is where I began my activism
from from saving this lake this is a
lake in Loganville complex on the west
eight acres of solitude fifty births as
residents I’ve been going there since
1994 but in 1999 the local municipal
corporation office issued orders to a
contractor to fill it up at carpet and
everything most probably legal hutment
settlements were to come up I noticed it
just in the nick of time and over to
month campaign which involved me doing
just about everything I was a 24 year
old that time preparing for my
management exams my mother thought I’d
be migrating to America soon but little
did she know what’s coming solo over a
two minute two-month campaign I student
amount of brats heckled with people’s
longing made impromptu placards visited
multiple offices just about everything
that was my first taste of governance
and interacting with the government but
we managed to save this lake and it is
still there today and I really invite
you guys to come there for a visit so
from there it went just from strength to
strength and this is the lake again
another view and in 2001 what you see
what there is a lake and the mangroves
next to it a 50 acre plot of mangroves
came under danger from another local
developers again I happen to notice a
ten-time and thanks to mr. Beeney Aman
lah who was the secretary environment
that time I think in a matter of a week
we were able to stop all the debris
campaign and that beautiful patch of
mango still exists and that was the
first time that I got quoted in The
Times of India and that was a big hike
that time I was 26 years old and things
went from strength to strength and I
ended up saving almost 300 acres of
mangroves in the immediate vicinity so
these are the mangroves some of them
that you see and some that you don’t see
and mind you this was not the you know
of social media you couldn’t attack
people on Facebook as cell phones were
not that much email very little you were
operating on facts and actually going to
people and calling up on landline so it
was a very difficult time and also the
mangroves are under big fat and
developers but we managed to see if
almost 300 acres locally what you see in
this picture this flattened ground is
both a tragedy and a success between 98
and 2001 almost 2002 one of the other
developers flattened 500 acres of land
ruefully gali to build a proposed golf
course and a Township again in June 2001
I noticed it brought to the notice of
the city and were period of one year
with active collaboration and so much of
hard work in difficulty from each other
who shocked parents enjoyed manga and
the wonderful residents of Milan are
going to be managed to have that
commission revoked so this plot of land
remains like that we don’t know what’s
going to happen with it but at least
they could make a golf course over there
a lot of people hate me for that but
that’s a separate story and we won’t get
into that
so including my friends who play golf so
and now I’d like to speak to you about
another part of my life which is working
with solid waste management what you see
over here is a big huge garbage dump
historical picture of a dumping ground
and this is really the flip side of my
work on saving macros because
historically speaking if you look at
Xavier in truly karai and right now
modern cancer and they are all our
garbage dumps are situated on beautiful
mangrove patches you can see the remove
mangroves around this garbage down and
this is not just a case of Moo Mike this
is the case of all over India we just
don’t seem to manage ways to be just
picking it up and dumping all over India
1.5 lakh tonnes of waste is generated
every day we not have enough space
enough dumping on space ever so it’s
time we stop dumping waste and started
managing it this is the pamphlet which I
first laid my hands on 1994 this was
developed by Shanthi option has a rich
interaction I he was a big influence on
my life he was one of the most
knowledgeable people I knew
sustainability toxicity and waste
management and since then
segregation of waste at stores has been
really a message which I’ve been taking
across the city and the country just a
simple habit of keeping to dust bins or
three or four husbands whatever your
motivation is and segregating waste at
source not mixing it can just cause so
much of difference to the planet to the
environment and yet we don’t do it this
is the project which I did last year for
a city called Ambala and haryana
business peaceful one month we could
transform the whole basic election
process from mixed to segregated this is
a building in load per L marathon era
Jan broker fastidiously works with 225
families not a single kilogram waste
goes to the dumping grounds they convert
all of their waste using this tumbler
and to sweet-smelling compost every
building can do it this absolutely no
excuse why any organic red food waste
should go to a dumping ground and all
that is try can go for recycling
suddenly you will have no need for
dumping grounds at all this is a project
which I am working at home a
sustainability Center this is my
colleague Namita who’s visualizing this
we are trying to on a map of Mumbai plot
every building which is doing composting
instead of a boring spreadsheet suddenly
you have a very active visualization I
hope you’re going to be featuring here
very soon so now I’ll speak about liquid
waste management that was solid sewage
we dumping almost thousand litres of
untreated sewage into Mumbai sees every
day one of the most polluted in the
world and yet solutions exist what you
see on the right hand side is dirty
smelling sewage everything which comes
from your toilet bathroom kitchens and
that seems which has we converted into
drinking water using absolutely
eco-friendly techniques just imagine if
every building in Mumbai
instead of giving out dark black sewage
was giving out such clear water suddenly
the sea would be sparkling and it’s all
possible it’s not
this is proximity in Culina on the left
he showing me three months back the
constructed wetland my friend ha-meidan
are eagerly invited me 1 million liters
of a liquor muslim university’s sewage
is treated using this and those beakers
that showed you from here so technology
success is not the only process now i
would like to touch another topic which
is very close to my heart which is
making our cities walking friendly it
really pains me and angers me the way we
treat pedestrians on
dear streets and roads it almost seems
that we are far more in love with
automobile than the country where it was
invented and it’s it’s painful to see
what the pedestrians have to go through
this is an industrial area and a East
and we just don’t seem to be caring
enough and forget sustainability forget
the planet but these are basic things
and the whole idea and that is why I
started something called as walking
project in the year 2012 and we’ve been
trying to work ever since work with
nodes for corporations and everything
exists the designs are there the urban
designers architects everything is there
but this is a photograph from Vienna
Roman Road in South Mumbai and it’s a
pleasure walking on this road and I
think it is high time that we started
focusing on making us it he’s walking
friendly for public health for the
planet imagine millions of trips which
are one kilometer or two kilometer in
nature will suddenly shift to walking if
walking was from so that’s that’s my
message again that let’s work together
in a community and work on improving
walkability in the end I would just like
to leave you with this pleasant picture
and this is the park which I visited 10
days back in New Delhi and you open the
park so does not say and I’m reading by
all of you to visit this I think it’s
high time that we all started having an
attitude of positivity towards in
densities I worked with a lot of people
and there is a general sense of cynicism
and negativity that you just cannot do
anything but I feel a lot can be done
and I think we can make experience of
living in a city is a pleasant one and
not a jarring one and we owe it to
ourselves because in the next decade or
so maybe two decades 50 percent of India
will be living in cities and we’ve not
done a good job in the past 10 to 80
years but it’s never too late if you
just change your attitude possibly we
might have some of the best cities to
live in in the world scale so that’s it
thank you very much
you [Applause]
the theme of sustainability and
environment conservation is something
which has really consumed me ever since
I was a teenager this definition may not
be a password today but back in 1987
1988 this was really a buzzword and it
influenced me a lot during the period of
1988 and 1990 I was almost consuming
every piece of environmental literature
the Brundtland report water protocol and
everything and all of them saved my life
and I made it a point that I’ll make my
life and in my conservation for some
reason cities became the pivot of all my
work and that’s what I’m going to be
speaking about and the whole idea about
how we can make sustainable cities how
we can reduce their back on the ecology
on the planet and at the same time how
they can give great quality of life
everybody was staying in them as really
being the center of a lot of my work and
a lot of time when we talk about
sustainability or preserving the planet
it’s very scary it almost seems that our
lifestyles and saving the planet isn’t
compatible and in a lot of ways possibly
it is but what I’m going to touch in my
presentation is that there’s so many
things which we can do which can make US
cities more sustainable and in the
process we can make great quality of
life for all of us
so in 1991 I was 16 years old and I
remember tracking my father to the World
Wide Fund office at 4:00 in Mumbai to
become a student member of Google Earth
and right early on I got exposed to this
very powerful phrase think globally act
locally and shaped my life completely to
that time I was growing up on David
Attenborough Jobs who stole a terrific
magazine battousai girl sanctuary all
the headline-grabbing big admirer
campaigns the amazon forest elephants
tigers everything but suddenly this
phrase made a lot of sense if you really
got to make a difference to Tigers to
the forest a lot of things a lot of work
has to begin with what happens in our
immediate community and our area of
influence and so it’s been think local
act local
ever since and I will be sharing some of
my work and I hope it inspires you and
motivates you could do your bit for the
community and for the cities you live in
so this is where I began my activism
from from saving this lake this is a
lake in Loganville complex on the west
eight acres of solitude fifty births as
residents I’ve been going there since
1994 but in 1999 the local municipal
corporation office issued orders to a
contractor to fill it up at carpet and
everything most probably legal hutment
settlements were to come up I noticed it
just in the nick of time and over to
month campaign which involved me doing
just about everything I was a 24 year
old that time preparing for my
management exams my mother thought I’d
be migrating to America soon but little
did she know what’s coming solo over a
two minute two-month campaign I student
amount of brats heckled with people’s
longing made impromptu placards visited
multiple offices just about everything
that was my first taste of governance
and interacting with the government but
we managed to save this lake and it is
still there today and I really invite
you guys to come there for a visit so
from there it went just from strength to
strength and this is the lake again
another view and in 2001 what you see
what there is a lake and the mangroves
next to it a 50 acre plot of mangroves
came under danger from another local
developers again I happen to notice a
ten-time and thanks to mr. Beeney Aman
lah who was the secretary environment
that time I think in a matter of a week
we were able to stop all the debris
campaign and that beautiful patch of
mango still exists and that was the
first time that I got quoted in The
Times of India and that was a big hike
that time I was 26 years old and things
went from strength to strength and I
ended up saving almost 300 acres of
mangroves in the immediate vicinity so
these are the mangroves some of them
that you see and some that you don’t see
and mind you this was not the you know
of social media you couldn’t attack
people on Facebook as cell phones were
not that much email very little you were
operating on facts and actually going to
people and calling up on landline so it
was a very difficult time and also the
mangroves are under big fat and
developers but we managed to see if
almost 300 acres locally what you see in
this picture this flattened ground is
both a tragedy and a success between 98
and 2001 almost 2002 one of the other
developers flattened 500 acres of land
ruefully gali to build a proposed golf
course and a Township again in June 2001
I noticed it brought to the notice of
the city and were period of one year
with active collaboration and so much of
hard work in difficulty from each other
who shocked parents enjoyed manga and
the wonderful residents of Milan are
going to be managed to have that
commission revoked so this plot of land
remains like that we don’t know what’s
going to happen with it but at least
they could make a golf course over there
a lot of people hate me for that but
that’s a separate story and we won’t get
into that
so including my friends who play golf so
and now I’d like to speak to you about
another part of my life which is working
with solid waste management what you see
over here is a big huge garbage dump
historical picture of a dumping ground
and this is really the flip side of my
work on saving macros because
historically speaking if you look at
Xavier in truly karai and right now
modern cancer and they are all our
garbage dumps are situated on beautiful
mangrove patches you can see the remove
mangroves around this garbage down and
this is not just a case of Moo Mike this
is the case of all over India we just
don’t seem to manage ways to be just
picking it up and dumping all over India
1.5 lakh tonnes of waste is generated
every day we not have enough space
enough dumping on space ever so it’s
time we stop dumping waste and started
managing it this is the pamphlet which I
first laid my hands on 1994 this was
developed by Shanthi option has a rich
interaction I he was a big influence on
my life he was one of the most
knowledgeable people I knew
sustainability toxicity and waste
management and since then
segregation of waste at stores has been
really a message which I’ve been taking
across the city and the country just a
simple habit of keeping to dust bins or
three or four husbands whatever your
motivation is and segregating waste at
source not mixing it can just cause so
much of difference to the planet to the
environment and yet we don’t do it this
is the project which I did last year for
a city called Ambala and haryana
business peaceful one month we could
transform the whole basic election
process from mixed to segregated this is
a building in load per L marathon era
Jan broker fastidiously works with 225
families not a single kilogram waste
goes to the dumping grounds they convert
all of their waste using this tumbler
and to sweet-smelling compost every
building can do it this absolutely no
excuse why any organic red food waste
should go to a dumping ground and all
that is try can go for recycling
suddenly you will have no need for
dumping grounds at all this is a project
which I am working at home a
sustainability Center this is my
colleague Namita who’s visualizing this
we are trying to on a map of Mumbai plot
every building which is doing composting
instead of a boring spreadsheet suddenly
you have a very active visualization I
hope you’re going to be featuring here
very soon so now I’ll speak about liquid
waste management that was solid sewage
we dumping almost thousand litres of
untreated sewage into Mumbai sees every
day one of the most polluted in the
world and yet solutions exist what you
see on the right hand side is dirty
smelling sewage everything which comes
from your toilet bathroom kitchens and
that seems which has we converted into
drinking water using absolutely
eco-friendly techniques just imagine if
every building in Mumbai
instead of giving out dark black sewage
was giving out such clear water suddenly
the sea would be sparkling and it’s all
possible it’s not
this is proximity in Culina on the left
he showing me three months back the
constructed wetland my friend ha-meidan
are eagerly invited me 1 million liters
of a liquor muslim university’s sewage
is treated using this and those beakers
that showed you from here so technology
success is not the only process now i
would like to touch another topic which
is very close to my heart which is
making our cities walking friendly it
really pains me and angers me the way we
treat pedestrians on
dear streets and roads it almost seems
that we are far more in love with
automobile than the country where it was
invented and it’s it’s painful to see
what the pedestrians have to go through
this is an industrial area and a East
and we just don’t seem to be caring
enough and forget sustainability forget
the planet but these are basic things
and the whole idea and that is why I
started something called as walking
project in the year 2012 and we’ve been
trying to work ever since work with
nodes for corporations and everything
exists the designs are there the urban
designers architects everything is there
but this is a photograph from Vienna
Roman Road in South Mumbai and it’s a
pleasure walking on this road and I
think it is high time that we started
focusing on making us it he’s walking
friendly for public health for the
planet imagine millions of trips which
are one kilometer or two kilometer in
nature will suddenly shift to walking if
walking was from so that’s that’s my
message again that let’s work together
in a community and work on improving
walkability in the end I would just like
to leave you with this pleasant picture
and this is the park which I visited 10
days back in New Delhi and you open the
park so does not say and I’m reading by
all of you to visit this I think it’s
high time that we all started having an
attitude of positivity towards in
densities I worked with a lot of people
and there is a general sense of cynicism
and negativity that you just cannot do
anything but I feel a lot can be done
and I think we can make experience of
living in a city is a pleasant one and
not a jarring one and we owe it to
ourselves because in the next decade or
so maybe two decades 50 percent of India
will be living in cities and we’ve not
done a good job in the past 10 to 80
years but it’s never too late if you
just change your attitude possibly we
might have some of the best cities to
live in in the world scale so that’s it
thank you very much
you [Applause]
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