Decoding Impact of Capacity building programs and Competitions – Case of Circular Economy Challenge 2020
Lifelong learning can be defined as a combination of all the knowledge, skills and values learnt throughout one’s life in all settings (life-wide) and this can be achieved through the various formal, informal, and non-formal modes of learning. Ekonnect Knowledge Foundation has been conducting various capacity-building programs and events on environmental management and sustainability for […]
THE 25 YEARS
This January my consulting company Environmental Management Centre Pvt. Ltd. completed 25 years! I am writing this post today to share my experience in this journey. This story telling may help young entrepreneurs entering the profession of environmental management. I left my full-time teaching position at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay to establish EMC. […]
SHOULD WE STOP THE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE PROCESS?
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been a celebrated tool, widely accepted across the world for sustainable development following a precautionary principle. But in its 50 years of existence, effectiveness of EIA has remained in question. Some believe that requirement of EIA has influenced the project concept, its siting, design and operations and they have few […]
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 4.0?
Sure, my Professor Friend was not in a good mood yesterday. For strange reasons, only known to him, he was aggressive with me asking questions that I was not comfortable to answer. Our coffee conversations began with a question. “Dr Modak, have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?” “No Professor”. I responded. I could […]
Deciphering Water Quality of the Great Ganges
Dr Prasad Modak was appointed by the Central Pollution Control Board as a consultant. I was assisting Dr Modak along with my team members Vishwa Vijaysheel and Jay Mehta The scope involved analyses, visualization and interpretation of water quality data collected through manual monitoring and automatic continuous monitoring stations. Data from eighty (80) manual and […]
Resource Efficiency: Experiences from Consulting
More than the “stick”, the “carrot” needs to be presented to the common man to create awareness and consciousness about the state of the environment. This would serve as a motivation to undertake environmentally friendly initiatives. Having hosted various workshops for factory owners and personnel, the need for waste minimization through resource efficiency is emphasized. […]
Understanding and Addressing Water Stress – A Science based Approach
Understanding water stress is particularly important to plan strategies for managing our water resources. According to Pacific Institute “Water stress” refers to the ability, or lack thereof, to meet human and ecological demand for water. Compared to scarcity, “water stress” is a more inclusive and broader concept. It considers several physical aspects related to water […]
Proactive ESIA helps in Environmentally Sound Wind Energy Development
Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy Wind energy projects neither release emissions into the air causing air pollution, nor consume large quantities of water and release effluents. Hence, they are largely considered benign of environmental impacts. However, various studies show that if wind energy facilities are located in biodiversity rich areas, especially avian, there can be […]
Selling Biodiversity on the occasion of the World Environment Day
The Finance Minister (FM) called my Professor Friend last week to come up with a solution to raise funds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. The FM also asked how can the private sector be increasingly involved, and be part of the solution and take more responsibilities rather than keep demanding packages that were impossible to […]
Have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?
Sure, my Professor Friend was not in a good mood yesterday. For strange reasons, only known to him, he was aggressive with me asking questions that I was not comfortable to answer. Our coffee conversations began with a question. “Dr Modak, have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?” “No Professor”. I responded. I could […]