In the corporate world, the terms ‘business’ and ‘profits’ are synonymous. But can a business be run without profit as its sole motive? Hard to imagine but, apparently, it is possible. The workshop held on renewable energy on 21 July 2012 gave insights on aspects such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘social enterprise’.
The workshop was conducted by SELCO, a social enterprise established in 1995, which aims at “providing sustainable energy solutions and services to under-served households and businesses”.
It is rather interesting to note that sustainability is not just a textual concept, but also one applicable to our daily lives. The simple act of replacing bulbs with CFL lights saves energy up to 85 watts.
It is this saved energy which can provide lighting to thousands of homes, because every watt saved is every watt earned. SELCO provides lighting in houses through solar energy. Small-scale vendors like fruit sellers and hawkers are seeing better days, as the energy efficient solar energy bulbs enable them to do business even after sunset.
Through this workshop, the “sustainable energy challenge” was presented to the Christites, where we are encouraged to give ideas regarding usage of renewable energy. Financial sustainability and energy efficiency are the keys to overcoming this challenge. The winner of this challenge gets an opportunity to implement the idea.
The workshop was indeed an eye opener for us. Dr. H Harish Hande, the founder of SELCO rightly stated that our lives are a hundred meter race and some of us have started at fifty meters, while there are some who are still standing at minus fifty, waiting to be rescued. The time to act is now. It is through these small acts of concern that we can weave a better and brighter future.
-Priyanka Chakraborty, I PSEng
csablog.christuniversity.in 