Working with communities in rural India has multiple approaches. It gives some major learning to both organizations and communities while implementing sustainable work on the ground and to all endeavors aimed at bringing about a sustainable transformation in the lives of our rural residents and make good add in environment change. Currently, our large percentage of the rural population is struggling for basics like water, good health and sanitation, their family incomes and chances of getting new livelihood opportunities are very meager.

There are many organizations in the industry who are experts in generating the best outfit with the least use of resources and are supporting rural communities to follow sustainable farming, manufacturing process in daily life to generate income.

Sweccha: As part of the United Nation’s Sustainable Lifestyle and Education Programme, Swechha in collaboration with the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan is implementing a year long low carbon lifestyles project in India. The project aims to collate country specific comprehensive list of behaviour changes for a low carbon lifestyles options in terms of food, housing, mobility, manufacturing goods and leisure. The project conducts participatory research through citizen workshops and surveys. It also collects data to estimate the average carbon footprint of individuals. Eventually, the project will evaluate mitigation impacts if these lifestyle changes were adopted by the residents of India, give policy recommendations and carry out communication campaigns to encourage citizens to take actions.

Fiinovation – A leading chemical manufacturing company partnered with Fiinovation to initiate their CSR Programme under the thematic area ‘Income Generation Program through Sustainable Agriculture’ among the farmers in Rayagada district of Odisha. This intervention was designed to provide training on cost-effective and sustainable agricultural practices, utilising an optimum amount of water, energy and  labour resources. The project provided skilling of over 1300 farmers by providing them with hands-on training on the functioning of seed drillers, sowing methods, insect and pest management, judicious use of farm inputs and other extended services for a period of two years. Fiinovation was also responsible for conducting independent monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of the project to ensure the success of the proposed CSR programme. After the successful completion of the first phase of the project, it was extended for next two years with the focus on sustainability of the initiative.

Institute for Sustainable Communities – Since 1991, the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) has led more than 115 transformative community-driven sustainability projects in 30 countries including the United States, China, India, and Bangladesh. The Institute for Sustainable Communities is working to promote water stewardship amongst cotton growing farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh as part of the USAID- Gap Inc supported Women + Water Alliance. Engaging over 3000 farmers across the region, ISC and implementation partners are reducing the environmental footprint of cotton cultivation, enhancing the sustainability of water resources and empowering women to enhance their role in sustainable farming.

Danone India – Danone India’s efforts towards a positive change stem from a philosophy that the health of the planet and the health of the people living inside of it are intrinsically linked. This forms the crux of its larger initiative called One Planet One Health (OPOH). Driven by the overarching philosophy of water conservation, Danone India has not only reduced water consumption by 50% at its production site over the last 5 years but has also installed rainwater harvesting systems in its factory. These steps ensure both preservation and optimum utilization of the valuable natural resource. One such example is the factory in Lalru, Punjab.