World Environment Day is celebrated every year on 5th June to raise global awareness about the deterioration conditions of the planet Earth and the need to take positive environmental action to protect it. This day highlights the importance of our environment and the need to preserve the environment for the generations to come. As it is well renowned that “We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children”. With the worsening environmental conditions, there arises a dire need to ensure appropriate measures to safeguard it. World Environment Day aims at collectively addressing the needs of our Mother Earth and seek ways on how to save the environment.
Akshaya Patra, one of the leading Non-Profit organizations firmly believes in fulfilling its responsibilities towards the environment. According to the organization it is imperative to undertake this task as the 7.4 billion people inhabiting this planet has only one thing in common and i.e. our home. Every individual’s actions have profound implications on the environment, however minor or major. Mankind’s practices like hyper-consumerism, environmental pollution, tremendous industrialisation, and throwaway culture has caused environmental degradation that is only augmenting with time. To address this issue, Akshaya Patra, has adopted eco-friendly methods to implement its Mid-Day Meal Programme like the new organic waste to biogas systems in its Ballari and Vasanthapura kitchens. The biogas plants help in eco-friendly handling of food wastages of approximately 20 metric tonne every month. Other methods include the solar plant installed in the Vasanthapura kitchen which runs with the use of photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert sunlight to direct electricity, the Biomass Briquette which helps in conserving the much depleting non-renewable sources of energy like coal and the Effluent Treatment Plants that help in scientific handling, disposal and recycling of runoffs and kitchens wastes thereby preventing environmental pollution.