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Sierra Club award for Tilonia college, Ecosphere Spiti

JAIPUR: The Sierra Club has announced its first Green Energy and Green Livelihoods Achievement Award for India jointly to Barefoot College, Tilonia, Rajasthan, and Ecosphere Spiti, in Himachal Pradesh.

The new award recognises community initiatives to promote green economic development, adaptation of renewable energy alternatives and organisational leadership in a grassroots environmental campaign.

Each of the recipients would get a cash prize of $ 40,000 and a trophy, to be presented at a ceremony in Mumbai on July 30. The award represents Sierra Club’s growing interest in building international partnerships to address climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Established way back in 1892 by John Muir – a Scottish-born inventor, writer and conservationist -- the Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organisation in the US with chapters in all 50 states of the country, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and also in Canada since 1963.

The Barefoot College or the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC, Tilonia) in Rajasthan led by the renowned social entrepreneur Bunker Roy gets the award for its application of practical, traditional, knowledge and community-owned sustainable technology for the poor residents of the desert State. Ecosphere Spiti, from mountainous Himachal Pradesh, gets the award for its creation of sustainable livelihoods linked to conservation and eco-tourism.

“We believe that much of the important energy and environmental work happening now in India has exciting applications in the US. Bunker Roy’s amazing record of teaching a community’s most disadvantaged members to become solar engineers is a prime example. We are not the first, and we will not be the last, to recognise this astonishingly scalable and replicable model for creating green livelihoods,” said Sierra Club International Programs director Stephen Mills about the Barefoot College.

“We are delighted, honoured and humbled by this award,” said Bunker Roy. “The recognition is to Mahatma Gandhi, ‘The Last Man’, who has shown the simple way of how to respect the Earth.”

Praising Ecosphere Spiti, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope said, “We set out on this path more than a century ago by promoting conservation awareness through mountain outings in the US. We are delighted to recognise Ecosphere Spiti because it clearly shares our own ideals for protecting a nation’s cultural and natural heritage for future generations.”

“It is a great honour for Ecosphere to be the joint recipient of the Sierra Award alongside the likes of Barefoot College,” said Ecosphere Spiti president Ishita Khanna. “We are extremely thrilled and pleased since this is the first time the Sierra Club has instituted an award of this nature in India,” she added.

The 117-year-old Sierra Club, best known for its dual focus of outdoor adventure and civic engagement, has also announced a unique association with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) based in Gujarat.

The groups will explore SEWA’ s social and economic development programmes as an avenue for informing Americans about the challenges associated with climate change adaptation in India.

SEWA will receive a $20,000 gift from the Sierra Club for its celebrated service to its network of underprivileged working women.

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