Green auditing seems slowly catching up on campuses in the city.
An initiative aimed at setting environmental examples for the community, green auditing helps the educational institutions educate the youth about the need to protect the environment.
St. Paul’s College has initiated several steps after completing a green auditing on its campus at Kalamassery. “We have set up solar panels and introduced programmes to make our campus green and eco-friendly. Bio-gas plant and a water reservoir were the other steps taken on the basis of the recommendations included in the green auditing,” said Reena J. Andrews, co-ordinator of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell of St. Paul’s College.
C. M. Joy, noted environmentalist, said that green auditing enables a college to reduce waste, introduce waste recycling and promote environmental awareness among the stakeholders. “Auditing is mainly done in the areas of waste and energy management, hazardous materials, green campus management and to assess the carbon footprint,” he said. Sr. Vinitha, Director of St. Teresa’s College, pointed that the green auditing is progressing on the campus.
“We hope that it would help us in evolving a benchmark for environmental protection initiatives. Colleges could also promote financial savings through reduction of resource use. It will also develop an environmental ethic and provide teachers and students with better understanding of the green impact on campus,” she said.
Dr. Joy said that the baseline data emerging out of the green auditing would help in campus greening, resource management, planning of future projects. “It will be a document for implementation of sustainable development of the college,” he said.
