In the massive halls of the COP 15, among the milling crowds, was the heavily built and affable Hitesh Sharma, 25, working as a market analyst for the Product Engineering unit at Infosys, Bangalore.
Generating debate
Asked what he was doing at COP15, he explained, “I am the member of the DC Management Council based at Infosys, Bangalore as its ‘Voice of Youth' representative. Voice of Youth is an initiative in Infosys which gathers together a group of top-performing 20-somethings and gives them a seat on the company's management council. Members of all ages are expected to ‘debate, discuss, and critique' any and all aspects of the business.”
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So what made him go green in such a big way? “Two years ago my dad and I were debating on where humans must draw the line between need and greed. He told me a story of a man stranded thirsty in the desert who comes across a borewell with a bucket of water and a note. The note forbade him to drink the water; instead use it to recharge the borewell. He did what the note told him and wrote below the note ‘It really works!' Not only did he get water to drink, he could share it around as well.”
Get over greed
“That is what is required in the world today. We make decisions for posterity for everyone; not just ourselves. That touched me and made me meet with the head of my company Management Council who was generous enough to let me set up Green Connect.”
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Hitesh is the founder of Green Connect, an environment sustainability initiative at Infosys with nearly 712 active volunteers. Green Connect initiates green initiatives including car pooling, tree planting and setting up of a biogas plant on and off the campus.
At home Hitesh says, “Plastic bags are a strict no-no and all food and wet waste is turned into vermi-compost.” Hitesh has moved out of the city and nearer his work spot so he walks to work rather than commute from the city. He is also a pure vegetarian by choice “and of course I do the done things like switching off lights and not wasting water,” he says.
Green seems to be the new mantra among the youth in the city - a mantra which needs to spread for us to cut back voluntarily on green house gas emissions and reduce our carbon footprint.