In the words of Jochen Zeitz “Sustainability is no longer about doing no harm, it is about doing more good”. As an institution, the Cambridge Institute of Technology stresses enough the need for following a sustainable approach backed by science and technology. Over the past few decades, India has had 3500 engineering colleges out of which 70 prominent and nameworthy institutions are in Bangalore. Cambridge Institute of Technology, situated in Bangalore is one of the pioneers in pushing the narrative of sustainability amongst higher education institutions in the state as well as the country on the whole. As an institution on the whole from ardent educationists to students, CIT strongly believes that sustainable development as an approach will not hold good in reality until it has been educated, inspired, and experienced by students in their own university premises. It is essential for every school, college, and university to not only teach students to live sustainably, but they must also provide environments that promote a similar approach in their campus.
Every year, the National Science Day is celebrated on the 28th of February and it reminds us to commemorate the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’, which was given by the renowned scientist Sir. CV Raman. This year Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State Science and Technology launched the theme ‘Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future’. He speaks about a four-fold approach that consists of integration and collaboration of scientific, engineering, medical, and other institutions. He also spoke about driving science and technology across all startups and industries and scientific integration across all ministries of the country. It is important for every individual to follow an inclusive approach in order to reach the path of sustainability. With the growing climatic change and environmental crisis that is being posed to society, it is time for us to take it as a reminder to work in an integrative manner and create a sustainable life for us and all our fellow humans on this planet. He also added that institutions must open up arenas and organize open house laboratories and appraise students about sustaining the spirit of creating a livelihood that is sustainable to one and all.
Cambridge Institute of Technology is a major advocate of creating a sustainable environment for the society that we live in. As an institution, they take great pride in saying that they are indeed dedicated and committed to leading the path of sustainability through their distinctive, scientific, and technological approach. Sustainability is one of the prime values of the institution. They are highly skewed towards creating, expanding, investing, educating, and inspiring sustainable solutions through their unique groundbreaking scientific and technological strategies. CIT’s sustainable strategy ensures that it creates value, not for their student community and faculty inside their organization, but the strategy is framed to bring about sustainability to all other actors in and out of the institution. They have inclined their focus and are carving a path towards sustainable development while keeping alongside the responsibilities they have to deliver to the educational space and provide value-added services to the community we all are a part of.
Cambridge Institute of Technology strongly believes that there is no point in educating students unless the campus itself promotes sustainability in every possible aspect. They have started working towards creating a sustainable environment in-house through their key priorities. In light of the Sustainable Development Goals of 2030, they have created three major projects, which are spearheading the road to the sustainability inside the premises of their very own campus. Let’s take a look at how Cambridge Institute of Technology has made its campus a much more sustainable environment.
- Rainwater Harvesting – Rainwater Harvesting is often called to be the most traditional easy method to achieve sustainability. At Cambridge Institute of Technology, they have focused on using the rainwater harvesting method to effectively harvest the water of the roofs and increase groundwater retention. The rainwater harvesting project was one of the earliest created Community Social Impact projects at CIT. With the fluctuating low water levels in the city, starting a water resorting initiative made much more sense for the institution as a whole. Through a science-backed infiltration procedure, the rainwater harvesting project has led to the creation of freshwater resources that are available on the campus. Overall, 21% of the total water requirement of the institution is met through the rainwater harvesting project.
- Leaf Composting – Long gone are the times when we called Bangalore, the Garden City. Though it still has its fair share of flora and fauna, they are not well treated. There is a huge quantity of withered flowers and dry leaves which are either burnt or mixed with regular waste. This causes a lot of harm rather than a benefit to the environment we live in. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals 13 & 15 which stands for Climate Action and Life On Land, they introduced a leaf composting project under the wing of CIT’s Community Social Impact. Through the leaf composting project, they have installed leaf composting plants around the area of the campus and ensure that all the dry leaves and flowers can be composed without the generation of any other waste. This has indeed turned out to be a highly cost-effective solution to reduce waste and turned into an asset for the institution.
- Zero Waste Campus – The most interesting and yet highly sustainable project that was birthed inside the vicinity of the campus was in creating a completely zero-waste campus. The city of Bengaluru produces massive tonnes of waste that is not being disposed of in the right manner. In order to bring a solution to this problem, Cambridge Institute of Technology partnered with Vedan, an NGO, and created a zero-waste campus in just three months. Upon curating a set of practices and techniques waste segregation, waste management, and waste disposal inside the premises are now done in a well-planned and eco-friendly manner.
In addition to the above-mentioned key projects, CIT also houses several other sustainable projects and conducts multiple activities revolving around the theme of sustainability and sustainable change.
CIT is in engagement with multiple MSMEs and startup companies and has initiated the process of Product Upcycling through Innovation Harvesting. Under this process, the students of CIT get a briefing on the products developed by companies and the technologies involved. There are several successful products that are developed by students under CIT. Some of the products that are developed under the product upcycling process include a real-time virtual lab, anesthesia monitoring unit, portable preeclampsia monitoring unit, underwater drones, cow health monitoring unit, to name a few. Cambridge Institute of Technology considers product upcycling as one of its most successful sustainable projects. CIT also strongly recommends universities closely work with industries in broadcasting this model so as to benefit society and create a deep impact on the student’s learning process.
As they develop sustainable models to protect the health and environment of all individual societies, students of CIT are constantly encouraged to carry out market research based on the needs of industries, convincing industry heads, reverse engineering of existing products, evaluating the technology involved in these products and mapping these technologies to new innovations are the greatest challenges that they have come across at CIT and have now sailed through this process, keeping the interests of all stakeholders intact. CIT has also created multiple forums such as Society for Women Engineers, Hostel Students Technology Innovation Forums, Cambrian House of Students Startups or CHOSS, Career Acceleration Program, Cambrian Innovation Lab, and many other programs that provide awareness on sustainable models, They also work collaboratively with neighboring institutes, agriculture universities, law institutes, sports science institutes, medical colleges, veterinary colleges, health, and life science institutes play an important role in an engineering students career to develop, understand and appreciate multidisciplinary skills. Some of the product development projects that are aligned with the Sustainable Development goals include, scrap reduction through wiring harness, automation in the apparel industry, oil dispensing unit, monitoring of anesthetic levels using EEG, intelligent fuel dispensing unit, and many more.
Through all of it, the student community at Cambridge Institute of Technology is empowered to get involved with the community and carry on campaigns, discussions, and debates and carve a path for change. With their sustainable initiatives and the unmatched university curriculum, at Cambridge Institute of Technology, they are sure that the students will turn out to be passionate individuals and the prime movers of Sustainable Development.
