Concept Note

Background
Our climate is breaking down. According to various climatic surveys and reports and a leading daily
online newspaper of UK, The Independent reports that tropical forests are being cut down at the rate of
30 football pitches a minute.

A young girl named Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist on climate change whose
campaigning has gained international recognition and an overwhelming response, only establishes a fact
that it will take a collective action at a massive scale to save the human future against deteriorating
nature. She proposes a very simple plan which can be easily executed having three starting points;
Protect, Restore and Fund. Although much of our planet has been damaged but nature can regenerate
and we can help ecosystem bounce back.

To survive we need to stop burning fossil fuels, but this alone will not be enough, lots of solutions are
talked about but a solution which is oft ignored is right in front of us. A machine that is very easily
available, sucks the carbon out of the air, costs very little and builds itself. A natural resource called
“Tree”. A tree is an example of a natural solution that can repair our broken climate. Right now when
we need nature the most, we are destroying it at a faster pace. Water pollution, soil pollution, air
pollution have over the years dominated the climatic discussion, yet very little could be achieved out of
these discussions. Thus the first step has to be to protect as many trees as possible.

The nature has to be protected. Where nature is doing something vital, human beings are destroying it
with peculiar zeal as if unaware of the cost they have to pay sooner or later. Although there have been
initiation of multiple efforts of late to curb the growing climate change but such have efforts have to be
implemented at large scale all over the planet.

After protection of available resources, the humans will have to work towards restoration, as much
destruction has already been caused and it’s time to finally undo it. More and more trees have to be
planted to replenish the environment, the plastic use has to be cut down as well has the fossil fuels need
to be stopped from burning and another important step is to stop funding things that destroy nature
and instead start funding plans that seem powerful enough to make a difference.

Objective
1. To initiate the plantation of trees for restoration of depleting environment
2. Manufacturing and widespread distribution of cloth bags
3. Creating awareness on environmental degradation
4. Employing sustainable means for a better environment

Goal
1. Sustainable development
2. Increase in green cover to restore the environment
 3. Curtailing the use of onetime plastic by offering a sustainable solution in the form of cloth bag
and protecting nature
4. Providing livelihood to women through the teaching them self manufacturing of cloth bags
through old cloths
5. Piloting a long term solution for environmental degradation

Methodology
Awareness creation
For a community action plan, it is important to bring them on same platform so that all members may
be well aware of the reason why any decision is important. To initiate restoration of the environment
through planting of trees and switching to cloth bags the community has to be made aware of the dire
need of these actions and the consequences if we keep ignoring the environment. Plastic bags are
destined for landfill almost as soon as they are created. Some ends up in the sea, with every square mile
of ocean now containing an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic, which choke and entangle sea birds and
mammals. What's more, plastic bags do not biodegrade; instead they eventually break down into
smaller and smaller bits, contaminating soil, waterways and oceans, and entering the food chain when
eaten by animals. All this information is crucial to be disseminated so that the community can be
sensitized towards saving the environment.

Setting up of district environment centre

This centre will be responsible for supervising the ban on single use plastic in the community in the form
of poly bags and check the departmental stores, kirana stores, etc. in the vicinity on the use of plastic.
The centre will issue the notification to all such stores about the ban on plastic bags in the area and will
also notify them about the usage of cloth bag and from where they can purchase the bags.

Furthermore, the centre will carry out a GIS mapping of the area to locate the premises for plantation of
trees. This area should be identified on the basis that they should have less greenery in comparison to
other areas so more trees can be planted. Every tree planted will have a real time monitoring through
GIS tagging.

The centre through awareness creation will collect money from the community for maintenance of
these trees/plants. Through planning a CSR fund can be allotted to this area for further enhancement.

The district will also look after the manufacturing of cloth bags and will execute a systematic collection
drive of old cloths which can be used for production of cloth bags. A space will also be provided as
manufacturing unit for these bags which can be taken over by the women of the community thus also
acting as a livelihood creation opportunity.

The women from the community will be trained in the production of the bags and these bags will then
be sold to the local shopkeepers. The shopkeepers will further sell them to the consumers at a minimal
price of Rs 2 to Rs 5 thus recovering their cost.
Distribution of cloth bags
The cloth bags training and manufacturing may also be funded through CSR funds. Once these bags are
manufactured they will be transferred to the district environment centre which will then distribute it to
the local shopkeepers.

Cloth bag vending machine

The vending machines will be put up in the target areas like in the local market places, outside the
shopping complexes, etc.

These machines will be supervised by the district environment centre and will be filled every day with
bags.