About Prakriti
Delhi Public School, Dwarka Expressway, had started “Project Prakriti'' under the Swadharma Education in the month of May, 2023 with a vision of initiating a student led movement to build more sustainable communities. Students of class eighth and ninth are participating in various sustainability oriented activities such as ecological and sustainability audits, awareness rallies and events, plantation drives, waste recycling, establishment of nursery etc, being conducted across the school with the assistance of environment experts.
The vision of the project is to progressively make the school community more sustainable and in synchronization with “Prakriti” or nature. The project seeks the formation of the “Prakriti Secretariat” composed of students, which now executes all the activities necessary for achieving the vision of the project.
Our 5 Cells
Energy Bank
Students operate this division to account for the negative and positive impact that humans and their activities have on the environment. The students operating the Energy bank conduct audits for individuals, institutions, organisations and companies. The audited balance between the negative and positive impact sets the conservation targets on an annual basis.
- Benchmark - Energy consumed / Energy produced x 100
The fact that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed from one state to another is the foundation the operation of the energy bank rests upon. Everything that happens around us constantly transforms energy. Only life processes are energy positive on earth, every action taken by human beings other than living are energy negative.
Climate Cell
The Climate cell focuses on auditing greenhouse gas emissions from different human activities. The emissions add to the conservation targets set by the Energy Bank. Student auditors of the division can audit operations of diverse types and scale.
- Benchmark – GHGs’ sequestered / GHGs’ produced x 100
Climate is an impact of an intricate biophysical system present on our planet. In simpler terms, the interactions between the living world and the nonliving world creates the weather and climate we are dependent on. The volunteers of the climate cell have the skills to measure and analyse the changes we cause in these interactions intentionally or otherwise. We are changing the face of the earth faster than ever.
Sapling Collective
Promoting biodiversity, especially of plants, is the most effective way of mitigating the negative impact of human activities on the environment. The division gets offset targets from the Energy Bank and Climate Cell. The students work to increase floral diversity through plantation activities both in and out of the school. In urban areas there is limited scope for promoting floral diversity so the division partners with forest areas close to Gurgaon to achieve its targets.
- Benchmark – Target achieved / Target given x 100
- Benchmark – A score closer to 1 on Simpsons index.
The biodiversity around us is the magical web that life builds around us. It fulfils our basic requirements and also helps create the weather and climate patterns that provide the security for our survival. We have changed the biodiversity of earth beyond recognition.
Water Vault
Students conduct the water audits on a periodic basis. The division strives to achieve sustainability in water consumption by finding ways for attaining the benchmark of water use.
- Benchmark – Rainwater harvested + Waste water recycled / Water consumed x 100
The division focuses on ways to minimize solid waste production through changes in lifestyle. Once the waste is generated, ways which make maximum recycling, reuse possible are researched upon and promoted.
- Benchmark – Solid waste reused, recycled / Solid waste produced x 100
Water is the elixir of life. The quality of water we have around us reflects the sustainability of our communities.
Waste to Wealth Corporation
Solid waste is a product of our ignorance and negligence. It is so true when we say “solid waste is not waste but a misplaced resource”. The culture and values of a society are visible in the way they manage their solid waste. It is a matter of great shame that solid waste litters our land and chokes our water bodies. We have partially managed the solid waste produced by our school by collaborating with a vendor to collect it from our school. We have started recycling paper both, in school and with help of industrial recycling. Our volunteers have the capacity for:
- Conduct solid waste audits.
- Organising campaigns for segregation of solid waste at source.
Interventions and activities
Our Team
Oshna Saraogi
Prakriti lead
Raghav Khandelwal
Secretary
Yash Sharma
Cell Lead
100+
Students