My OperaThree pillars of sustainability
Friday, May 9, 2008 2:17:14 AM
“There is a goldmine of technologies lying out there but nobody implements them,” says Hariharan, CEO of BCIL. In 1991 when Uttarkashi was hit by an earthquake, Hariharan volunteered for relief work. In the winter chill, with rain lashing down, 800 bodies had to be cremated. Hariharan with other NGOs and volunteers got this emotionally wrenching job done. But it left him thinking: how could he improve the quality of life for people and development a human face? Soon after, he joined a Ford Foundation sponsored project to train people in construction in 13 villages of Uttarkashi. His ragtag team of 12 included architects, two young civil engineers from Rourkee and someone who could do inventive drawings with explanations in Hindi. They trained villagers in masonry and helped them revive traditional methods of construction. “We worked with our hands,” he recalls. His team went on to build gharats (traditional water mills) near Chamoli, fumbling at first and then improving on this ancient technology, all along convincing communities about how gharats would benefit them. Between 1991 and 1993, he built water-based flour mills, water ramps, hydrams for lift irrigation and micro-mini hydel power units.
Hariharan joined Sreedhar in The Action Research Unit (TARU) but both left in 1991 to co-found the Academy of Mountain Environics (AME) and work with communities. “We always had to go with a begging bowl. So it became clear to us that the three pillars of sustainability were technology, conservation and enterprise,” he says. He figured there must be a way of ensuring accountability by delivering value to people and he went into the business of making ecofriendly homes by starting BCIL five years later.
Hariharan joined Sreedhar in The Action Research Unit (TARU) but both left in 1991 to co-found the Academy of Mountain Environics (AME) and work with communities. “We always had to go with a begging bowl. So it became clear to us that the three pillars of sustainability were technology, conservation and enterprise,” he says. He figured there must be a way of ensuring accountability by delivering value to people and he went into the business of making ecofriendly homes by starting BCIL five years later.
