The college promotes green practices in and around the college premises so as to aid the larger goal of sustainable development. These efforts are made to ensure minimal carbon footprint. This also checks emission of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen. It takes special initiatives to instil environmental awareness amongst students.

1. The college has dedicated space for the bicycle stand adjacent to the car parking area.
2. The use of bicycles is not just environment friendly but also helps in healthy living.
3. College encourages the staff and students to use public transport, especially the metro and CNG buses.
4. User oriented awareness programmes are held once every semester.
5. Inverter air conditioners installed in the Chemistry lab consume very less electricity.
6. It is ensured that all fans, lights, monitors and other electrical appliances are switched off after everybody leaves the college.
7. The IQAC has taken initiatives to ensure a plastic free zone.
8. The college limits the use of non- biodegradable materials in the premises.
9. The college canteen either uses utensils made of stainless steel or paper plates which are eco-friendly and biodegradable.
10. The college promotes paperless documentation for all official purposes.
11. The information to various departments, faculty members and students is being sent through e-mail and college website from the past three years.
12. The college has worked towards green landscaping by planting varieties of trees and plants and has developed a green herbal garden in which medicinal plants and herbs whose botanical and common names are mentioned.
13. The college has adopted solar energy and has taken a step in this direction by setting up solar panels on the roof top.
14. A team of college students created a Bio-Gas plant under the able supervision of faculty members and worked towards making the use of Bio- CNG economically feasible.

BIO-GAS PLANT

The prime objective of this best practice is to gradually increase the usage of non-conventional energy resources in the college premises. To promote this, a team of college students created a biogas plant under the able supervision of faculty members.

The design of the framework for using Bio-CNG was facilitated through sustained research and application of various techniques like stratified random sampling methods, regression, factor analysis and cluster analysis. Some of the challenges faced during its implementation are:

1. Promoting use of separate dustbins for disposing biodegradable and non- biodegradable waste.
2. Segregating canteen waste, garden waste, and other waste materials to get biodegradable waste that could be used as raw material for producing biogas.

The college installed biogas plant of one cubic-meter capacity and plant capacity of 0.2 cubic-meter was fabricated as the first step towards making college a zero emission zone. The slurry generated is used as organic manure in college lawns and garden. The biogas generated saves at least one LPG Cylinder in a month thereby reducing pollution levels. Initially it was difficult to convince the students about biogas plant viability. However, after initial success, there was larger participation from the students.

WASTE MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

The college has outsourced the waste disposal to the cleaning agency SULABH, which segregates the waste into dry and wet waste. The dry waste consists of the non-biodegradable waste like metal cans, glass and plastic bottles, laboratory glass apparatus. The wet waste or biodegradable waste consists of left-over food stuff, vegetable peels from the canteen and used tea leaves from the staffroom pantry. The waste is collected in two different disposable bins kept at different locations in the college. The blue bin is used for dry waste and the green bin is used for wet waste. The wet or biodegradable waste is used in the Bio Gas Plant installed in the college. The biogas generated is used in the staffroom kitchenette. The dry leaves from the trees are not burnt but collected in a pit for making compost. The compost is used as manure for the potted and ornamental plants. IQAC has taken the initiative to make the campus paperless. The students are asked to submit softcopies of their assignments through e-mail and not hardcopies. The students have started taking their internal assessment in the form of online MCQs.

E-waste or electronic waste consists of electrical and electronic devices that have been discarded and destined for salvage or recycling. Electronic scrap components such as CPUs have harmful components like Lead, Cadmium and Beryllium. Informal processing of e-waste can lead to adverse human health effects and environmental pollution. The college has a separate room where the e-waste is stored.

RAIN WATER HARVESTING

College has a full-fledged Rain Water Harvesting system. Rain water from the roof top is collected in an underground pit, a reservoir with percolation.The water collected can be used in

1. laboratories
2. toilets
3. for watering the grounds and plants
4. canteen purposes