TIP SESSIONS CHARITABLE TRUST

We work to address the repercussions of climate change in India with a three-pronged approach focused on civic engagement, sustainable consumption, and sustainable livelihoods. First, through regional language advocacy, we invite local experts in indigenous sustainable practices to create a shift from an ‘instructional’ mode of climate awareness to a ‘discussion’ mode of community conversation. Second, we engage with local governance systems by developing efficient protocols for waste management efforts in homes and segregation centers. Third, we empower women to use the collected waste to produce handmade products and become a part of a sustainable circular economy. 

We have developed proprietary vernacular technology that each of these community groups uses to input and monitor data around waste management. However, we need funding to grow community engagement in these efforts. We need to expand teams and train local social workers who can drive community participation, experts in locally rooted sustainable systems to advise on and grow the adoption of efficient waste management systems by local workers and in community homes, and policy and advocacy experts to work with local government bodies. Further, we need support to expand communication efforts and mentors to advise on these initiatives. 

As an entrepreneur, I have experimented with radical ideas and built creative perspectives while also holding space for deep learning. I have used different techniques and approaches to launch projects rooted in solution-oriented thinking: ‘Oqupi’ combines health and VR, ‘Reality Check’ conflates gender and gaming, and TIP Sessions brings together climate action and technology.  

I am creating a hybrid model focused on fostering dialogue, harnessing technology, and implementing action towards civil action and a circular economy amongst local communities of densely populated regions of Karnataka. TIP Sessions is a community intervention program that addresses climate action and sustainable practices by co-designing scalable solutions with communities and governments. 

A focus on infrastructure development for climate action is a key part of our vision at TIP Sessions. While a waste management app and SAAS to grow a circular economy are already in play, research is underway to build a plastic footprint and carbon footprint calculator to add to our tech suite.

We want to change the approach to and language of climate change through community-led climate action for over 30,000 women of the Western Ghats, foster sustainable dialogue, and look at climate change and biodiversity through the lens of future potential.

The world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste annually; each person generates an average of 0.74 kilograms, every day (ranged from 0.11 to 4.54 kilograms). India's annual waste generation is at 62 million tonnes, and with an average annual growth rate of 4%, the country produces over 1.50 lakh metric tonne (MT) of solid waste alone, daily. Of 62 metric tons (MT) of municipal waste that is generated in the country, about 75% gets collected and only about 25% is processed and treated. 

We harness the waste efficiently to ensure community-led climate change addressal by leveraging regional language efforts to build relevant advocacy, and train women to collect and segregate waste, monitor the collections, draw insights from the nature of waste collected, recycle or upcycle all reusable waste, and then advise and educate their communities through technological interventions, on methods to reduce unsustainable waste while increasing the proportion of reusable waste. Thus, working with women to generate gainful and meaningful employment building financial independence while fostering community-led dialogue about climate change. We make sustainability economically beneficial for communities while turning waste into new products in a meticulously managed process driven by data and technology. 

We enable community-led climate action by designing and implementing solutions whilst empowering women through employment opportunities, and upskilling them by leveraging the power of vernacular communications and technology. We use vernacular language to build sustainable advocacy that resonates with locals, thus enabling rural India to be empowered with the means to develop its own language around sustainability and conservation efforts. By establishing a strong and relevant context, we create visibility around the local disconnect with the severity of the climate crisis, while debunking myths related to climate solutions being seen as oppressive, unsustainable, and economically devastating for rural communities. We work closely with women to influence their awareness, thought processes, and decisions concerning waste management, as they are the primary decision-makers concerning lifestyle choices of their family unit. By harnessing technology and entrepreneurship to streamline waste management,  we generate gainful and meaningful employment for women, thus enabling financial independence. The movement gains more ground and credibility due to greater conversations and conversions, and women’s position as decision-makers is bolstered in the community. Our intervention interweaves design, tech, and social impact to solve environmental problems, thus making impactees the direct stakeholders by driving a high sense of empathy, accountability, and scalability.

We have aligned our work with four of the 17 internationally-accepted Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), centered around climate change (SDG 13), inclusive, sustainable, and resilient cities (SDG 11), inclusive and sustained economic growth with full and productive employment (SDG 08), and achieving gender equality (SDG 05). We work with an end-to-end model that rests on the core belief of regional advocacy, reviving indigenous notions of sustainability and conservation, economic empowerment, and technological innovation. This helps us dispel myths about sustainability being unrealistic, impractical, and/or unachievable. We have trained 500 women in under one year in waste management, making them economically independent. We have partnered with individuals, communities, organizations, SHGs, universities, and governments alike in order to co-design interventions and track sustainable impact, working towards scalability. Through our model, we aim to replace transgenerational poverty with education, enablement, and economic empowerment, mainly focusing on women. We have conducted 46 workshops for school children across Udupi District, enabled the adoption of powerful alternatives to plastic across 5000 households, and have managed to divert 420,000 kilograms of waste from the ocean between November 2020 and April 2021.