Ahmedabad, India, 23rd Nov 2020: We are pleased to share that the o2h group has accomplished its goal of planting ten thousand trees across various regions of Gujarat in collaboration with VSSM and The Ahmedabad Project.
The o2h group has embarked on a ambitious journey of becoming a carbon neutral company in near future. This was communicated to the world by Nilesh Dagia, COO, o2h discovery at the 2019 International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories Annual Conference (I2SL); where he also won the I2SL Go Beyond Award for demonstrating a commitment to advancing both science and sustainability in laboratories.
As a first step towards offsetting o2h group’s carbon footprints, o2h community (a vertical of o2h group) decided to plant 10K trees in various regions of Gujarat. To achieve this, o2h community worked in conjunction with Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch (VSSM), an NGO based out of Ahmedabad which rehabilitates water-starved regions of India, and The Ahmedabad Project, a community which aims to create awareness on governance among the citizens.
Approximately 8000 trees have been planted in three villages of Banaskantha covering Dhedhal, Lavana and Gela; whereas over 2000 trees have been planted in the community managed urban forest at Thaltej, Ahmedabad. Various measures have been taken such as dedicated care taker for each site, implementation of drip irrigation and related across sites to ensure a healthy survival rate of newly planted trees going forward.
On achieving the goal successfully, Nilesh Dagia, COO of o2h discovery, said “We are delighted to have reached our goal of planting 10K trees within a considerable span of time with the support of community including NGO partners and the enthusiastic team at o2h group. We will continue to act as a socially and environmentally responsible company.”
o2h group continually works at analysing and reducing its carbon footprint and hopes that by planting trees we can contribute to restoring a more balanced rainfall pattern in the rain deficit areas of Gujarat as well as can reap other environmental benefits.
Prashant Shah, Executive Chairman of o2h group, also shared his views on what has been the motivating force behind the work at o2h community and gave a hint to the group’s future plans “Land around the world has been subject to rampant and heart-breaking deforestation. The team leading o2h community have been truly energised by the challenge of working with local organisations and landowners and helping to plant trees in disused or degraded sites in a sustainable manner. It may take a few years but we want to build upon what we have learnt and see if we can plant 1,00,000 trees.”
Editor’s note:
About o2h group
o2h group seeds new ideas in science, technology and social enterprise. We work across boundaries and take a collaborative and shared approach to innovation, and therefore we co-invest, co-create and co-execute to bring these ideas to life. o2h group is organised into 6 symbiotic verticals; o2h ventures, o2h discovery, o2h therapeutics, o2h technology, o2h co-work, and o2h community.
o2h group has visualised a home in the form of two iconic state-of-the-art research parks bridging India and Europe, and firmly taking a place alongside some of the most exciting innovation cultures and communities from around the world. The first of these research parks is being built on the recently acquired 2.76 acre heritage Hauxton Mill site in the UK, with plans to develop it into The Mill SciTech Park to create one of the region’s most exciting community of entrepreneurs in life-science, technology and social enterprise.
For more information, please see – www.o2h.com
About VSSM
Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch is a non-profit organisation working to empower the nomadic and de-notified communities while striving to create an inclusive society as well as government policies for these extremely marginalised sections of our society.
Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch, abbreviated as VSSM came into being in 2005 in a quest to find the whereabouts of various Nomadic and De-Notified Tribes (NT-DNTs) of Gujarat.
For more information, please see – www.vssmindia.org
About The Ahmedabad Project
The Ahmedabad Project aims to create awareness on governance among the citizens of the city. With expansion, Ahmedabad is urbanising rapidly bringing with it the problems of traffic, garbage disposal and disappearance of the city’s green cover.
The Ahmedabad Project wants to change that through policy engagement with citizens, organising workshops on policy change, governance and increasing interest in issues of civic nature.
Media Contact:
Ajit Singh Guller
Marketing Manager, o2h group
ajit@o2h.com
