Sustainable Systems

Week – 1

• What is a system? What is sustainability? These are some basic questions that I didn’t know the exact meaning of. So to understand what sustainable systems are, I first have to understand what these two words mean individually.
• Sustainability means that a process or state can be maintained at a certain level for as long as is wanted and a system is a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.
• Sustainable systems are systems that are long term, adaptable and integrate new development.
• I was introduced to the global goals for sustainable development provided by the United Nations.
• The first 7 goals are: 1) no poverty 2) zero hunger 3) good health and well-being 4) quality education 5) gender equality 6) clean water and sanitation 7) affordable and clean energy.
• I was aware of what carbon footprint is but I learnt more in depth about it. I also learnt about the 3 pillars of sustainability : planet, people and profit.
• We then had a discussion about what we think are examples of sustainable systems and then we put them into the 3 categories of planet, people and profit.
• This first class of Sustainable systems was an amazing insight into the vast subject of sustainability.

Week -2

• This week we thought about sustainability on a personal level.
• I made a list and studied my daily routine. From the moment I wake up and till the time I go back to bed. In this routine I had to recognize the least and most sustainable parts of it.
• After finishing this task, I started making a mind map for the same.
• In this process, I realized how I am being unknowingly unsustainable in the smallest of things I do everyday.
• This is the first draft of my mind map.

Week – 3

• This week I worked further on my mind map. I wasn’t very pleased with my previous mind map.
• I wanted to include more visuals and some more detailed information. I also wanted to include some of the research that I had done.
• In my new version of the mind map, I included a lot more graphics due to which there was no need for excessive texts for explanation.
• This was a great learning experience as it made me more aware of my actions and how they impact the environment around me

Week – 4

• Lat week we were divided into groups and assigned a topic related to the 7 global goals for sustainable development. My group got the topic “Clean Water and Sanitation”.
• We were asked to prepare a presentation based on the same by observing our immediate environment i.e our family, neighbours, society, etc.
• After having conversations with my neighbours, I collected the data and made my presentation using the same. This is my presentation:

Week – 5

• This week we discussed our questionnaire for our survey.
• We will use this questionnaire to conduct a survey in our respective localities by interviewing the residents.
• The result of this survey will help us understand our topic better on a micro level and thus assist us in making our presentation.
• This is our questionnaire:

1) How many people live in this household?

2) Are there any water leaks in your house?

3) For how long have the leaks been present?

4) Are you aware of the various ways you can save water on a personal level? For eg. Turn off the tap fully, not waste potable water, etc.

5) On a scale of 1-10 how conscious are you about saving water?

6) Which activity uses the most amount of water at your house? For eg. Washing clothes, cleaning cars, showering?

7) On an average, are you aware of how many litres of water are being used by your washing machine?

8) Do you flush everyday waste down the toilet? For eg. Toilet paper, sanitary napkins, kitchen waste, etc.

9) Do you face water cuts?

10) How often do you face water cuts?

11) Has anybody in your house gotten ill/suffered from a water borne disease due to insanitary quality of drinking water?

12) How many litres of water do you think you consume in a day?

• I included the information I collected via the survey in my presentation. The updated presentation is attached below:

Week – 6

• Having been absent for this week’s class, this post is based on my understanding of the class through my peers.
• In this class, we discussed the presentations further.
• The explanation for the macro level study was given.
• Instructions for the next step were given. We have to include 2 case studies in our presentation and also do an in depth research about the various schemes that the government has come up with regarding our topic.

Week – 7

• In this week’s class, we worked further on our macro level presentation and the presentations for our case studies.
• We did a deeper study on the workings of the water supply systems of Mumbai and also the conditions of water availability and accessibility in the commercial areas as well as the slum areas.
• We then started to do some research for our case studies and decided upon the Jal Jeevan Mission and the Janicki Omni project.
• This process of research was very insightful as I got to learn about so many systems and projects that I was not aware of.
• The following are our presentations:

Week – 8

• This week we presented our presentations in front of the class. I haven’t always been comfortable with public speaking so this was a learning experience for me and an opportunity for me to learn how to get over my nerves.
• We first started off with the macro level presentation and then went on to explain one of our case studies.
• The presentations were very well received by the class and had some good feedback for the same.

Week – 9

• This week onward we are going to start working on our next project which is based on upcycling.
• My understanding of upcycling is that you take some material that is going to go to waste and make it into something that can serve another purpose and be useful while adding value to it.
• We then partnered up with someone to make an object of our own.
• We were asked to upcycle an object out of the materials provided to us. My partner and I got wool and metal.
• We did a lot of brainstorming during this class and came up with an attachable coffee cup which would have a woolen exterior to keep the coffee hot.

Week – 11

• This week, we were assigned our last project. In this project we had to work in a group and come up with an interactive module related to the topic allotted to us.
• My group’s topic was health and hygiene. We collectively decided to work on the current situation of coronavirus.
• We came up with various ideas for our modules but the one that everyone liked was my suggestion of taking inspiration from “dude with sign”. We all agreed it was an interesting and a peculiar way to conduct the module.
• We started discussing the details of our module.
• We set our target group as teenagers as we thought they have a wider reach on social media.
• It would also be easier to do this at home since the lockdown has restricted people from stepping out of their homes.
• We had to hence start working on our presentation for the next class.

Week – 12

• In this week’s class we showed ma’am our first draft of our presentation.
• We were told to make some changes in our desk research but that our module was in place.
• We started to hence do more research on our topic.
• I decided to make some illustrations for the presentation as well so that it would be well received.
• This week really taught me that sometimes you cannot count on other people to do their work on time and hence you have to be prepared with a backup.

Week – 13

• This week we presented our presentation in front of the class.
• We were told to add more visuals and do some more research.
• We then discussed how we were going to conduct the module since we cannot go out during the module.
• We decided to ask our friends to do the activity from their homes, click a photograph and send it to us so we can post it online.
• I learnt this week, how to come up with alternatives when faced with challenges regarding the original plan.

Week – 14

• In this week’s class, we presented our final draft for our presentation. I was happy with the amount of desk research and case studies my group did.
• We had conducted our module separately and gathered pictures from our friends.
• I was shocked to see so many of my friends do this and take interest in it. They came up with a lot of creative and fun signs.

Make-up class

• This week, we presented our upcycling project.
• for this project, we were given the materials – metal and wool. We decided to make an attachable coffee cup.
• We also found a way to sterilize the metal so that the coffee cup would be safe to drink from.
• This process opened me up to the world of upcycling and how it can be beneficial to the environment as well as be useful to us.
• the following is our presentation of our product:

Week – 15

This week was the review week. I was quite happy with the work my group had done and I was also satisfied with the outcome of our effort. Even though it was sometimes hard to get a response from the group, in the end we all worked well together. I also learnt a lot through the modules other groups had conducted. For our final output, we stitched all our information, photos, videos into a single video which is up on the drive.