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Sustainability Network of IIT Madras is a student initiative established in June, 2009 as an outcome of efforts by two alumni members and a group of self motivated graduate and post graduate students. Their vision for sustainable development of our nation soon synergized to a mission to make IIT Madras a model for the nation to follow by working out sustainability practices on campus. This idea was further developed leading to the formation of a parent body that could initiate, mobilize and network in all the IITs, IIMs, and other institutions towards sustainability groups and practices.
The immediate task was to save power as this would be appealing to everyone on campus. A survey and study followed in order to understand the power consumption pattern of campus. The findings and suggestions increased the interest of the administration and alumni association. Promoted by Prof. Idichandy, deputy director of IIT Madras, who took a personal interest in this, the mission attained an avalanche growth with back up from Energy Forum of IIT Madras. Prof. Idichandy recognizing the importance of the mission in its global prospects extended all support to see that the student members get access to all the resources required for smooth performance of the group. He was instrumental in getting the group networked to experts with similar interest from IIT Madras. The alumnus Mr. Jayawardhan of B.Tech Mechanical 2005 batch, played the key role of giving a perfect Professional nature to the organizational and operational aspects of Sustainability Network of IIT Madras. Thus was born The SNet, the Sustainability Network of IIT Madras. The next big thing that happened to Sustainability Network was the advent of alumnus Mr. Ram Krishnan to the mission from the PAN-IIT group. With the help of Ram, himself a pioneering champion in rain water harvesting and ensuring pure sustainable stock of drinking water for rural India, the group started moving towards establishing renewable sources of power for IITM Campus and for complete waste recycling. He helped to network with more alumni members who shared their expertise in the field of renewable energy and Sustainable developments. In fact, the team could perform an Industry standard Energy Audit in one of the hostels with the help of an alumnus Mr. T. Jayaraman who is an expert in this area. This will now be done for entire institute in a short period of time. We wish to get networked with more alumni members who have worked in the areas of Sustainability activities and renewable resources. We wish that in coming years more and more alumni members will associate with us and share their knowledge and expertise which much more important than financial aids. Mission: “To establish IITM as an international standard for sustainable practices, mobilize the ideas all over the world and network among institutions, industries and other organizations to create a greater impact.” Vision: A sustainable world for future generation in its true form without sacrificing our current necessities. Immediate Target: “A model campus which takes ‘0’ input from outside its boundary and puts ‘0’ output out of its boundary chiefly in terms of energy, water and fuel.” A. Power Savings Initiative of SNET Current objectives: 1. Energy auditing of the IITM campus. 2. Electrical equipment replacement for power savings. 3. Possibility of green roof tops for cooling of top floors. 4. Creating awareness about power savings in the form of awareness campaigns, competitions like Power Savings award which involves a first Tech. Soc competition for innovative power savings concepts and a second competition among hostels for real power reduction. B. Members Faculty Advisor: Sudhir Chella Rajan. Core members (2009-2010):
Coordinators: Power Awards: R C Sudheesh, Kousik S, Mithun Kumar, Moutushi Das, Sumedh Samant, Aditya Nandkumar. HR and Awareness Team: Srinivas Grandhi, Leela Aarthy, Govinda Balan K. Special Hostel Team: Vaibhav Jadhav, Harsh Dhankani. Peak Load Reduction Team: Rakesh. Department Power savings team: Srinivas Bhaskar. Alumni members: Jayawardhan, S Sarath, Ram Krishnan, Raj Varadarajan, T. Jayaraman, R Ramarathnam, Chandrasekharan Y. C. Projects We seek student volunteers who are interested in the following projects. We can provide support to them in terms of sponsoring and mentoring. 1. Remote data logged smart energy meters. 2. Energy auditing and accounting software. 3. Highly cost effective wind power generation. 4. Evaporative cooling. 5. Modernized biogas plant. 6. Efficient solar panels specifically suitable for Indian weather conditions. 7. Solar air-conditioning. 8. More efficient solar water heaters with heat insulated water tanks. 9. Improved LED home lighting system. Please contact Ajesh ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Govind ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) for information regarding the projects. D. Gallery
Green Roof Top Courtesy: T. Jayaraman
LED lighting Courtesy: T. Jayaraman
E. Tech. Soc. Event To encourage student community to promote Sustainability practices in power usage inter hostel competitions were formed. Power savings Techsoc event is to encourage students from each hostel to come out with ideas to implement renewable energy sources for hostels and to optimize the power consumption in hostels. Each hostel prepares a report on causes of power wastage in their hostel and on technical and organizational changes to optimize power usage. In addition to techsoc event, a competition is also run among hostels for actual decrease in power consumption from the previous year consumption. The hostel that lowers consumption to the best ratio with respect to a calculated benchmark level wins a prize and hall of fame. This competition is run through the Technical Affairs Secretary of each hostel along with a hostel team. The Technical Affairs Secretaries are by default a member of Snet during their tenure. These events are managed by a core member and a few coordinators. For more information please RC Sudheesh (
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), Mithun (
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) or Aditya (
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) for more intormation. F. Action plans We have meetings between student, faculty and alumni on regular basis and draft our action plans towards our objectives and mission. On 27/01/2010 · Daily metering of power usage in every wing of Jamuna hostel with a interval of 8 hrs each (3 times a day) for a period of 8 hours. · Sudhir Chella Rajan (Dept. of HSS) is the faculty advisor who takes responsibility of SNET Activities. · To get 20 volunteers in Jamuna hostel for checking of LED lamps and 20W fans – most preferably top floor occupants and preferably no first years. On 11/02/2010 · To extend analysis of energy auditing to the Jamuna substation. · To establish a financial account for SNET under the guidance of Prof. Idichandy and Prof. Govardhan. · To analyze the feasibility of giving the above mentioned pilot projects as a curriculum project under the guidance of Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SUSTAINABILITY NETWORK PRESENTATION
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