What an Ashwidea, sirji! Meet the man who is saving the world by connecting causes to CSR grants

From blogging to curating ideas around sustainability and renewable energy, Ashwin Subramanian has turned every possible stone to save the environment. This is how his journey has been

The Ashwidea team has built clean toilets in over 500 schools | Pictures: Ashwidea

Being minimalistic and adopting sustainability is the only way to save the planet for future generations, believes Ashwin Subramanian, Founder of Ashwidea. This platform curates ideas to save the environment, water and energy and collaborates with different NGOs and corporate companies to implement these ideas on the ground. But what led Ashwin to start this platform in the first place is a rather interesting story. He recalls, "I was born and brought up in Delhi. After completing my MBA, I worked in the marketing space for a few companies. Later, I started working with a private company that was into sustainability, helping companies turn greener in terms of their practices and so on. Meanwhile, in 2010, my wife started a blog site for me where I could write about the simple practices of minimalism to save the environment."

While Ashwin continued to write his blogs, in 2015, he started interacting with NGOs that worked in the space of sustainability and renewable energy. Ashwin helped them raise funds for their projects and for some of their good causes. "This is when I started curating ideas and individuals and NGOs. Our first project was with Wildlife Trust of India and it involved restoring the mangroves in Kerala. A lot of mangrove sites exist in private lands in Kerala. There are chances that the person who owns this land might sell it to a builder or some other development project. So, we tied up with a multinational manufacturing company for funds and restored more than 50 per cent of these mangroves that were in bad condition. We learnt to work in three different spaces including water, renewable energy and waste management."

Ashwin Subramanian, Founder, Ashwidea

Through Ashwidea, Ashwin and his team help corporate companies' CSR wings identify the right cause for them. They curate, create and manage these causes too. They curate interventions that address several social issues, create interventions that are tailored to the company's cause and budget, and manage the project's activities including the budget and the follow-ups. They have broadly classified the various CSR projects they are involved in across the country into four categories — Environment, Education, Skill Development and Healthcare. Each project contains details about the social issue in that region, the funds required and the number of beneficiaries who will be impacted.

Besides curating these ideas to address climate change issues, Ashwin has been conducting quizzes for children and corporate employees during the lockdown. These quizzes act as fundraisers for different social causes. With the funds raised in 2020, the organisation was able to help 500 schools get access to clean toilets and drinking water facilities in government schools. Ashwin says, "In tough times like these, raising funds through something simple like quizzes to implement proactive ideas on the ground is the best option we've got."

Environment

sustainability

What an Ashwidea, sirji! Meet the man who is saving the world by connecting causes to CSR grants

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