India’s leading solar energy company, Mahindra Susten Private Limited, initiated a unique campaign #CutTheCrap to reinforce the importance of reusing and recycling for a sustainable future. The concept behind #CutTheCrap was to talk about waste segregation and its benefits to the environment. Reducing plastic waste through recycling and reuse ensures less waste goes into our landfills and oceans.
The Campaign was conceptualized in December 2018 with the zero-waste cleanup hike to Mt. Kalsubai, Since then, the campaign has conducted various activities, and #CutTheCrap eventually caught the attention of the Mahindra Group team, who have scaled it to new heights. With Ennoble Social Innovation we did the on-ground campaign at the WeWork offices. #CutTheCrap encouraged the collection of scrap like old jeans, plastic bags, tyre tubes, plastic bottles etc. The collected scrap gets upcycled into sustainable Yelo-Green Bags by Ennoble Social Innovations, specially designed for children in rural India. These functional school bags for use by under-privileged school children feature a pop-out stand and solar charger.
The uniqueness of the campaign of upcycling trash while helping children get better education was widely praised, and received an overwhelming response. AGENCY09, the digital agency of Mahindra Susten, conceptualized the campaign with the brief that a mindset change was required in regards to how we deal with trash.The on-ground campaign started with one location at We Work, BKC, and was soon launched across India at various Mahindra Susten offices.
Speaking on the importance of this #CutTheCrap campaign, Basant Jain, Chief Executive Officer of Mahindra Susten said: “With #CutTheCrap, we are working to drive positive change for people from all walks of life. We have strategically partnered with Ennoble which makes bags out of recycled scrap called the ‘Yelo-Green bag’. We have started with WeWork as our location partner to collect this scrap from the employees of various organizations present at their locations. With more participation from organizations and people, we believe this will grow into a full-fledged movement helping rejuvenate our environment while supporting students.”
“Ennoble is a social innovation organisation and has been making Yelo GreenBags out of recyclable material. It is an innovative bag that converts into a floor desk encouraging children to have abetter posture. It comes with a sustainability kit that enables the formation of sustainable habits among kids in early childhood,” says Chirag Bhandari, Founder, Ennoble Social Innovations. “We believe that through these bags,children can be sensitised about sustainability from early childhood helping them become the Green Ambassadors of tomorrow”, he added.
The success of the campaign later caught the attention of top management at Mahindra, and Mahindra Rise has taken the initiative further to create a wider impact under the Rise banner.
The campaign is being continued at the Mahindra SustenThane Office, and we plan to take it to our other offices and places where our projects are present. For more information visit www.mahindrasusten.com/cutthecrap
