Close
Author: Alistair Nicholas Rodrigues & Ganakshi Gehlot
On 15th August, 32 individuals came together as one community to share a new kind of freedom at ECOmmune 1.0...
This Independence Day we explored freedom in a new way...Freedom of thoughts, ideas, products and services; a freedom from monetary enslavement; a freedom that helps us stop hoarding on to our knowledge.
ECOmmune 1.0 brought together 32 fabulous Sustainability Practitioners in Bangalore under the roof of Justbe Resto Cafe. This community represents a diverse set of people approaching environment-consciousness from the perspective of music, hooping, yoga, sustainable fashion, sustainable stationery, sustainable skincare, conscious crafting, mushroom cultivation, urban farming, eco-travelling, sustainable menstruation, social entrepreneur, conscious consumerism, technology, comics, sustainable living and holistic education.
The objective of ECOmmune 1.0 was to highlight diversity and inclusion of ideas for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle for an individual to benefit the environment. Towards the end of the day each individual took back to their homes ideas, products and meaningful relationships which will continue as a sharing urban community in Bangalore. Each individual came in with pure intentions of sharing their knowledge on environmental sustainability and its inter connectedness.
1) The day-long community sharing was ZERO-WASTE. No posters/banners were printed, registration desk didn't use any paper. In fact, there was no dustbin necessary too!
2) PRE-PLANNING for ZERO-WASTE helped. All collaborators carried their own handkerchiefs, which prevented the use of tissues for lunch and hi-tea. Bottles were refilled at the water station. Food was served in reusable cutlery and no food was wasted.
3) We kept in mind to be RESOURCE-CONSCIOUS. The informal seating arrangement included ambiance décor in the form of plants available at the venue. Collaborators were asked to carry their own mats and we sourced existing cushions/other seating material instead of renting thereby reducing transport, labor and monetary costs too.
4) We explored innovative sharing concepts of exchanging OLD BOOKS. Everyone got a book and randomly were assigned another book to take back with beautiful heart corner bookmarks handmade by our amazing intern, Advika Shetty.
5) The spirit of SHARING was received in full enthusiasm. One of the collaborators, Smitha, made conscious-crafty bookmarks for all which was a pleasant surprise for all. Another collaborator, Ashutosh, gave everyone samples of recycled stationery. One of the collaborators, Jagadish, shared home-made plant-based sweets with everyone.
6) This ZERO-WASTE event was also a LOW-COST and HIGH-IMPACT event which accounted for actual logistics (minus human resource costs) amounting to Rs. 1000 which was covered by previous donations received. Justbe Resto Cafe shared their venue in exchange for food and service which each collaborator covered for themselves. This further emphasizes our belief in the sharing economy and power of like-minded communities!
The day began with the national anthem in honour of Independence Day. The ice-breakers facilitated and coordinated by our cofounder, Alistair Nicholas Rodrigues, and our intern, Ganakshi Gehlot, were a great Kickstarter to the event creating ease of approach and understanding. After the introduction by our intern, Advika Shetty, Yamini Gowda and Siddharth Venkat hosted a workshop on Indigenous Music and Hoop. The workshop taught us about how music and body movements are tuned in internally and externally. Hooping was an opportunity to tune in to our bodies and get out of our comfort zone to do something. The second workshop by Prithvi Kini & Jashid Hameed broadened our wisdom to approaching Fungi not as a deadly species but as a therapeutic and beneficial substitute for many things. It helped us reflect on our understanding and provided an experience of handling mushrooms. The Fermentation and Gut Health Workshop by Karuna Jenkins brought knowledge of the various microorganisms that can sustain the gut microflora. The extensively informative and thoroughly researched workshop highlighted the importance of pre and probiotics and learnings on kombucha preparation. The meditative music played by Sudhanva made us understand the importance of allowing music flow to guide our hands to play the hapi drum.
The sharing circles facilitated by our cofounder, Navitha Varsha, helped individuals express their thoughts and ideologies around their personal and professional lives. This sharing brought out a whole new understanding of how each of our work intersects and opened up a new world of opportunities for future collaborations.
Each of the three teams came up with their creative representations to answer the following questions:
How is what you're doing having an impact on the environment?
What is the role of sharing in your area of sustainability practice?
Is what you're doing interdisciplinary? If not, how can it become interdisciplinary?
The teams represented their thoughts on chart papers through creative illustrations and doodles, presentations and skit performances.
The plant-based lunch by Justbe Cafe was an opportunity for many to reflect on their dietary habits as the plant-based lunch was not any different in nutrition from other foods. From the venue to the collaborators and the organizers, the entire event was held together by a bridge of sharing. The event ended with all the memories being captured by our friend, Nakul Rana, and an informal sharing of contacts and stories.
ECOmmune 1.0 now comprises of 32 individuals across Bangalore that continue to engage in various events and projects that will enable creation of decentralized communities within urban settings to live a more holistic lifestyle through an exchange of unlimited knowledge in the space of environment sustainability.
This community will engage with each other over the next one year and be part of online community sharing workshops. We aim to have communities from various facets of the environment-space come together to share every year on 15th August. This first time was on Sustainability. ECOmmune 2.0 would be themed on Conservation.
We look forward to enabling and empowering the creation and sustenance of such communities across India.
Meet our collaborators from ECOmmune 2021