Three interactive workshops held for school children at the Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon
December 14, 2016, New Delhi, India: Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, has partnered with the Shiv Nadar Foundation to create awareness about energy efficiency and climate change amongst school children in India. The rapid growth in urban population has increased the overall energy demand including lighting, which contributes to roughly 15% of the world’s energy consumption. Hence, there is an urgent need to create awareness about energy efficiency and its positive effects on the environment.
Under this program, Philips Lighting is conducting interactive workshops for school children across various age groups at the Shiv Nadar Schools in Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad and the VidyaGyan Leadership Academies in Bulandshahr and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. The workshops include live models, discussions and creative projects to help children understand topics such as climate change, sustainability, safe disposal of lighting products and energy efficiency amongst others. As part of this initiative, Philips Lighting has already conducted three workshops at the Shiv Nadar School in Gurgaon covering more than 270 students. To commemorate the National Energy Conservation Day on December 14th, 2016, Philips Lighting also conducted a quiz for the school students.
“We are delighted to collaborate with the Shiv Nadar Foundation to create awareness about energy efficiency and environment sustainability amongst school children. Population growth and rapid urbanization demand more and better lighting, while resource constraints and the imperative to slow climate change require maximum energy efficiency. Through this unique initiative, we seek to educate children about the importance of being responsible towards the environment from an early age.” said Harshavardhan Chitale, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Philips Lighting India.
Commenting on the initiative Sundar Mahalingam, Chief Strategy Officer, Shiv Nadar Foundation said, “Our aim at the Shiv Nadar Schools and the VidyaGyan Leadership Academies is to provide our students with incredible, varied and holistic learning experiences that also help them grow up to be rounded individuals. We have a strong focus on encouraging sustainable living practices at our schools and make a consistent effort to sensitize our students towards some of these. As a step in this direction, we recently unveiled a 50kW Solar Power Plant at the Shiv Nadar School in Gurgaon. We are happy to partner with Philips Lighting to create awareness on energy efficiency amongst our school children and we hope to conduct workshops across all our schools over the next one year.”
The world’s energy demand is increasing significantly owing to the growth in population, increased urbanization and rise in the middle class. By 2050, two-thirds of the world population will live in cities, where demand for lighting is greatest. There will be an estimated 35% increase in the number of light points worldwide to cater to the increasing population. Therefore, enormous energy savings can be achieved through energy efficiency to positively benefit the environment.
The program is a local extension of Philips Lighting’s global sustainability program ‘Brighter Lives, Better World’ and reflects the company’s commitment to the universally agreed United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals for affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production as well as climate action. The company’s ambition is to create brighter lives with quality light that improves people’s wellbeing, safety and productivity.
About Philips Lighting
Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting products, systems and services, delivers innovations that unlock business value, providing rich user experiences that help improve lives. Serving professional and consumer markets, we lead the industry in leveraging the Internet of Things to transform homes, buildings and urban spaces. With 2015 sales of EUR 7.5 billion, we have approximately 36,000 employees in over 70 countries. News from Philips Lighting is located at http://www.newsroom.lighting.philips.com
About Shiv Nadar Foundation
The Shiv Nadar Foundation (www.ShivNadarFoundation.org) has been established by Shiv Nadar, Founder, HCL - a $6.5 billion leading technology and healthcare enterprise. The Foundation’s mission is to contribute to the process of national development and social transformation by establishing institutions and undertaking new initiatives in the fields of education and culture. The Foundation is committed to the creation of a more equitable, merit based society by empowering individuals to bridge the socio-economic divide through philanthropy-based transformational education.
The Foundation set up the SSN Institutions (www.SSN.edu.in) in 1996, comprising the SSN College of Engineering (already a highly ranked private engineering college in India), in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Foundation has also set up VidyaGyan, a residential leadership academy for meritorious rural children, at Bulandshahr and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. In addition, the Foundation runs the Shiv Nadar University (www.snu.edu.in), an international multi-disciplinary university with strong research orientation located in Greater Noida in India’s National Capital Region and the Shiv Nadar School (www.shivnadarschool.edu.in), a network of progressive urban schools across India aimed to provide children with education that creates lifelong learners. The Foundation has also set up the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (www.knma.in), India’s largest private philanthropic museum in modern and contemporary art with the vision to take art to the common public.