Project Ashakiran: towards a zero-waste panchayat

Running a zero-waste programme for more than 770 school students, delivered in Tamil by local trainers.

The project

Project Ashakiran brought VentureVillage’s Green City course to schools in Singaperumal Koil Panchayat, Tamil Nadu, with the goal of a zero-waste community. It was supported by Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre India, Max Social Innovations Foundation and India Cares Foundation.

What we did

We managed the delivery. More than 770 students took part in 18 hands-on sessions. We found and placed Tamil-speaking trainers from the area, people who could speak to students and families in their own language and with credibility.

Behind the scenes, we kept all partners aligned, maintained risk logs to keep the work on schedule, and built dashboards that tracked progress from each lesson to the waste actually kept out of landfill.

What came of it

Students became changemakers in their own homes, families began to rethink what they consume, and the panchayat took steps towards a circular economy. VentureVillage brought the teaching; we brought the management to deliver it.

Ashakiran grew out of our first project with VentureVillage, a climate awareness programme for school students in Kozhikode in 2024.