CSR collaboration for the City-Farmer Partnership project in Chikkaballapur, Karnataka

Bangalore, India: Godrej Properties Limited, India’s leading real estate developer, partnered with the Chikkaballapur City Municipal Council (CMC) and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) for the City-Farmer Partnership project in Chikkaballapur, Karnataka to address the city’s waste management challenges and to promote scientific management of solid waste.

Focused on converting organic wet waste into valuable compost for farmers, approximately 759 tonnes of legacy waste was semi-processed into organic compost and supplied to 109 farmers across 17 villages of Chikkaballapur. The compost, processed from 1,000 cubic meters of waste, was provided at no cost to encourage the adoption of organic farming practices. Additionally, more than 569 tonnes of segregated wet waste has been processed through collaboration with 81 farmers.

A key aspect of this initiative and Godrej Properties’ focus is fostering a symbiotic relationship between urban and rural communities. To enhance and educate the farmer communities and stakeholders on the benefits of sustainable waste management practices, IIHS conducted multiple training sessions for more than 100 farmers on converting municipal waste into organic compost. Additionally, 45 CMC staff members were trained on key aspects of waste management. The training focused on the importance of segregated waste collection and transportation for the success of the city-farmer partnership project.

A series of ward-level and feedback meetings have been conducted as part of the City-Farmer Partnership for the Solid Waste Management (SWM) project to promote waste segregation at source. These meetings have been attended by CMC officials, the IIHS project team, Anganwadi workers, volunteers engaged in monitoring door-to-door collection of waste, and about 50 residents from each ward. To drive home the messaging and create awareness at the ground level, six street plays and a road show traversed key streets in Chikkaballapur, engaging citizens and commercial establishments with messages about the benefits of waste separation.

Mr. Rohit Mohan, Chief Design and Sustainability Officer, Godrej Properties Ltd., said “We recognize the substantial challenges posed for urban waste management, including growing volume of urban waste and improper waste segregation. Engaging communities through initiatives such as training farmers to convert municipal wet waste into organic compost is one of our important projects catering to our long-term environmental goals. This collaboration with Chikkaballapur farmers highlights our dedication to positively collaborate with multiple communities and contributing towards solid waste management across Urban local bodies. By enabling local communities to turn urban solid waste into valuable resources, we seek to drive enduring environmental improvements and support sustainable farming practices. As environmentally conscious developers, we remain committed to promoting sustainable waste management practices through public-private partnerships and engagement with local communities.”

Godrej Properties has been focusing on driving awareness and capacity building for the need for sustainable waste management across urban and rural communities in addition to sustainable waste management across all construction sites. In FY24 Godrej Properties successfully diverted more than 43,000 tonnes of waste from landfills achieving Net Zero Waste to landfill status.