I’ve a confession to make about one thing I’ve been doing over the previous 10 years: I’ve diligently separated my moist and dry waste. What does that imply? All the things that’s biodegradable, like meals scraps, goes in a single bin; every part like paper or plastic goes to a different; and medical waste to the third bin. I’ve additionally been composting my moist waste, a mean of two kilos per day. This quantities to almost 2,800 kilos diverted from the landfill over 4 years.
So why is that this related to my journey at Cisco? Small actions like this will have a much bigger impression over time, and that has been bolstered throughout my time as a core crew member of Cisco’s Inexperienced Staff Community (GTN), an Inclusive Neighborhood at Cisco with 26 native chapters world wide. At GTN, we envision a extra environmentally sustainable enterprise and world, empowering our workers to drive social and environmental change at work and of their properties.
How did I get right here? My very own sustainability journey began as a baby.
My Private Sustainability Journey
My earliest reference to nature began at my ancestral dwelling in India, the place I grew up in a small city known as Vasai. Our dwelling had a yard with many bushes, and my dad beloved gardening. Most of my summers had been spent taking part in surrounded by nature.
However my true calling in direction of nature started once I moved to Bengaluru. Social media launched me to pages like Indian Birds and Sanctuary Asia, the place individuals posted their images of birds and wildlife. That’s once I determined to take up chicken images as a passion. Visiting varied lakes in Bengaluru and birding hotspots in my hometown and different locales in India, I’ve now documented roughly 300-350 species of birds.
The turning level got here through the COVID pandemic. On account of lockdown restrictions, my visits to the lakes stopped, and so did my chicken images, however the itch to attach with nature had not gone away. I intently documented nature round my house, and when the restrictions eased a bit, I went to a close-by lake to doc bugs on the path. Over time, I continued documenting the insect biodiversity and even revealed photographs in a wildlife journal and wildlife images competitions, together with profitable a contest on World Wildlife Day that showcased the pervasive impression of plastic and waste in our surroundings.
I found that I needed to make use of my images and experiences within the wild to inform tales that create awe about nature amongst individuals. I began collaborating with a non-governmental group (NGO), Thicket Tales, which was organizing webinars for residents on varied matters associated to wildlife and sustainability. I additionally began giving talks on biodiversity to varsities and communities and, for the primary time, to a company – Dell Applied sciences. I gave a sequence of 11 periods to Dell Applied sciences on numerous matters associated to biodiversity and sustainability.
Involvement with Cisco’s Inexperienced Staff Community in India
Working as a Consulting Engineer in CX-Skilled Companies, I’ve been a part of the Service Supplier (SP) Mobility crew engaged on deployment of mobility networks for purchasers like T-Cell, Reliance Jio, TIM Brazil, and extra. In mid-2023, once I was trying to find a stretch project associated to program administration, I stumbled upon a gap for the International Inexperienced Staff Community (GTN) Schooling Lead. On the time, I didn’t get that function, however the GTN management crew requested me to restart the chapter in Bengaluru, which had turn out to be dormant since COVID. In the present day, I’m honored to affix the Inexperienced Staff International Management because the Schooling Lead.
“Being a part of the Inexperienced Staff has deepened my dedication to driving impactful change, turning consciousness into motion, and provoking a tradition of duty in all spheres of my life.” – Shiju Joseph, Govt Sponsor, Inexperienced Staff – Bengaluru Chapter
Within the first yr of the Bengaluru chapter’s reinception, we engaged with 16 wildlife conservation and sustainability NGOs, elevating ~$29K USD with 3,200 Cisconians collaborating in varied occasions like webinars, documentary screenings, nature walks, biodiversity censuses, tree plantings, cleanup drives, and extra. I’m proud that individuals have reconnected with nature by way of our varied engagements. As well as, after we began the chapter, we onboarded many wildlife and sustainability NGOs to Cisco’s Benevity platform, which permits workers to simply donate or volunteer with a neighborhood group.
In the present day, I’m organizing periods on numerous matters specializing in environmental points and tales from varied geographies, and I’m proud to work with fellow Cisconians who share an identical ardour for nature.
“Being a part of the Inexperienced Staff has surrounded me with a supportive neighborhood that continually conjures up and motivates me to undertake new, sustainable practices, making nature and sustainability a core worth in my life.” – Manjari Vishnoi, co-lead, GTN Bengaluru Chapter
Imaginative and prescient and Targets
Wanting towards the longer term, I wish to introduce hackathons to assist NGOs tackle their tech objectives utilizing experience from Cisco. I additionally hope to introduce Cisco’s services and products portfolio from a sustainability perspective, with talks from Cisco consultants engaged on such initiatives.
It could be nice to see fellow Cisconians take up at the least one exercise of their day by day lives that contributes to a extra sustainable trigger. Solely after we incorporate sustainability into our day by day lives will there be a constructive change within the pure world we stay in.
Involvement with GTN has meaningfully impacted my profession journey and private life. Working in a job that helps nature might turn out to be one thing I wish to do for the remainder of my life. I consider nature is one trigger value combating for as a result of it’s one factor people can’t thrive with out.
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