Music, dance, flash mobs, plays, puppetry, photography and digital design – in its first year the pieces created under Nokia India's Create to Inspire Fellowship reached out to over 50,000 people, making sustainable consumption a hot topic in Delhi and Hyderabad.
The initiative selected young people to act as champions for sustainability, encouraging everyone to change their consumption habits by making greener, more sustainable choices. Around 100 18 to 25-year-olds in each city were mentored by renowned artists.
Working together they developed performances and campaigns around the use of energy, water, transport and e-waste with the aim of starting conversations about sustainability and changing behaviours.
A sister programme went to over 2,500 schools in 15 Indian cities and developed a range of activities around environmental themes, from painting competitions to making short films and plays. In total, 5,000 teachers and 60,000 students took part, getting parents, neighbours and retailers involved in waste, water and energy audits, and e-waste collection drives.
To get the programme off the ground, Nokia developed ideas about sustainable living with educational institutions, industry associations, cultural centres, artists and policy makers.
The approach emerged from the company's belief that changing consumption patterns requires businesses to embrace environmental responsibility, encouraging and inspiring people to make sustainable choices in all areas of their lives.
Nokia is in partnership with more than 30 organisations. The response to the youth fellowship was so good that the company decided to take it to young people in Kolkata and Ahmedabad as well.
Lorna Thorpe is part of the wordworks network
The Guardian Sustainable Business Sustainability Case Studies contain articles on all the initiatives that met the criteria for the GSB Awards.
