Mumbai: Rajendra Shende, an Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-Bombay) student, is the first Indian to receive the prestigious Roy Family Award. Currently, Shende is the head of OzonAction of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The winning project was selected from amongst a group of highly qualified projects nominated across the world that undertake tough environmental problems which ranges from sustainable mining to responsible land stewardship.
The award was presented by Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government. As per sources, the award is given every two years to a project of public-private partnership, which improves and protects the environment through inventive approaches. The project namely “Refrigerants, Naturally!” by Shende along with the Greenpeace includes powerful multinationals, such as Coca Cola, Unilever and McDonalds.
The project by Shinde aims to abolish the environmentally-harmful fluorinated gases such as CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs with natural refrigerants in their commercial refrigeration installations and make them energy competent. Besides, the natural refrigerants employed are environment friendly gases that exist naturally in the biosphere, i.e. ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrocarbons.
Furthermore, Shinde has said that the public private partnerships are fundamental instruments to attain the Millennium Development Goals agreed by all the countries in the year 2000. He said that he and his colleagues in UNEP are proud with this project. He added that they will continue to help and contribute in a tangible way to achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of Environmental Sustainability.
