Awards are addressed at the institutional (school/college) level and not at the individual level. This is to encourage the building of institutional capability in the area of sustainability on a long term basis.

Schools and colleges can create teams to work on writing papers for a specific award theme or across themes. Each team can also consist of a faculty member as the guide, with primary contribution, ownership, and representation coming primarily from students.

We expect the winning institutions to use the award money in many ways. For example:

• To create a corpus for an ‘Ecology Lab’, ‘Clean Energy Lab’, or a similar research center which focuses on one or more sustainability themes. At the school level, this lab will encourage teachers and students to conduct small scale experiments and pilot projects in different areas of the themes.; At the college level, the research center will act as a catalyst for innovative projects and research that have potential for being translated into larger scale implementations in the real world.
• To start or accelerate the process of creating a ‘sustainable campus’ through better design, architecture, waste management, water harvesting and solar powered common facilities, like canteens etc. A sustainable campus could also involve engaging proximate communities in development initiatives.
• The award money is designed only to catalyze and trigger the process of change, not to monetarily support the objectives.
• Individual members of the winning teams will get certificates and be invited to an awards event to be held in Bangalore
• Wipro will connect the institution to the larger sustainability ecosystem globally, which will accelerate the institution’s capability building program. Partners in the ecosystem would include Research and Academic Organisations, Innovation labs, Expert groups etc. We believe the program will increase awareness and help catalyze sustainability thinking in our education institutions.