The Rural centre

As long back as 1950s, J. Krishnamurti shared these concerns with whole humanity. The
environment policy of The Rural Centre stems from his teachings. J. Krishnamurti is regarded
as the world teacher of the 20th century. Krishnamurti was very deeply sensitive to nature. He had
deep respect and love for all life forms. His relationship with nature was extraordinarily
unique. Krishnamurti Foundation India (KFI), which was established to provide a right education
to the children, is deeply inspired by the teachings of Krishnamurti and is committed to take
utmost care and concern for preserving natural world. The Rural Centre, one of the KFI's centres,
has evolved a code of conduct to protect its natural environment.

The Scope In the light of Krishnamurti's teachings, The Rural Centre is committed to
adopting ecologically sustainable practices in all its areas of operation to make the Centre
an "Eco-village". The Centre believes in involving all those individuals who are related to
the Centre directly or indirectly in its endeavor. With this commitment in the background,
the Centre has evolved an Environment Policy that guides the Centre to care for and
nurture the environment. The policy forms a vital component of the Centre's sustainability
strategy.

Commitment

a) Biodiversity

The Centre believes in respecting all life forms on this planet. It is committed to foster and enhance
the biological diversity in the campus.
The Centre is committed to

* maintaining a minimum 33% of geographical area under green cover for a healthy environment.

* making an earnest and concerted efforts to revive the plant species which are endemic and on
the   verge of extinction.

* Documenting the floral and faunal diversity in the campus.

* Educating and creating awareness about the importance of growing diverse plant species.

* establishing its own nursery to plant the saplings periodically to keep the green cover
   intact. Establishment of this nursery is also intended to increase green cover in the
    neighboring villages.

* establishing a seed bank which is of paramount importance for a nursery to exist.
   The seed bank intends to maintain the indigenous/local varieties of seeds/cuttings for
   the nursery.

* creating awareness about availability of local varieties of seeds and saplings in the Centre.
   The Centre wishes to reach out to the masses in the long term.

* planting tree species for water harvesting

* to planting such species which attracts bird

b) Land
The Centre is committed to

* phasing out present partial chemical farming and shifting to completely organic farming in
   the next  five years.

* increasing organic matter in the soil through sustained application of vermicompost,
farm yard manure, bio-fertilizers and biopesticides.

* intercropping and mixed cropping as a measure of coping mechanism.

* reviving the local varieties of food and vegetable crops.

* exploring and adopting new and advanced agriculture practices which are ecologically sustainable.

* demonstrating agro-forestry as a model of sustainable agriculture for the small and
   marginal farmers in the neighboring villages.

c) Water
The Centre is situated at the confluence of holy rivers Ganga and Varuna. The Centre is fully
concerned about deterioration of holy Ganga both in qualitative and quantitative terms.
The Centre is cognizant of limited stock fresh water globally and locally. The Centre has set
out the following tenets to conserve this precious natural resource.

* The Centre is committed to

* reducing the wastage of water to the barest minimum.

* harvesting of every drop of water which falls within its premises.

* reusing and recycling the waste water. Recycled water would be used for irrigation and gardening.

* setting up demonstration models for educating the community in the neighboring villages
   on utilization, conservation and harvesting of water.

* raising the ground water level in the region through creating awareness and demonstration models.

d) Air
The centre believes in maintenance of clean atmosphere in the campus. The centre takes all
possible measures to prevent air pollution.

* The centre is committed to

* avoiding burning of biomass.

* involving all its staff members, students and its workforce in maintenance of clean environment.

* maintaining all systems of garbage disposal in place to avoid obnoxious smell from the
  garbage heaps.

* maintaining all its vehicular emissions below the national emission standards.

e) Energy
The Centre is committed to

* taking all possible steps to cut down the wastage of power to zero.

* saving energy through replacing all old and polluting energy intensive devices to energy
efficient    ones. For instance, replacing all incandescent bulbs with CFLs, replacing old
  model fans, water coolers, etc.

* generating and supplying energy from renewable energy sources such as bio-gas, solar energy and    wind energy to the community in Rural Centre.

f) Waste
The Centre is committed to

* reducing the waste generation.

* segregating degradable and non-biodegradable wastes at source.

* vermicomposting biodegradable wastes and dispose off non-biodegradable ones for recycling.

* establishing a landfill for disposing off the wastes which have not been recycled.

* having an incinerator for effective disposal of bio-medical waste.

g) Awareness and Training
The Centre is committed to

* communicating and sharing with the staff, students and community of Centre's Environmental policy

* raising awareness of staff, students and residents of environmental impact, performances
and practices.

* Educating, training and raising awareness of environmental and sustainability issues amongst
   staff,  members and the community.

* complying with the provisions of national environmental legislations

h) Transport
The Centre is committed

* To implement sustainable transport practices across all activities with the aim of
    preventing air pollution to the minimum. i) Procurement

* The Centre aims to

* promote life cycle thinking in the procurement of goods and services.

* work with suppliers who promote sustainable resource management practices.

Responsibility

The main responsibility of implementing this policy lies with Management of The Rural Centre. However, the individuals at the Centre will have an important role in cooperating with all those
who are responsible for implementing this policy. The individuals are required to adopt ecologically friendly practices in accordance with the environment policy of the Centre.

Secretary,
The Rural Centre,
Krishnamurti Foundation India,
Rajghat Fort, Varanasi-221001, U.P. India