Sustainability

Harvesting Innovations for People

Economic Sustainability: Over the last six years, Sustainable Innovations simplified and adapted the market-tested utility industry model to suit rural domestic rainwater harvesting. A few of the adaptations are: The utility industry aims to minimizes capital layout per dollar of subscription revenue, analogously Aakash Ganga minimizes the capital (infrastructural) cost per liter of harvested rainwater. The public utility commission serves as a watchdog for the utility consumers, similarly an advisory body of village elders serves as the watchdog for equitable distribution of water. A utility company acquires the “passage rights” for laying cables or burying pipes, paralleling Aakash Ganga acquires the rights from home owners to harvest rooftop rainwater. Aakash Ganga pays the 25 years rent as a lump sum or one-time subsidy to construct the reservoir attached to a house. The home owners share their rooftop rainwater.

Simply put, Aakash Ganga rents roofs.

People understand roof rental instantaneously. Their perspective is: When it rains, rainwater flows away. The roof rent is free money. Rent it. Aakash Ganga’s perspective is: we can sign 100% home owners without launching any marketing campaign. The more home owners rent their roofs, the lower the per liter cost of the harvested rainwater.

Cultural Sustainability: Villages are rich in cultural traditions and social bonds. Often, the traditions are viewed to tie a community to its past, to drain its agility, and to resist forward movement. In sharp contrast, Sustainable Innovations views cultural traditions and social bonds as an asset or “social capital” that can be monetized. Take well worship or “Jalwa Puja” as an example, a tradition practiced by mothers at childbirth. The mother accompanied by family and friends leads a procession to perform worship at a local well. The local wells have dried up due to over exploitation of groundwater. Aakash Ganga invites the mother to perform worship at its shared reservoir and presents the mother with flower bouquets or sweet baskets. This gesture wins their hearts. They become our champions to protect the water bodies from contamination. Economically, the cultural integration saves the cost of building fence to safeguard the reservoirs.

Another of Aakash Ganga’s social innovation is the monetization of familial bond. We recognize the local mason by engraving his name on the reservoir that he helped build. This recognition bonds the mason and his family to the well. Do not be surprised when the son or grandson exults: “My grandfather built it. I need to take care of it.”

Operational Sustainability: Aakash Ganga was conceived to be self-sustaining –not requiring external funding for its post-implementation upkeep and operation. The two available resources for revenue generation are the land leased by the local government and the harvested rainwater. These two resources are used to maximize the revenue per liter of harvested rainwater. Aakash Ganga has planted more than 1000 flemingia semialata plants to produce “lac.” Local artisans or manihasrs use lac as the raw material for making bengals. A social entrepreneur takes care of the reservoirs, plants, production, and sales.

Institutional Sustainability: We have designed a hybrid social enterprise that consists of a non-profit entity called Sustainable Innovations Trust India and a for-profit entity called Green Social Ventures (GSV). The two organizations have legal obligations and rights so as not to drift apart.

GSV ensures the flow of capital, technology, and management to the social entrepreneurs in the villages. It is responsible for the post-implementation upkeep and operation of the reservoirs and revenue generation. GSV aspires to restore community trust in public institutions.

Social Entrepreneurs (SE): At the village or community level, a social entrepreneur is responsible for cultural integration, day-to-day operations, cost-recovery, and revenue generation. An advisory body for formulating social policies guides the SE. The SE effects recovery of capital and operational costs through a combination of beneficiary contributions, user fees, and revenue generation. The cost recovery will enable social enterprises to grow organically – no repeat infusion of capital by government or donors.

Federation of Social Enterprises: The Federation ensures flow of capital, management, and technology to the village-level enterprise.