For over a decade, NVIDIA has invested in social causes and communities in India as part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility.
Bolstering those efforts, we’re unveiling this year’s investments in five projects that have been selected by the NVIDIA Foundation team, focused on the areas of environmental conservation, ecological restoration, social innovation and job creation.
The projects we’re supporting include:
Energy Harvest Charitable Trust
This project aims to reduce air pollution by preventing open-field burning and instead encouraging sustainable energy alternatives such as turning waste biomass into green fertilizer. The trust also promotes village-level entrepreneurship by integrating local farmers into the paddy straw value chain and supporting straw-based constructions in Rajpura, Punjab.
Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society
This initiative will restore the ecological conditions of 12.3 acres of mangroves and train 1,125 community members on disaster response to build community resilience in Sunderbans, West Bengal. The nonprofit partner will focus on bolstering local infrastructure and maintaining sanitation — all with an ecosystem-based approach.
Foundation for Ecological Security
We’re building on our existing partnership with the foundation by funding the construction of irrigation and water-harvesting structures in the Koraput district of Odisha. Last year’s work benefited 2,500 tribal households by promoting natural farming, which ensured food availability and increased vegetative cover for nearly 500 acres of land.
Following a previous investment, our partnership with the Naandi Foundation will continue to build resilient farming communities in the Araku region of Andhra Pradesh. The project will train 3,000 farmers in Naandi’s Farmer Field Schools to earn sustained income by cultivating coffee and pepper plants using organic regenerative practices. Previous efforts trained over 3,000 farmers across 115 villages and resulted in the production and distribution of nearly 34,000 kilograms of coffee fruit.
This nonprofit strives for environmental conservation and women’s economic empowerment. Our funding will go toward conserving and restoring endangered medicinal and aromatic plants by training 600 Himalayan villagers — especially women — in sustainable cultivation, harvest and plant monitoring in Uttarakhand.
NVIDIA’s corporate social responsibility initiatives span the globe. In the last fiscal year, our joint efforts with employees led to a contribution of over $22.3 million to 5,700 nonprofits in 50+ countries around the world.
Read more about previous projects we’ve funded in India and corporate social responsibility at NVIDIA.
The post From Sapling to Forest: Five Sustainability and Employment Initiatives We’re Nurturing in India appeared first on NVIDIA Blog.