AIC-GIM’s ESG Start-up Week to Stir Sustainability and Social Impact while putting the spotlight on Environment, Social Impact and Governance

Mumbai:  The Atal Incubation Centre at the Goa Institute of Management (AIC-GIM) Foundation, is all set to break fresh grounds at the ‘ESG Start-up Week’, a week-long affair to emulsify environment, social, and governance objectives in its entrepreneurial edification which kicked off today. The event is being held in collaboration with Climate Collective Foundation, a non-profit outfit aimed at empowering entrepreneurs through attenuation of the inverse relationship between environment, health and economic growth.

“Revolving around the global sustainable development goals, this event will exhibit a host of activities, inter-alia, panel discussions,awareness campaigns, and clean-up drives,” explained Rajesh Joshi, CEO, AIC-GIM Foundation.

Speaking at the launch of the event IAS officer Kunal who is the CEO and Secretary (Election, Power, New and Renewable Energy and Environment) said, “Goa is an ideal destination for sustainable startups to be mentored and flourish. The collaboration between AICGIM and Climate Collective will aid in offering an impetus to clean tech startups. This ESG week is a step in that direction.”

The ESG startup week will present a wide-range of events, spanning across masterclasses, roundtable discussions, talk shows, workshops, in addition to a fetching fireside chat in the offline mode. The week will also mark the launch of Hub-CE(Climate Entrepreneurship), a sustainability oriented business support platform which has been set up at Porvorim.

“Among the many events that have been planned, ‘Climathon Panaji’ is one such orchestration that invites students, researchers, data analysts, and professionals to develop data analytics solutions for climate,” shared Pratap Raju, Founder, Climate Collective. Ahead of the ‘Smart-City’ proposition for Panaji, such an initiative strikes a balance between policy, environment, and organizational projections. A virtual event, this solution-oriented climathon will take place from 23rd to 30th October 2021.

Joshi added, “In a creatively aligned exploration, the  Social Impact Photography Challenge on Instagram has been instituted. The objective of this challenge is to capture the raw, unfeigned, and oppressive reality of society to convey a strong social message, with a call for action. Strategized on the theme of sustainable development goals, the challenge calls for pictorial  appropriation of Poverty eradication, zero hunger, gender equality, peace, and justice, among others”. This challenge, being open to all, will run for a week; from 7th-13th October 2021.

GIM, the premier B-school that recently stepped it up a notch in the 2021 NIRF rankings which saw it scale the rank to the 35th rank.

Said Prof Ajit Parulekar, Director, GIM, “GIM has consistently been committed to creating an ecosystem that fosters sustainable practices and creates positive social impact. Adopting sustainable practices is at the core of GIM’s mission and we have been taking adequate measures for the past decade.” Speaking further on AICGIM, he added, “Since its inception, AICGIM has served as an active knowledge and resource catalyst for the development of promising entrepreneurs and had aided in accelerating the growth of early stage organizations from ideation to marketplace success. We aim to offer much needed impetus to Clean tech startups through the newly formed Climate Data Incubator in collaboration with The Climate Collective Foundation.”

“Seeking to create the next generation of climate conscious business leaders, this event will give impetus to both, contemporary business solutions and social responsibility propositions. To achieve this feat, the ‘clean-tech’ ideology is a pervasive theme in all the events scheduled for the power packed week.  Climate Collective’s contribution is a welcome prospect, especially in view of its expertise in strengthening start-up ecosystems through ‘circular economy”, added Joshi.

“The ESG Start-up Week encapsulates both, clean-tech provisions, and the concept of  circular economy. While the former indicates use of technologies aimed at improving environmental sustainability, the latter is a more specific notion to re-think the ‘take-make-waste’ concept, employing a model of production and consumption which involves leasing, sharing, refurbishing, recycling, and reusing existing materials to minimize waste generation and the resulting environmental implications,” said Raju.

The progressively designed events that have been lined up are directed towards stimulating  action in the right direction, in addition to raising awareness.