The main objective of the Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD) is to incorporate knowledge from the biophysical and social sciences to better understand and engage with societal issues pertaining to the environment and development.
It is widely understood today that environmental issues cut across disciplinary divides. Thus, understanding and studying them, as well as educating a new generation calls for disciplinary and cross-disciplinary perspectives and openness to the varied frameworks, worldviews, and values about the environment. Furthermore, environmental conservation goals are often tightly tied to development goals. Thus, environmental science education needs awareness, appreciation, and knowledge about the social context of the environment. The centre looks to advance both the disciplinary and cross-disciplinary possibilities that can promote sustainable development without losing sight of environmental diversity, equity, and social and environmental justice.
Apart from holding activities at the university such as seminars, conferences, and workshops to achieve this end, the centre looks forward to building synergies with like-minded stakeholders across academia, civil society, and public and private sectors for education, research, innovation, and action. The Centre stands for values such as transdisciplinarity, environmental diversity, sustainability, justice, inclusivity, and openness to diverse perspectives that will foster intellectual growth, education, and research.
Members (Internal and External):
Dr. Amit John Kurien (Director) & Dr. Soundarya Iyer (Co-director)
Activities Organised
1. Visit to IIHS Kengeri campus on 12 May 2023 to examine laboratory instrumentation and to gain insights on building a campus environmental observatory for continuous monitoring. Prof. Jagdish Krishnaswamy, Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability, IIHS shared his expert knowledge as well as gave us a tour of their laboratory.
2. The Centre for Sustainable Development along with Centre for Victimological Research and Victim Assistance organised a student visit to the exhibition ‘Mental Health at the Margins’ curated by Dr. Neethi P, Yashodara Udupa and Sofia Rajan at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) on 26 April, 2023.
3. Talk by Prof. T. S. Gopi Rethinaraj, Professor of Physics, Sustainability and Public Policy, Sai University on ‘How long before we run out of oil?’ on April 12, 2023.
4. Student and faculty participation in the Foundation for Agrarian Studies Annual Lecture delivered by former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam, Dr. Cao Đức Phát, who is currently Chair, Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute. The talk was at St. Joseph’s University Auditorium, Bengaluru on Wednesday, March 29, 2023
5. CSD hosted an interactive session, in collaboration with the Foundation for Agrarian Studies, Bangalore, for agrarian scholars from different universities and research institutes in Bangalore. The scholars got an opportunity to interact with Professor Barbara Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford, during this session.
6. RVU participated in the Campus Bird Count from 17-20 February 2023. Campus Bird Count is a subset of the global Great Backyard Bird Count, 2023, a global citizen science initiative that began at Cornell University in 1998. At RVU, the event was coordinated by students, led by the Green Alliance (Environment student society). This was the first time that the birds on RVCE campus which spans roughly 50 acres were identified and enumerated. More than 30 students across its different schools participated and spotted 40+ species of birds including coppersmith barbet, white-throated kingfisher, golden oriole, barn owl, Asian green bee-eater, purple sunbird, among others. Student participants received certificates of participation.
7. Talk by Prof. J. Srinivasan, Distinguished Scientist, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, IISc organised by the School of Computer Science and Engineering and Centre for Sustainable Development on December 9, 2022.
8. Students visited the Birdsong exhibit curated by the Indian Music Experience Museum to learn about Indian birds and their melodies and songs on December 5, 2022.
9. Students and faculty visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium on November 12, 2022.
10. Students and faculty visited Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bengaluru on the occasion of National Wildlife Week on Thursday 6 October 2022.
11. Guest lecture by Dr. Stuti Haldar, IPCC author and researcher, IIHS on Climate Policy in October 2022.
12. CXO Lecture Series – Talk by Mr. Ganesh Shankar, CEO FluxGen Technologies on ‘Idea to minimum viable product’ on June 15, 2022.
13. Hosted several other distinguished speakers for lectures such as Prof. Nihal Perera, Professor of Urban Planning, Ball State University, USA as well as Prof. Reetika Khera, Professor, IIT Delhi.
14. The Centre for Sustainable Development (CSD) was launched on 6 June 2022 at RV University by the honourable Vice Chancellor, Prof. YSR Murthy, and our young Environmentalist Pranav Devatha on the occasion of World Environment Day.
Pictures from past events
Future events planned
Roundtable discussion on Rethinking the pedagogy of environmental science in India
Collaborations / Partnerships
1. Collaboration between SELCO Foundation and RV University.
2. Collaboration between NatureDots – New Delhi and RV University
3. RV University has joined the international network of researchers, funders, think tanks and universities called Adaptation Research Alliance. There are over 100 organizations in this network. See https://www.adaptationresearchalliance.org/membership/our-members/
