IIT Madras Director Prof. V. Kamakoti emphasized teaching sustainability in schools from age 5 to help achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. Speaking at the i2I Challenge, he highlighted 38 student-led eco-innovations across India promoting circular economy, climate resilience, and technology-driven solutions for a sustainable future.

New Delhi: To achieve the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the lesson on sustainability must begin in schools, said Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, on Saturday.

Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of the institute’s grand finale of the second edition of ‘Ideas to Impact’ (i2I) Challenge, Kamakoti said that children as young as 5-years-old must be taught about sustainability.

Prof. V. Kamakoti's Statement

“When I address schools, I keep saying that starting from the age of 5, children must be taught about sustainability as that's extremely important,” the Director said.

“Planet is really at peril, and we need to basically look at things we need to control ourselves, in the usage of resources, the way of living, habits, etc. Unless we do that, reaching the Sustainable Development Goals is going to be very, very difficult. So even at the school level, we must start teaching sustainability,” he added.

He noted that as sustainability-related components are part of every sector, it is important to put them into practice with "education, technology, start-ups”.

He also spoke about the i2I Challenge held in the IIT Madras campus, where 38 eco-innovations developed by young innovators from across India were showcased. Each was aimed at advancing sustainability, the circular economy, and climate resilience.

“We have 38 teams all over India, as far as Jammu and different parts of India. Each of the team has come with excellent projects, specifically targeted towards sustainable development goals,” Kamakoti said.

“There are 17 sustainable development goals, as promoted by the United Nations. Almost seven or eight of these goals are being addressed by the participants here. They have come out with products that can potentially translate to very effective solutions where we reuse some of the waste materials or reuse some of the natural energy that is provided to us,” the Director told IANS.

“Across the world, every country has a commitment towards sustainable development goals. Being a large democracy with a 150 crore population, 1.5 billion population, technology is the only way by which we can meet those goals. And so, promoting that technology is extremely important,” he added.

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