Tag: #UrbanSanitation

  • HCLFoundation expands My Clean City for sustainable waste management

    HCLFoundation expands My Clean City for sustainable waste management

    HCLFoundation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Urban Development Department of Uttar Pradesh to advance sustainable waste management practices in Hardoi, Prayagraj, and Agra under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

    The partnership will focus on strategic planning, pilot projects, policy reforms, and IT-enabled solutions to strengthen urban sanitation across the three cities.

    As part of the My Clean City initiative, HCLFoundation flagged off 10 E-drain carts and 10 E-garbage loaders donated to Hardoi Nagar Palika Parishad and unveiled three reverse vending machines.

    The Foundation is also undertaking city beautification through wall art and developing model markets and wards in Hardoi.

    “My Clean City is a citizen-led program aimed at reclaiming urban spaces with technology inclusion and innovative solutions. This partnership will strengthen efforts in Agra, Hardoi, and Prayagraj—our three new expansion cities in FY26,” said Alok Varma, Project Director, Samuday and My Clean City, HCLFoundation.

    Anuj Kumar Jha, Secretary, Urban Development Department and State Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), Government of Uttar Pradesh, welcomed the collaboration, saying it will accelerate urban sanitation, strengthen waste management practices, and create replicable models for city transformation.

    Launched in 2018, My Clean City has sensitized nearly 750,000 citizens, trained over 100,000 stakeholders, managed 22,000 plus tons of waste, and engaged more than 3,500 school students through its Waste Champions Club in Noida and Greater Noida.

  • HUL Opens 25th revolutionary Suvidha Centres in Mumbai

    HUL Opens 25th revolutionary Suvidha Centres in Mumbai

    Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), in partnership with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), HSBC India and JSW Foundation, on Sunday inaugurated the 25th Suvidha Centres in Borivali, Mumbai, marking 10 years of the innovative urban sanitation initiative. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal formally opened the facility.

    Launched in 2016, Suvidha Centres has emerged as a transformative social innovation model, delivering essential hygiene and sanitation services to over 600,000 people annually. The centres have recorded more than 10 crore service uses since inception, achieving 95% user satisfaction.

    The revolutionary Suvidha Centres model reimagines community toilets into integrated hygiene hubs offering clean toilets, purified drinking water, showers and laundry facilities. Designed for inclusivity, the centres prioritise women, children, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

    Independent assessments show households using Suvidha Centres save over ₹33,500 annually through reduced medical costs and time savings. Users report a 50% reduction in diarrhoeal incidence and low Urinary Tract Infection rates.

    Operationally self-sustaining within nine months, profits from Suvidha Centres maintain high hygiene standards. The centres feature solar power and water recycling systems, saving over 30 crore litres of water cumulatively while building climate resilience.

    HUL is scaling the model nationally through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs via the Centre for Hygiene and Sanitation Excellence (CHASE) and has released the Suvidha Toolkit for wider adoption.

    “I am delighted to inaugurate the 25th Suvidha Centre,” said Piyush Goyal. “These centres serve as comprehensive community utility hubs providing modern sanitation, bathing, drinking water and laundry services.”

    Priya Nair, CEO & MD of HUL, said: “Suvidha Centres brings to life our belief that what is good for India is good for HUL. This financially sustainable model addresses urban sanitation challenges through deep insights and strong partnerships.”

  • KCG, Urbaser sign moU for waste management drive

    KCG, Urbaser sign moU for waste management drive

    KCG College of Technology, a unit of the Hindustan Group of Institutions, has signed a transformative Memorandum of Understanding with Sumeet Urban Services (Chennai) V Pvt Ltd, known as Urbaser Sumeet, to deepen industry-academia collaboration in waste management, sustainability and skill development.

    The partnership aims to build a long-term, industry-integrated sustainability model that directly engages students in solving real-world urban environmental challenges across Chennai.

    Under the agreement, students will participate in clean-up drives, waste management awareness campaigns, sustainability workshops, internships and innovation challenges. The collaboration will also cover hackathons, practical training and professional certification programmes focused on circular economy practices and environmental sustainability.

    A key initiative under the MoU is “Edubridge,” a programme designed to support the education and empowerment of children of frontline conservancy workers — a measure both institutions described as central to social inclusion and community impact.

    Urbaser Sumeet will also serve as the hygiene partner for major institutional events at KCG, demonstrating best practices in source segregation, solid waste management and urban cleanliness systems.

    “Engineering education today must go beyond laboratories and classrooms,” said Anand Jacob Varghese, Chairman, Hindustan Group of Institutions. “When our students walk alongside conservancy workers, manage waste drives and design recycling solutions for their own city, they are not just learning — they are becoming the kind of engineers and citizens Chennai needs.”

    Annie Jacob, Director of KCG College of Technology, said embedding Urbaser Sumeet’s operational expertise into campus programmes would give students direct exposure to one of Chennai’s most critical urban services. “From internships in waste vehicle operations to the Edubridge initiative, this collaboration is built around real impact — not just awareness,” she said.

    Albert Gleiser Ignacio, Managing Director of Urbaser Sumeet, said lasting change in urban waste management begins with how the next generation thinks about it. “Partnering with KCG gives us the opportunity to bring that ground reality into an academic setting and build a pipeline of professionals genuinely invested in sustainable urban systems,” he said.

    The partnership is expected to generate research-oriented projects in waste segregation, recycling systems, circular economy models and smart urban sustainability solutions. Both organisations said they intend to develop a scalable and replicable model for sustainable campus-community partnerships.

    The collaboration promotes the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and seeks to foster environmentally conscious practices across the student community and beyond.

  • HCLFoundation expands My Clean City program to Agra, donates Sanitation fleet to Nagar Nigam

    HCLFoundation expands My Clean City program to Agra, donates Sanitation fleet to Nagar Nigam

    HCLFoundation, which drives the corporate social responsibility agenda of HCLTech in India, announced on Monday the expansion of its My Clean City program to Agra, Uttar Pradesh — the first city outside the Noida–Greater Noida belt to receive the initiative since its 2019 launch.

    As part of the rollout, the foundation donated 10 e-drain carts, two e-street sweeping machines and one HomoSep robot — a mechanised septic tank cleaning device — to Agra Nagar Nigam, the city’s municipal body. The equipment is intended to reduce hazardous manual work while improving the scale and consistency of urban waste management.

    The HomoSep robot, already deployed in Gautam Buddha Nagar, has cleared more than 100,000 litres of sludge across 452 manholes and sewer sites — removing sanitation workers from direct exposure to toxic conditions. The device represents a broader pivot within the program toward mechanisation as a tool for worker safety.

    Since its launch, My Clean City has engaged nearly 750,000 citizens through behavioural sensitisation drives and trained more than 61,000 stakeholders on waste management practices. The program has managed over 17,000 tonnes of waste in Noida and Greater Noida, and runs a Waste Champions Club involving more than 2,400 school students.

    The initiative also carries a social welfare component. Under its Social Inclusion of Sanitation Workers program, 200 sanitation worker families in Gautam Buddha Nagar receive support across health, education, financial literacy and skill development — a recognition that sustainable sanitation reform extends beyond infrastructure.

    Five biogas plants, each processing between 1,500 and 1,800 kg of cow dung daily, have been established in the region as part of complementary clean energy efforts, generating fuel from waste material.

    HCLFoundation said the Agra expansion reflects a strategy of replicating proven urban sanitation models in new municipal geographies. The foundation, which reported having positively impacted over 7.5 million lives to date, focuses thematically on education, health and sanitation, skill development, environment, and disaster risk reduction.