The Indian Institute of Technology — Madras (IIT-M) has launched the School of Sustainability to teach and facilitate interdisciplinary research on sustainability, decarbonisation, behavioral and industrial change.
The school will offer a minor course in sustainability and an interdisciplinary Master’s programme in the subject and had planned to provide a variety of sustainability-related capacity building programmes to working professionals.
Inaugurating the programme on Saturday, Jayant Sinha, Member of Parliament and Chairperson, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, said: “Dealing with sustainability and decarbonisation is the biggest scientific and engineering challenge of our times. I want all of us, as scientists and engineers, to really focus on what we need to do to get us to sustainability.”
In addition to teaching, the school will focus on basic scientific research, technology development and transfer, real world project implementation and policy advisory activities, said Ashwin Mahalingam, Head, School of Sustainability.
Kala Vairavamoorthy, Executive Director, International Water Association, speaking on integrated research on all sustainable development goals (SDG), said: “The focus of this school in trying to link SDG 6 [Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all] with all 17 SDGs is very important.”
According to V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT-M, the school will bring together researchers and industry from different domains to discuss, develop and deploy solutions targeted towards the SDG. The school signed MoUs with universities such as Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany, and Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean, Alumni Corporate Relations, IIT-M; and Rajnish Kumar, Associate Head, School of Sustainability; were present.
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