A frame of our natural heritage

Chief Guest Ms. Valsa Nair Singh, Envi­ron­ment sec­re­tary, Maha­rash­tra State holds up one of my ready-to-frame prints

On 9th April 2011, Cen­tre for Envi­ron­men­tal Research & Edu­ca­tion organ­ised The Car­bon Map & Cap™ Con­fer­ence at Vivanta by Taj Pres­i­dent, Mumbai.

The Car­bon Map & Cap™ Con­fer­ence 2011 was organ­ised by the Cen­tre for Envi­ron­men­tal Research & Edu­ca­tion (CERE) and is designed to help multi­na­tional cor­po­ra­tions, small busi­nesses and indi­vid­ual offices move towards becom­ing envi­ron­men­tally respon­si­ble. Through this con­fer­ence CERE hopes to facil­i­tate a shift in cor­po­rate India to a sus­tain­able growth plan that is both eco­nom­i­cally viable and socially and envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able through the imple­men­ta­tion of a new clean and green busi­ness model for a low car­bon future. — The Car­bon Map & Cap™ Con­fer­ence 2011 Report.

The con­fer­ence was a huge suc­cess, you can read more about it in the The Car­bon Map & Cap™ Con­fer­ence 2011 Report.

As a token of appre­ci­a­tion each of the promi­nent speak­ers, pan­elists and the mem­bers of the inau­gu­ra­tion panel received a ready to frame pho­to­graph — an orig­i­nal black and white pho­to­graphic print signed my me — spe­cially cre­ated for the occasion.

It all hap­pened when Dr. Rash­neh Par­di­wala, Founder & Direc­tor — CERE, informed me about The Car­bon Map & Cap™ Con­fer­ence and shared her idea of dis­trib­ut­ing memen­tos that were some­thing novel, not metal or plas­tic shields. She sug­gested that it would be great if CERE could give pho­tographs of our nat­ural her­itage to the dignitaries.

Dr. Par­di­wala explained that she want to give some­thing that the speak­ers would cher­ish and that would remind them of the con­fer­ence and of the many frag­ile ecosys­tems that make up our environment.

After some brain storm­ing we agreed on twenty five black and white prints – 12 inches by 18 inches in size, mounted but not framed, so the dig­ni­taries could trans­port it with ease and choose a frame to suit their liking.

You rarely come across a con­fer­ence aimed at cor­po­rates that gives nature and wildlife prints as memen­tos to its speak­ers. It was quite an impres­sive idea. The prints were not being given away as free­bies nor were they being included in the attendee kit. They were for the most impor­tant peo­ple of the day — and that added a lot of value to the prints.

Some of the prints given at the con­fer­ence are avail­able for sale as Lim­ited Edi­tion prints on my web­site at http://www.meethil.com/prints/