Hosur (Tamil Nadu)-based teenage water conservation activist Vibish Kashyap Balaji (14) is the new star ambassador of Project Sunlight, a CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative of the Mumbai-based consumer products behemoth Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, annual revenue: Rs.1413,847 crore). Launched in 2013, the objective of Project Sunlight is to œmake sustainable living desirable and achievable by inspiring people to look at the possibility of a world where everybody lives well and within the natural limits of the planet.

Currently a class X student of the CBSE-affiliated TVS Academy, Hosur (TVSA, estb. 1990), Vibish has been an active participant in the school’s go-green initiatives, planting saplings and cleaning lakes in and around Hosur. In 2013 while still in class VIII, this green crusader signed up with Reap Benefit, a Bangalore-based NGO, which is advising TVSA on water saving and development projects. Reap Benefit workshops are unique and provide a platform to ideate and implement a whole range of water conservation ideas, says Vibish.

Following an informal Q&A conducted by representatives of Stratum Films, commissioned by HUL, Vibish was pleasantly surprised to find himself shortlisted as a Project Sunlight ambassador. Three months later, after his speech was approved by the Los Angeles-based director of Stratum Films, Vibish played the role of a village boy persuading village residents to practise water hygiene in an ad film.

The younger son of Balaji Mallikarjunan, a senior manager in a private firm, and Sai Priya, a homemaker, Vibish gives due credit to the TVSA management for its environment awareness. I have also been greatly inspired by my elder brother Rishi, and the founder of Reap Benefit Kuldeep Dantewadia, he says.

A consistent academic topper, Vibish has set his sights on medical studies. Currently burdened with preparations for his class X CBSE exams, in the new academic year Vibish plans to utilise his prize money (Rs.5 lakh) to fund a sanitation drive in government schools. œI will work with Reap Benefit in ten schools in and around Hosur which lack hygiene facilities. Together, we intend to implement sustainable grey water harvesting systems in these schools, he enthuses.

Way to go bro!

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)