Set up in 2018, Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) is a platform by Wipro and key city institutional partners to facilitate dialogues, conversations, and programs around urban sustainability issues. This initiative focuses on public goods and urban commons, including water, air, and soil, and addresses issues relating to the long-term sustainability of urban and peri-urban landscapes.
Urban spaces around the world are exploding at a rapid rate. By 2030, 60 percent of the global population is likely to be living in cities. Bengaluru is projected to be at the forefront of this growth with an 8.5 percent increase in economic output. Such high growth, though economically beneficial, has negative repercussions on human health and the diversity of non-human creatures that inhabit the city. What must we do to allow all creatures to live a life in dignity with access to clean water, proper waste management, healthy air to breathe and move around freely? Along the lines of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations in September 2015, Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) is a space for compelling discussions, fruitful knowledge exchange, and budding collaborations with the idea to make Bengaluru a sustainable city.
The objective of the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum is to convene and disseminate knowledge on various aspects of sustainability in the urban landscape, with a focus on Bengaluru. The Forum aims to achieve this by encouraging conversation and collaboration across a broad range of stakeholders.
One of the approaches the Forum takes in facilitating the exchange of knowledge is to host invitation-based retreats on specific aspects of urban sustainability. These retreats are a platform to listen and learn about various perspectives and approaches from people of different educational and professional backgrounds on a defined topic in an informal setting.
BSF provides seed funding for projects on urban sustainability in Bengaluru and also offers a small grants program open to participants of the retreats and their collaborators.