Exnora International

Exnora International is a non-governmental environmental service organization started in 1989 in Chennai by a social activist called M.B.Nirmal. It focus on preserving nature and preventing environmental degradation. Exnora has directly/indirectly involved over 3 million people in its activities.

The name Exnora is derived from EXcellent, NOvel and RAdical ideas in solving problems of society by involving those who caused the problem.

About the founder

M B NIRMAL served last as the Chief Public Relations Officer of Indian Overseas Bank before he took voluntary retirement. He had served as Chief Manager of a few of IOB major branches including the overseas Hong Kong Branch, Teynampet and Nungambakkam, Chennai, India.

M.B.Nirmal has been a regular guest and visiting faculty to deliver inspirational and motivational lectures on various subjects in the specialties related to Behavioral Science and Creativity at the National Level Apex Training Institutes, such as the Staff Colleges of Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India, most of the Nationalized Banks, Private Banks, Co-operative Banks, Petroleum Corporations, Air Lines, Advertising Companies, LIC, General Insurance, National Institute of Bank Manager (NIBM), Anna Institute of Management and the Staff Training Colleges of many corporate organizations. He has trained the top executives of many of these organizations. He has imparted training to City Managers of forty foreign nations. He has trained top officials of State and Central Governments. Apart from Motivation, his 7th Sense, a powerful Brain Resource Development Training Programme is equally a great success, being attended by the top executives of Government and Corporate organizations as well as members of faculty of Arts & Professional Colleges. 'Study Smarter & Not Harder' for students and 'Effective parenting' for parents are also smash hits. His training programmes are conducted in India and Abroad.

He conceptualized Waste Management for the first time. The revolutionary concepts & innovations are:

A.. Solid waste management (SoWaM) at various levels

• At Source (So-SoWaM- Source Solid Waste Management), • At street, colony, area or settlement (De-SoWaM- De-Centralized Solid Waste Management) • At Village / Town (Ce-SoWaM- Centralized Solid Waste Management)

B. Liquid Waste Management (LiWaM) at various levels

• At Source (So-LiWaM- Source Liquid waste Management) • At street, colony, area or settlement (De-LiWaM - Decentralized Liquid Waste Management) • At Village & Town (Ce-LiWaM- Centralized Liquid Waste Management)

C. FISH CART MAGIC

He made so many innovations and inventions in the field of environmental protection. He converted a fish cart to a trash collection cart in the year 1988 which has become now a moving icon for trash management throughout India,

D. Other Innovations for the Society & Environment

- Sky Farming, vertical farming, vertical composting, Perennial Landfill, Psych Cycling, Cycling Cling,
  NONE Cycling.

Synergy Composting, Thennai Chennai (on growing Coconut trees), “Teach Reach” (An easy to start inexpensive tuition center for slum children), “Helmet or Hell mate” (Novel campaign on the importance of wearing Helmet)

Activities

Exnora's success was in its ability to motivate people and involve them in the sanitation of their area. This became possible by bringing them together through neighborhood communities called Civic Exnora's. The Organisational hierarchy of Exnora is such that there are hundreds of branches/ chapters in Towns, Villages & larger neighborhoods called ‘Exnora Innovators Club (EIC) which plays the lead role in guiding thousands of Exnora subsidiaries, ancillaries, sub branches & net working CBOs called ‘Civic Exnoras’. Over the past decade and a half, Exnora has been able to motivate and form thousands of Civic Exnoras’ across India, who took "Civic pride" in their locality, managed their waste in an environment friendly way and in part were able to participate in the governance of their locality.

The concept of Civic Exnora was introduced first in Adyar area of Chennai in October 1988.Soon this concept spread to the neighbouring suburb adambakkam in 1989, which along with alandur muncipalality's co-operation launched various awareness programs for the residents. The residents who generated garbage got together to collectively solve the problem of solid waste accumulation, by removing and relocating it, in an identified dumping place. A street beautifier was employed and given a tri-cycle to collect waste from door-to-door, all of which were funded by small subscriptions from the members in the community.

The focus has been on waste to wealth programs. Exnora firmly believes it is quite possible to develop different kinds of replicable models to suit different places and situations. The various prototypes developed by Exnora have in fact been replicated often. The vision has been to promote sustainable human settlements, through the promotion of waste management as an income generating opportunity. Practices today by Civic Exnora's include Solid Waste Management, Liquid Waste Management, Rain Water Harvesting and Recycling among others. Participation by Civic Exnora's has been seen in all income groups. This is because member's contribution to financial expenses can be kept minimal. The extra income generated through sale of compost and recyclables will even cover the maintenance costs of the Civic Exnora.

There are about 5,000 such Civic Exnoras in Chennai city and in the various Districts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala and a few other states of the country, covering about 30,000 streets and settlements

The Waste Management of an area is under the purview of the local authority. Exnora has brought about the enactment of Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 through the Public Interest Litigation filed by Exnora in the Supreme Court. This has provided guidelines for municipal authorities to follow in waste management. Exnora has helped local authorities through consultation as well as partnership to manage Zero Waste Centers.

Awards and recognition

Exnora International has received many awards namely the Environmental Leadership Award in November 2005 from the United States-Asia Environmental Partnership, the Best Environmental Service Organisation for 2002-2003 from the Tamil Nadu Government and the Best Practices Award in June 1996 from the UNCHS HABITAT-United Nations Centre for Human Settlements.

Indian Express wrote in their issue dated 26 April, 1992 "Exnora must be the fastest growing service organization in the world".

Economic Times wrote in its issue dated 9 October 1994, "Exnora's concept has become the blue print for people's participation in urban - clean -up".

References

1. Frozen Thoughts magazine. August 2005 edition :Issue 2

2. http://www.indiatogether.org/stories/exnora.htm

3. http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/resources/organizations/ExNoRa.html

4. http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/umc/bestprac/exnora.htm

5. http://www.hinduonnet.com/jobs/0010/05250014.htm

External links

• http://www.exnorainternational.org/
• http://www.homeexnora.org/