BusinessWire India
New Delhi [India], August 17: Siyona Munjal, Captain of the Young Earth Heroes (YEH) Community, led students from across Delhi NCR in a direct conversation with leading consumer brands on sustainability and responsible consumption at the fourth Young Earth Heroes Community Meetup, held recently at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
The meetup brought together students, teachers, environmental experts, institutions and businesses, with young participants taking the lead in discussions around climate responsibility, consumption and everyday environmental choices. A key highlight was 'Pooch Ke Toh Dekho', where students directly questioned representatives from Hyundai Motor India, Bisleri and Tetra Pak India on carbon emissions, product life cycles, plastic waste, recycling and corporate responsibility. The conversations encouraged students to look beyond the products they consume and understand their wider environmental impact.
Speaking at the meetup, Siyona said, "Our generation has access to an extraordinary amount of information, but information alone will not create change. We must learn to ask questions about the things we buy, the resources they consume, where they come from and what happens to them after we discard them. Pooch Ke Toh Dekho is not about confronting businesses. It is about creating informed, honest conversations between companies and the young consumers who will increasingly influence the choices markets make. Young people should not only be taught sustainability. We should be given opportunities to participate in shaping it."
Siyona's own sustainability journey has combined advocacy with hands-on community action. Currently studying at Marlborough College in the UK, she has pursued her interest in climate solutions through programmes including Brown University's Summer School on Climate Change and Solutions, while also gaining hands-on experience through community initiatives. Her work with Magic Mitti, for instance, involved supporting women waste-pickers who convert organic waste into compost. The initiative helped facilitate the sale of nearly 4,000 kg of compost, while creating greater awareness around waste segregation, composting and the circular economy.
Now, as Captain of Young Earth Heroes, Siyona is focused on taking that thinking to a wider community of young people. YEH has engaged more than 1,200 students across leading schools through environmental programmes, community initiatives, leadership forums and carbon-footprint assessments.
Under her leadership, YEH has also expanded its work to climate resilience, supporting the Government of Delhi's Heat Action Plan with guidance from the Delhi Science Forum. As part of this effort, YEH volunteers distributed more than 150 cotton gamchas and 200 ORS sachets among outdoor workers and vulnerable residents, including daily wage earners, sanitation workers, rickshaw pullers and delivery personnel.
Siyona believes that greater access to resources must come with greater responsibility. "Those of us who have greater access to resources also have a greater responsibility to examine the environmental impact of our lifestyles. Sustainability cannot only be about what governments or companies should do. It must also make us uncomfortable enough to examine our own consumption. The hope is that Young Earth Heroes can become a community where we learn together, act together and also have the confidence to question the systems around us."
YEH has so far engaged more than 1,200 students across leading schools through awareness programmes, community initiatives, environmental leadership forums and carbon-footprint assessments.
The fourth meetup reflected this growing student ownership, with young members introducing sessions, engaging speakers and participating in discussions with businesses, environmental experts and institutions. Ranjan Rayna, Co-founder and Chief Strategist, CauseBecause, which conceptualised Young Earth Heroes, said the initiative aims to create opportunities for young people to participate, question and take ownership of sustainability conversations.
For Siyona, the objective is ultimately to make sustainability part of everyday decision-making. "When consumers begin asking informed questions, companies become more conscious. And when companies become more conscious, they are more likely to make responsible decisions and communicate their progress more honestly. That is why asking the right question can itself become an act of change."
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