Honeywell India has received a ‘Special Commendation for Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility’ for 2017. The award recognizes Honeywell’s Safe Water Network initiative in Telangana, which provides safe water access to more than 300,000 people in areas that suffer groundwater contamination.
The Golden Peacock Award has become a hallmark of CSR excellence in India and is given after an intensive three-level independent and quantitative assessment, culminating in a final selection by a top-level jury chaired by Hon’ble Justice Dr. Arijit Pasayat, former judge of Supreme Court of India.
Vikas Chadha, President, Honeywell India, said, “This award is a great recognition of our longstanding partnership with Safe Water Network, with whom we are building 100 safe water stations in Telangana. This CSR initiative seeks to help reduce incidences of water-borne diseases, increase productivity, and reduce healthcare costs in the communities we serve.”
As it does in business, Honeywell applies a long-term vision for CSR projects, leveraging the operating rigor of an annual business plan, to closely monitor and measure impact and outcomes. In the last three years alone, Honeywell’s CSR programs in India have touched more than a million lives. “Honeywell is committed to improving the world we live in by creating, supporting, and nurturing outstanding CSR programs that make real, sustainable, and measurable impact on communities that Honeywell serves,” added Chadha.
In the last three years, through this award-winning program, Honeywell and Safe Water Network set up locally-owned and operated safe water stations that deliver safe, affordable, and reliable water adhering to Bureau of Indian Standards 10500 water quality standards to those in need.
Ravi Sewak, Country Director, Safe Water Network India, said, “Community engagement is key to promoting safe water adoption. Without the widespread and well-analysed buy-in of community leaders, a safe water station is highly unlikely to be successful in providing service. This includes a complex series of steps that introduce, educate, assign responsibilities, and organize a way forward with the community and its leaders. Our safe water stations though in the villages or peri-urban slums are ‘state of the art’ facilities that leverage ‘Internet of things’ – IoT to deploy analytics and data monitoring tools for improving access to safe drinking water and sustainability. Our oldest water station is nine years old and works with less than 2% downtime.
Safe Water Network has been working alongside communities since 2009 to establish decentralized, locally-owned community water supply systems that provide affordable, reliable and safe off-grid drinking water at a price point of Rs 5 per 20-litre can.
