In the years of human existence we have accomplished a long journey towards development. However, over these hundreds of years of technological evolution, our earth has faced the repercussions of our actions in many ways. The ever increasing threat to our ecosystem, climate conditions, and natural habitat is dreadfully alarming. Years of careless industrialization, wasteful use of scarce natural resources, and the human willingness to disturb the functioning of the ecosystem is leading to a massive diminishment in the ability of the earth to support a healthy lifestyle for us.
Nevertheless, if we still care to optimally utilize our resources, the technology, and impart some innovation into the solutions; we � collectively- can come across great ideas to curb the various problems of global warming, climate change, and other threats which have occurred to the earth. Globally, many reforms, projects, and initiatives have been launched in the last few years to promote the efforts of people towards sustainable development and better living conditions. As a result of which, many renowned personalities, NGOs, communities, industry leaders, and Not-for-profit organizations have published ideas, and taken major actions towards various divisions of the overall problem.
The launch of the 17 sustainable goals by the United Nations has been the most prominent step towards ascertaining a tangible target for the whole world and various institutions that are willing to work for the cause. In the same stream of ideas, one of the most promising initiatives that took place in 2008 is, the Earth Care Awards. It emerged from the series of environment awards in India. The motive of the initiative was to promote the efforts of various local visionaries who have generated innovative ideas and action plans � in regards to the problem of climate change � to be implemented as climate- friendly methods of production and consumption for different industries. Thus, in the past 9 years many corporate, institutions, small and medium scale enterprises, communities, etc. have participated in various ECA award categories to be analyzed, recognized, and promoted for their idea/plan/action towards mitigation of climate change. In the past, the green award winners have been significant contributors of innovation and action towards various reforms for climate action such as improvising energy efficiency, compressing greenhouse gas emission from industries, conserving natural resources, developing production and consumption alternatives to ensure less accumulation of industrial waste, promoting economical and sustainable use of industrial resources, etc.
The earth care awards also cater as a platform to enhance regional cooperation among the SAARC region, in terms of consigning technology and sharing knowledge regarding various aspects of development. Since SAARC is that region which accounts for 1/5th of the entire population of the world within 3% of the total land area of the world; it has to face various economic challenges. Therefore, in 2008 the member states of the region called for an SAARC action plan towards climate change. The ECA community caters to the purpose by recognizing and sharing innovative ideas, promising practices and actions among the regions. Hence, it contributes to an eco-friendly development of the region.