The importance given to the progress in the society and the environment is what we could see when Sandisk Bangalore conducted its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity for the month, an innovative concept named iU NewsPaperBag which is a ‘reduce plastics’ campaign to use newspaper bags as a better option in comparison to the usage of plastic bags. To introduce the concept to the employees of the company, Mr. Anil Kumar, Senior Hardware Engineer at Sandisk and Counsellor at i3, who has always been a man of enthusiasm and creativity, initiated to invite iU Cares Foundation to share and execute the project at Sandisk. iU Cares Foundation has had its impact in the society on a large scale through events and campaigns from years and was believed to be the right choice for an activity to create awareness.

The event on the 27th of October, 2015 was successful in creating an impact on the employees to understand how important it is to conserve our environment for a better future. This message was shared by Ms. Kavyashree, IJ at IUeMagazine(www.iuemag.com) and one of the volunteers of iU Cares Foundation, who energized the crowd to open up and stay enthusiastic throughout the event. The campaign had its execution of preparing the  newspaper bags with the introduction of Mr. Sunil Kumar G, who has taken up the responsibility of executing all the projects of iU Cares and is the True IUITE of i3 season 1. Mr. Sunil took over the session and taught the employees to prepare the newspaper bags along with creating awareness of why it is important to be eco-friendly.

A scissor, glue, twines and a few newspapers took the employees back to their school days and they thoroughly enjoyed making these bags which were both efficient and effective. “iU NewsPaper Bag will be a priced possession of mine and I will definitely spread the awareness. Not only did it add fun, put us back to our school days, but it also had a social message. So, do use such bags instead of the plastic bags that you carry because you would feel more proud that you are using something that you made and created” says Chaitra, employee at Sandisk.

While the employees learned to make the bags, the young and energetic lady who helped every individual make the newspaper Bags was Ms. Jahnvi Iyengar, who is an ambassador at i3 and has volunteered for various causes and impacted thousands of underprivileged children in the society. With utmost patience, she ensured to help every individual who was a part of the campaign to make the newspaper bags. “I am energized every time I become the reason for such happiness and it excites me to do more of this. I am truly happy to have been a part of this campaign at Sandisk and thanks to i3 for this great experience” she says.



In the corporate sector where one needs to work for hours together with huge pressure, such activities brings them back to normal and also helps one to be their inner self. While they made bags with lot of joy, there was also a sense of competition within themselves to make bags better than others and more in number. While they made these bags, Ms. Richa Tiwari, HR for corporate sales and functions at Sandisk, was extremely delighted to see this happen and also shared with IUeMagazine, “iU NewsPaper Bag campaign has been an interesting and intriguing CSR related activity and has built a kind of responsibility and ownership in each individual. We have heard from our childhood about using paper over plastic and this was the time we could actually implement it

The bags prepared shall be given to retail shops and underprivileged children to continue to spread the awareness and the employees have also pledged to use newspaper bags wherever it is possible to replace the usage of plastic bags. “After the record of preparing 3,00,000 iU NewsPaper Bags in a single day through the school children, on the 24th of july, 2015, we were glad to see a lot of people showing more interest in the campaign. Thanks to iU Cares Foundation which has always supported and shared opportunities with youngsters to be involved in such campaigns and help oneself be a better human being” says IJ Kavyashree to which Mr. Sunil adds, “Employees of Sandisk have participated in iU NewsPaper Bag campaign and have performed really well. I am delighted that we came here, trained them and we would want companies to conduct such activities more often, which will in turn increase the productivity of the company since they are more energized every time they involve themselves in such activities. Thanks to Sujit Lalwani  sir for the wonderful opportunity”.
While the employees were energized to get back to work, the senior management seemed to be joyous to see them enthusiastic. Such activities do not just help create awareness of the issues in the society or environment, but it awakens the responsibility of an individual in his/her society and also brings satisfaction of contributing to the environment. The effort to bring this change and involve in the social issues to help solve them, is always appreciated and needs to be encouraged. Well done Sandisk!