Progress may be inevitable but at the expense of nature, it causes more harm than good. To give back to the environment that we have taken so much from, the IBA Go Green Society in collaboration with Ismail Industries Limited, Us Pakistan and the IBA Administration, conducted a plantation drive on Wednesday, 13th February 2019.

'When you destroy something by man it's called vandalism but if you destroy something by nature, you call it progress.'

The event was in line with the philosophies of both the institutions and the IBA Go Green Society has been a catalyst in bringing these institutions together on the same platform to launch this activity. This has helped further their cause towards environment conservation and sustainability that both institutions are staunch believers of. IIL and Us Pakistan started the 'Plant a Tree' campaign which has worked on planting more indigenous and beneficial trees across the city of Karachi and work on their sustainability. IIL generously donated trees and vegetable seeds to the IBA Go Green Society. 163 trees were planted by students, faculty members, and representatives from both IIL and IBA during this event.

The IBA Go Green Society would like to recognise the efforts of Mr. Aamer Shabbir, General Manager of IBA and his team, who played a pivotal role in the success of this drive and its management. Along with Mr. Arif Hussain Nomani Group HR Head of IIL and his team including Ms. Syeda Tehseen Jaffer, Ms. Simra Ahmed and Mr Abdul Rafay without whom this drive wouldn't have reached such heights.

The chief guests who graced us with their presence during this event were Dr. Farrukh Iqbal Executive Director of IBA, Mr. Hamid Ismail CEO of Bisconni and Snackcity and Founder of Us Pakistan, and Mr. Ahmed Ismail CEO of CandyLand whose support and effort for this cause is highly appreciated.

The IBA Go Green Society believes this is just the first step towards service to our community and helping Karachi becoming greener and cleaner. Our plan is to scale up our projects, involve the community and people in different localities to take responsibility of the areas they live in. We need the mindset to change and people to realise that the land of the pure needs to live up to its name and that can only be possible if we as individuals start advocating for its beauty and cleanliness.

This activity also served its purpose in engaging the students of IBA and employees of IIL. Such team building and collaborating activities motivate people to understand what the cause is and how their role can leave an impact on the community. As stated by one of our guests, the communities we surround with trees and nature start feeling different; the entire ecosystem changes and the temperature even falls to complement that change. We are just glad to be playing that small role in bringing that change.

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