NGO's eco record: An office made of waste

The concept of green buildings is only just catching on in India, but now a Delhi-based NGO has gone a step further and furnished its new office entirely out of scrap. Swechha — a youth-based organisation that focuses on environment and social development issues — will be inaugurating what it claims to be India’s first upcycled office on Tuesday, on the eve of World Environment Day.

Tucked in south Delhi’s Khirki Extension, the interiors of the two-storey office is full of green innovations such as lamps made of motorbike silencers, desk partitions made of cycle wheels and a chandelier made of empty coke cans.
Unlike traditional recycling, upcycling entails converting waste or discarded stuff into products of greater value.

The office, with its warm yellow walls and Mario Miranda-esque murals, uses bits of e-waste, too. One wall has a hanging partition made of old computer motherboards.