The World Environment Day campaign at Mindspace Business Parks’ Airoli campus, collected over 2,400 discarded plastic bottles and containers in a single day. Collected Plastic to be upcycled into benches for children at municipal schools across Navi Mumbai
On the occasion of World Environment Day, Mindspace Business Parks REIT (‘Mindspace REIT’), owner of quality Grade A office portfolio across key office markets in India, unveiled ‘Mindspace Leaves a Mark’ – a sustainability-led participative campaign at its Mindspace Airoli Campus, aimed at creating awareness around Navi Mumbai’s mangrove ecosystem and the growing impact of plastic waste on local wetland ecosystems. Undertaken in partnership with Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and NGO Project Mumbai as part of the ongoing Navi Mumbai Plastic & E-Waste Recyclothon, the initiative brought together tenants and employees through an immersive live installation, transforming everyday movement into a collective environmental statement.
Ahead of World Environment Day, Mindspace REIT laid out a 32×48 feet canvas outside a cafeteria and invited people to walk across it, for a purpose far beyond a one-day activation or a community artwork. Theinitiative was designed to build a deeper connection between people and the mangrove ecosystems that protect Navi Mumbai’s coastline, biodiversity, and future. The initiative sought to sensitize participants to the growing threat of plastic pollution, highlighting how plastic waste trapped within mangrove roots gradually breaks down into microplastics, impacting the health of these vital ecosystems and contributing to their degradation over time. To bring this cause to life, over 2,400 participants transformed a blank canvas into a vibrant mangrove ecosystem through their footprints. Green footprints formed the mangrove canopy, while blue footprints created the surrounding waterways, turning individual actions into a powerful symbol of collective environmental responsibility.
The campaign was built around a commitment – for every person who imprints their footsteps on the canvas, Mindspace REIT pledged to contribute one piece of plastic waste that would otherwise risk making its way into the mangrove roots a few kilometres from the campus. By the end of the day, the campaign had collected close to 40 kgs of plastic, including 2,400+ discarded bottles and containers. Based on peer-reviewed field data (van Bijsterveldt et al., 2021, Science of the Total Environment; UNEP 2021), this volume of diverted plastic is estimated to reduce plastic stress on approximately 280 mangrove trees in the Thane Creek ecosystem. Plastic collected has been handed over to Project Mumbai as part of the ongoing Navi Mumbai Plastic & E-Waste Recyclothon, under Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and is being upcycled into benches for children at municipal schools across Navi Mumbai. Upcycled sponges and eco-solvent materials were used throughout the installation itself, ensuring the campaign’s environmental commitments extended to its own execution.
Dr. Kailas Shinde, Commissioner, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation said, “The Navi Mumbai Plastic and E-Waste Recyclothon is built on the belief that lasting environmental change requires every stakeholder – public, people, and private – at the table, and the partnership between NMMC, Project Mumbai, and Mindspace REIT is exactly that model in action. When civic bodies, NGOs, and corporate neighbours work together through a structured, city-wide programme, the impact multiplies well beyond a single event. Mindspace Leaves a Mark is a strong example of what this collaboration can achieve, and of what happens when a corporate takes genuine ownership of the ecosystem right beside it.”
In the weeks leading up to World Environment Day, the campus was activated with footprint-themed installations, standees, and digital communication building awareness around plastic disposal and mangrove conservation. Earlier this year, a part of the larger Plastic and E-Waste Recyclothon, the campus hosted a basketball-themed plastic collection drive and collected 150+ kgs of plastic along with a guided flamingo and mangrove trail walkthrough to create greater awareness around Navi Mumbai’s wetland ecosystem and biodiversity. The initiative will also see mangrove clean-up drives, launch of a community garden beautified entirely from upcycled plastic waste and more. Broader outreach, throughout schools, colleges, and residential societies across Navi Mumbai, has been running in parallel since September 2025.
