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Environmental action (One Step Greener) · INDIA

Vihaan Agarwal

Delhi co-founder (with his younger brother Nav) of One Step Greener in 2018, aged 14 — after the 2017 Ghazipur landfill collapse he realised the link between waste and air pollution, did not want his family’s waste to contribute, and conceived organised dry-waste pick-ups; his self-described role is the “big picture” one, and his asthma is recorded only as KidsRights and AP frame it. JOINT winner, Children’s Climate Prize 2019, Clean Air (aged 15), and International Children’s Peace Prize 2021 (aged 17) — both joint with Nav, never solo. Scale figures are dated snapshots only: 1,000+ households and 173,630 kg recycled (KidsRights, 2021); 25,000 households and about 600,000 kg (Stanford, April 2024, the organisation’s own figures).

Aged 14 at the founding (2018), 15 at the Climate Prize (2019) and 17 at the Peace Prize (2021)

Delhi · India

Vihaan Agarwal standing among trees and greenery — the cover portrait of Stanford Global Health’s profile of him
Vihaan Agarwal among trees — the cover photograph of Stanford Global Health’s April 2024 profile of him
Image source ↗ · Courtesy of Vihaan Agarwal / One Step Greener (via Stanford Global Health)
Source photograph · credit and provenance below

BEHIND THE RESULT

The link between waste and air

Vihaan Agarwal was 14 when the Ghazipur landfill collapse of 2017 showed him the link between Delhi’s waste and its poisoned air. Living with asthma that often kept him indoors, he decided his own family’s waste would not feed the landfill fires. In 2018 he co-founded One Step Greener with his younger brother Nav, coming up with the idea of organised dry-waste pick-ups that grew from 15 homes into a city-wide service. “I am more of a big picture person,” he told KidsRights, describing how the brothers divided the work.

From 15 homes to a city

At 15, in November 2019, Vihaan jointly won the Clean Air category of the Children’s Climate Prize in Sweden with Nav. On 13 November 2021, aged 17, the brothers jointly won the International Children’s Peace Prize, presented by Kailash Satyarthi in The Hague; by then One Step Greener was collecting from more than 1,500 homes, schools and offices.

A spark to explore

Vihaan later took the work with him to university: a Stanford profile in April 2024 reported the organisation serving 25,000 households, with about 600,000 kilograms of waste recycled and more than 40,000 trees planted — the organisation’s own figures, reported with their date; later publicity claims were not verified at an organising body and are not used. Vihaan’s asthma made pollution personal for him — is there a problem in your own neighbourhood that affects you directly enough to act on? That is a question from us, not part of his record.

Source-based story · the activities are prompts for readers.

Open the article edition →

The achievement, in context.

International Children’s Peace Prize 2021 (joint with Nav Agarwal); Children’s Climate Prize 2019 — Clean Air (joint)

Delhi co-founder (with his younger brother Nav) of One Step Greener in 2018, aged 14 — after the 2017 Ghazipur landfill collapse he realised the link between waste and air pollution, did not want his family’s waste to contribute, and conceived organised dry-waste pick-ups; his self-described role is the “big picture” one, and his asthma is recorded only as KidsRights and AP frame it. JOINT winner, Children’s Climate Prize 2019, Clean Air (aged 15), and International Children’s Peace Prize 2021 (aged 17) — both joint with Nav, never solo. Scale figures are dated snapshots only: 1,000+ households and 173,630 kg recycled (KidsRights, 2021); 25,000 households and about 600,000 kg (Stanford, April 2024, the organisation’s own figures).

2021-11-13 · Supporting source ↗

Sources you can explore.

KidsRights · winner story: Vihaan (17) and Nav Agarwal (14), 2021 ↗Organising body report

Children’s Climate Prize · official winners page (2019) ↗Organising body record

Associated Press via India West · ceremony report, 13 November 2021 ↗Wire report

Stanford Global Health · profile of Vihaan Agarwal, 19 April 2024 ↗University profile

Original source ↗

Another spark to discover.

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9 when he received the national award in January 2024

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Human RACE ↗Source photograph · see credit