~Restaurant body to create awareness across member restaurants with Bengaluru based teenager Garvita Gulhati who has been campaigning the #GlassHalfFullinitiative relentlessly to conserve water~

New Delhi, March 20, 2019: For celebrating World Water Day, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) – an organization representing over 1,00,000 restaurants, is extending support to the #GlassHalfFull initiative requesting restaurants to fill the glass of water half full only unless otherwise requested by the customer. The effort is led by Why Waste?, an NGO founded by Garvita Gulhati. Through this partnership, both Why Waste and NRAI aim to reduce wastage of water served at restaurants.

Gulhati, a Bengaluru based college student, has been campaigning for the cause since more than three years. She recently approached the NRAI for reaching out to the entire restaurant fraternity for creating a bigger impact. In March 2018, Garvita had started a petition on Change.org in this regard which has been going viral since then (petition can be found here – change.org/GlassHalfFull).

“After almost 3.5 full years of convincing restaurants to adopt this method, since our early teen years, it feels truly surreal to see the mobilization finally become a reality. We are extremely thankful to the NRAI for supporting us on this endeavour. They have helped instill in us the confidence that our voices can make a difference and that there are some big fish in the sea who we can count on to have our backs regardless of hurdles and simply being young”, Garvita, founder of WhyWaste? said on the alliance.

Rahul Singh, president, NRAI while taking the partnership ahead said, “97 million people in India do not have access to clean drinking water. This World Water Day, as a part of the #GlassHalfFull initiative, NRAI will encourage restaurants to adopt sustainable alternatives for reducing consumption of water for it to be available to those who need it the most. We will not only sensitize the restaurant staff but customers as well to reduce wastage of water.”

He further added, “NRAI is glad to partner with Why Waste?, an organization aiming to change the mindsets of people towards natural resources, specifically water.”

Along with a stream of online and offline activities, members of the NRAI will place table tops in their restaurants communicating to customers and servers about how they can do their bit to help conserve water.

On March 22, NRAI and Why Waste? will join hands for an event to observe World Water Day’s theme for this year – ‘Leave No One Behind’, being organised at PES University, Bengaluru. It will discuss ways to accentuate the importance of developing a water positive approach in the Indian restaurant industry and illustrate the importance of collaborations between national organisations and youth-led organisations to create a global awareness programmes, like the #GlassHalfFull movement.

NRAI and Why Waste?, through this collaboration, hope to inspire similar alliances globally and take the #GlassHalfFull movement, a simple yet effective way of saving a lot of water, across the world.

Know how to conserve water at your restaurant by clicking here.