Centre for Sustainable Solutions
CSS India works at the intersection of climate resilience, ecosystems, and marginalized communities, with a strong focus on low-elevation coastal regions. Their flagship initiative, “Reimagining the Indian Sundarbans,” empowers local communities to adapt to rising sea levels, coastal erosion, and ecological threats through sustainable, nature-based solutions.
Beyond research, CSS translates science into action, building local leadership, influencing policy, and fostering climate literacy. Their work bridges environmental sustainability with social justice, ensuring that vulnerable communities are not left behind in the climate transition.
The Challenge
CSS India’s earlier website was functional but hosted on a proprietary platform. The team wanted to transition to an open-source system that offered more flexibility, transparency, and independence. Alongside this, they aimed to refresh their content and design to better showcase their programs and research in climate resilience, creating a site that was both sustainable and storytelling-driven.
How OASIS Got Involved
CSS India first connected with OASIS (Open Source Alliance for Social Innovation & Sustainability) through a Website Workshop organized in partnership with Aikyam. The workshop introduced nonprofit teams to open-source tools such as Ghost, focusing on how to use them for storytelling, publishing, and digital independence without needing a developer on call.
Inspired by the simplicity of the platform and the idea of community-driven technology, CSS decided to rebuild its website using open-source solutions. OASIS introduced them to Hari Narayanan, an open-source developer who specializes in building lightweight, sustainable digital solutions for nonprofits.
The Solution
The collaboration between CSS India and Hari focused on building a clean, intuitive website that captured the organization’s vision while being fully manageable by the internal team.
- Platform: Built on Ghost, an open-source CMS designed for ease of use and long-term flexibility.
- Hosting: Deployed on DigitalOcean using NGO credits, reducing hosting costs from ₹5,000/year to ₹0.
- Design: A minimalist, content-driven layout that centers on CSS’s climate action programs, publications, and partnerships.
- Collaboration: Hari co-created the site with CSS, ensuring the design language stayed consistent with their visual identity.
- Capacity Building: Hari will be conducting a training session to help CSS manage and update content independently.
The result is a website that is not just aesthetically appealing but also practical, built to scale as the organization grows, with zero ongoing dependency on tech vendors.
Impact & Outcomes
Saved ₹5,000 annually by switching from paid hosting to NGO credits on DigitalOcean.
Content autonomy: CSS India can soon manage and update the website independently.
Open-source sustainability: Ghost provides a vendor-free, long-term digital solution.
Stronger storytelling: The new design better communicates CSS’s vision for climate resilience.
Low-cost, high-impact: Simple, maintainable, and tailored for nonprofit realities.