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Climate change is genuine and today’s generation is well aware of the rate at which our climate is changing.
According to NASA, due to carbon dioxide emissions, the planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit (1.18 degrees Celcius) since the late 19th century which eventually resulted in rising sea levels, shrinking of ice sheets, and melting of glaciers.
All we need to do to bring a change is to bring a collective change in our habits. Meet these four women entrepreneurs who are making the world a healthier place through innovative solutions.
PRACHI SHEVGAONKAR, COOL THE GLOBE
Prachi pursued mass communication at Symbiosis International University in Pune. during that time she learned that there are only 3 decades left to avoid the worst of climate change in India. That time, Prachi and her family took a pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent every year. Prachi then decided to work on developing Cool the Globe which is a free, citizen-led app for climate action that helps individuals reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a target.
This app enables its users to set monthly and annual targets to reduce GHG Emissions and record savings across more than 100 customizable climate actions embedded into their daily life. Through a global meter, every user can also measure the amount of emissions avoided by them every day.
It took Prachi 3 years to finally launch the app. She designed and beta tested the app with about 200 students and then finally launched the app in December 2020.
MIHIKA AGARWAL, DENIMBLU
When Mihika got to know that about 13 million tonnes of textiles, which make up 85 percent of textiles produced, end up in the landfills each year, she was very shocked to learn how much fashion and textiles industries impact the environment negatively.
This led her to launch Denimblu, through this startup she aims to reduce textile waste by reusing denim produced in factories to make products like bags, holders, and aprons.
Mihika tied up with a vocational training center for the disabled in Mumbai with the help of her mentors aiming to provide earnings to the residents by teaching them how to handicraft the bags out of waste denim.
The product price range of Denimblu is between Rs 400 and Rs 800, the company faces direct competition from Dwij, which upcycles jeans into bags. The young innovative entrepreneur ensures that she makes optimal use of social media to raise awareness about the issue.
ZOYA WAHI, ASLEE
Zoya Wahi experienced the damage done by the 2015 earthquake in Nepal firsthand.
She launched Aslee, a business based in Delhi that works in partnership with indigenous Himalayan communities in India and Nepal to make sustainable apparel. These communities help in every step of the supply chain, from harvesting to manufacturing sustainable materials like hemp, bamboo, and nettle. The brand promotes slow fashion and works with teams led by women. While the business was going well in the initial years, the supply chain soon got disrupted due to COVID-19 and there was little business activity for a large part of the year, and resorted to making masks during the pandemic.
BHAGYASHREE BHANSALI JAIN, THE DISPOSAL COMPANY
Bhagyashree has worked in the waste management industry for about 7 years. She is now helping D2C brands to offset their plastic usages through her startup, The Disposal Company, based in Delhi.
She is currently working with 30 brands. The start-up conducts a one-time waste audit to access their plastic footprint, the types of plastic used, and the corresponding quantity. After measuring their dynamic plastic footprint based on their month-on-month sale of products, the brand offsets an equivalent amount of plastic waste on the client’s behalf.
The company works with a network of authorized recycler partners and about 400 ragpickers and waste aggregators across India. They provide them with a target amount of low-value plastic waste from municipal waste and landfills and then, clean, segregate and recycle them.