Did you know that some of the most efficient household washing machine uses 60 – 70 litres per wash? Whether you look at this in absolute terms (25,500 litres per year per household conservatively) or as a percentage of the average per capita consumption of water (~ 30%), that is a lot of water used just for washing clothes. Mimbly ( https://www.mimbly.se ), a three year old Swedish startup comprising of four employees, is ready to do something about it. An innovation that grew from a student project in the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, Mimbly is getting...
Sustainable Packaging Series Part 2: Changing the game with Bioplastics – Phabio Enterprises
Taking a vacation was always accompanied by a tinge of sadness and frustration for Sukanya Dikshit, founder and CEO of Phabio Enterprises. The plastic waste lying around marred the beauty of the location. While most of us simply leave with a feeling of frustration, Sukanya decided to do something about it. In Part 2 of our Sustainable Packaging series, we showcase Phabio Enterprises, led by Sukanya Dikshit. Armed with a Masters degree in biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology, Rourkee, Sukanya began researching on sustainable alternatives to plastic. After much experimentation, she selected beer waste and food waste for in-depth...
Sustainable packaging Series Part 1 – Changing the Game with Bio-Plastics: DHRITI BIO SOLUTIONS
Image Courtesy: Dhriti Bio Solutions
Beyond the Bag Challenge
Re-invent the Plastic Bag How do we re-invent the traditional carry-home bag? Leading retailers – Target, Walmart, CVS Health among others – have come together to throw out a global challenge to all innovators. Launched by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag and led by the NY-based investment firm, Closed Loop Partners, the Beyond the Bag initiative aims to reinvent the single use retail bag, “with the goal of identifying, testing and implementing viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag”. The $15 million initiative aims to create a global competition...
Community Kitchen Waste Composter
Marigold is a solar composter suitable for community as well as individual domestic kitchen waste composting needs. It has been deployed in several communities, office complexes and households.
5 Things to watch out for in the Sustainability Debate post COVID-19
We have seen a lot of articles and news on the positive impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on the environment in India and across the world. While the changes have been phenomenal, it is unreal and unreasonable to expect the situation to remain the same forever. We predict that at least in the short term, sustainability is likely to take a hit. Here are the top 5 reasons why: REASON # 1: Oil is Cheap! As of writing this piece, the price of 1 litre of oil is 0.12 USD. While this is causing economical concerns, there is a huge...
Covid-19 & Our Earth
With Covid-19 forcing us to adopt alternate lifestyles and ways of doing business, is it not time for us to pause and think where exactly lies the balance: between need and luxury, between convenience and attempting change, between reducing travel and resuming social contact?
Innovative Idea to eliminate plastic during Marathons and other Events
Recently, my 10-year old came across a video showcasing edible water balls. I have to preface this by saying my 10-year old is extremely passionate about the environment, and needless to say she was intrigued, as was I. So we read more… Here’s the story in a nutshell. In 2013, Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier cofounded Skipping Rocks Lab with an intention to make sustainable packaging, or, in their own words, packing that disappears. Their sustainable packaging, called NOTPLA, is made from a combination of seaweed and other plant extracts. This packaging is edible or can biodegrade in about...
The Writing in the Air
What if you had been told that every time you drive, you can generate ink? Seems fantastic, but here is a company that does exactly that. Born in the labs of MIT, Graviky Labs was set up in India in the year 2016 with the idea of turning air pollution into ink. Anirudh Sharma was a graduate student in science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), when he came upon the idea of turning particulate matter into ink. He was not far off because one of the components of black ink is carbon black, the same stuff That particulate...
Responsible Buying
Consumer packaged goods are items that are used everyday by average customers and that require routine replacement or replenishment. Examples are food, beverages, household products. Today, consumer packaged goods are available in several convenient sizes and consumers do not think twice about discarding the packaging once the product is over. The world’s largest consumer good companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Nestle have recently woken up to the problem. The plastic waste generated from the discarded packaging is piling up in landfills and oceans. While there are efforts to address the problem of plastic bottles at end-of-life as...