You don’t always need heavy technological ideas to start up a business. Most of the go-green firms help in paving way for the illiterate to work upon. Here is an example of a entrepreneurial firm set up by Lakshmi Menon giving a new view of recycling a pen.
Interior, jewelry and product designer Lakshmi Menon in Ernakulam, Kerala. Made pens from recycled paper, her pens have seeds enclosed within the layers. After use, throw the pens and the seeds will take life.
Lakshmi, 42, who worked as an artist with a gallery in San Francisco and lived in the US from 2000 to 2008, returned home and started working on improving the status of artists and the society and then came the story of the birth of the pen project named Entree (my tree).
The next phase saw several trials and errors before she successfully made the product named Open With Love — “with” being the Malayalam equivalent of “seed”. It was launched in April 2016 and initially, seeds of chilli, spinach, cucumber, guava, etc were used. Now, she uses the seeds of Agastya tree (Hummingbird tree or Butterfly tree), all parts of which have medicinal value. The pen has takers from across India and abroad.
Each pen costs Rs 12 and carries a leaflet with information on the seed enclosed. A machine was developed to roll the paper, sourced from printing waste from a nearby press. To do the rest, Lakshmi has employed seven women from the neighborhood. The team makes more than 1,000 pens a day.
Sarga, founded by Sunil Mande is basically involved in creating Eco-friendly fabrics and furnishings. It uses organically developed or naturally available fibers like organic cotton, bamboo, lyocell, modal, flax & jute. These fibers are not subjected to pesticides of any kind. Sarga also ensures that its products are completely Eco-friendly and biodegradable by making sure the accessories like prints, dyes, threads involved in the process are harmless to the environment.
As a three-member team one textile engineer, one production manager and one person to deal with the administration Sarga which is an eco- friendly furnishing company and is now planning to move into the apparel segment as well. It also sees a sizeable demand for industrial application of fibers also known as ‘technical textile’ be used in jets, wind turbines, car bumpers, car panels etc. Sarga is exploring options with General Electric and National Aerospace Laboratories at the moment.its quite good to know that they started only with an initial investment of 3 Lakhs on thier own and 5 Lakhs from angel investor Morpheus ventures.
Another interesting firm is Back to the Roots (BTTR) founded in 2009 by Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez as a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm. Since then, Back to the Roots has transformed into a unique company focused on bringing sustainable grow-at-home products into households across the country! Their vision is to serve as a standard bearer of innovation and responsibility in their community in order to inspire others to work towards a more sustainable future.
Further more creative firm like the one by Emily Wilkinson who became increasingly alarmed by the environmental impact of disposable plastic bottles. So she decided to channel her concern into action. The result is the botlfilter–a portable water filter that challenges the problem, providing filtered water, on the go, without harmful plastic waste. This innovation delivers fresh tasting filtered water anywhere good tap water is available. It’s Emily’s contribution to reducing plastic waste in her community.
There are so many such entrepreneurial ideas as well as firms which beyond the requirement to make profit works with a premise goal for the betterment of the society and the list never ends!!
