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Sustainable Startup Stories

Skin-CareSustainable Startup Stories

Vishisht means Exclusive

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

On a mission to promote a healthier planet, Vishisht is an Eco-friendly brand offering all-natural skincare products handcrafted in small batches using clean and pure ingredients. Also, it delivers the products in Eco-friendly packaging and tests the products on actual end users i.e., humans.

Inspiration

Vishisht started as a result of the skincare problems of its founder Namrata. “I had developed some rashes one summer and none of the moisturisers available in the market helped. I learned about the harmful chemicals found in these moisturisers and their potential damages to our skin. I started looking for natural alternatives and learned about different carrier oils such as extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, Argan oil, Shea butters, pure essentials oils etc. I subscribed to the newsletters of some Ayurvedic doctors and skincare specialists.

I started formulating products on my own which worked really well. I started giving out my products to friends, family and people with different skin types to try. My products worked well on everyone. After trial and error, R&D for one year, I launched the brand with around 10 products. Today we have 15 products in total”

An accountant by profession, Namrata really liked her job and it paid well, however, she wasn’t feeling fulfilled. I felt like  I have some purpose and I have always wanted to do something of my own and when I came across my skin problems, I found my calling.

The Struggles – Running a business always brings challenges everyday. We faced difficulties explaining to people as to why it is important to switch to natural skincare. People found the products to be expensive too. So such kind of struggles and something or the other happens everyday. I am used to all this now.

The Milestones, – We were listed among the Top 500 startups in South Asia by Innopreneurs Startup Contest, we were among the Top 10 Personal Care Product Companies 2021 by Silicon India Magazine, and we received a Small Business Grant by Facebook in 2020. We have been featured on Better India and LBB. So far, we have recycled 100+ jars, diverted more than 100+ kilograms of plastic from landfills and oceans, and reduced 5,400 kilograms of CO2.

Vishisht offers all products in zero-waste and completely recyclable packaging. The brand gives their customers an option to return their jars in exchange of exclusive discounts. Also, it offsets 100% of our CO2 emissions.

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Sustainable Startup Stories

Minus – crafting plastic waste

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

A young team headed by an IITian and Niftian, launched Minus Degre, with a wish to change the perception of plastic to the world. As the name suggests,  Minus Degre, Minus stands for Reducing the impact of plastic pollution While Degre for Closing the loop by recycling of Plastic waste.

“The plastic that we use every day and throw can yield as products and profit like gold. If the resource is channelized by recycling and upcycling. We want to create product keeping in mind the aspect of sustainability, a community which is of the people for the people and by the people”, says the duo Rahul & Vikas. Everyone at Minus Degre firmly believes in a beautiful quote by WILL.I.AM that “Waste is not until we waste it”

The Motivation

There was a time, plastic was not in trend. We used fabric bags, glass bottle, tin cans and what not. That was the time when people were believers of reuse, regenerate and recycle. My grandmother is example of it. she used to craft product out of the single use plastic like plastic wrapper & shopping bags, old clothes and also she used to use single use items till the time it’s not usable like using plastic bottle for storing oil & salt, coconut shells for storing spices etc.

Now things have changed, we moved to a faster culture, where we left behind the “Regeneration” culture. That is what we plan to bring with Minus degre “Regeneration culture”. In India we generate 25940 tonnes of plastic waste every day, making us largest contributor of the plastic waste in packaging sector. More than 1/3rd of total ” branded plastic ” ends up in the landfills: milk pouches, wrappers, etc. which is majorly from household.

At Minus, the short-lived household plastic waste is converted into product which can help not letting the plastic to end-up in landfills. We aim at reducing the genesis of virgin plastic by replacing it with reused and recycled plastic products of superior quality. We believe in a more realistic approach to the plastic problem. Plastic is not waste as long as we create value from it. Which is why we believe that the world should move from the misuse to reuse of plastic. It is the wiser thing to do – for our planet, for our businesses, for our communities. We want build sustainable future around it.

The Process

It all starts with collecting plastic waste from industries, ragpickers and kabadiwalas, washing them to remove dirt’s & label, drying, and then segregating based on grade of plastic and colour. Then these are shredded into small flakes which are again properly cleaned to remove left-over dirt. They are dried to remove every bit of moisture from it. These flakes are then moulded into required shape and products are then sanded and polished to give smooth finish.

The Inspiration

Before the COVID plastic pollution was high but with the onset of COVID there have been drastic increase in the plastic consumption in form of mask, PPE kit, food packaging as we preferred safety over environment concern. That is not the problem, the real problem is that we disposed them irresponsibly and this irresponsible behaviours of ours that is mounting additional stress on already stressed situation of plastic pollution.

Plastic is one of the most versatile material that we have ever developed. It uses expanse from simplest one like spoon, toys to most intricate one like parts of airplane. It takes around 400 years breakdown plastics so why not utilize its durability rather than just letting rot and pollute the environment.

We see this situation as an opportunity as thing that is trash for other is gold for us. The vast untapped potential in current situation, durability & versatility of plastics and the positive impact that our initiative will bring to environment and society inspire us in present moment and is also wiser thing to do – for our planet, for our businesses, for our communities. We want to build sustainable future around it.

The Accomplishments

Now, we have an online community of 1k+ people, our own live website, and our products are listed on 10 sustainable e-com platforms. Our solution has already given us a footprint in India as well as in Europe, UAE, and North American countries. And our recent collaboration with the US Retailers- Anthropology and with KIA helped us venture into corporate giftings. Moreover, Minus has been featured in numerous prestigious newspapers like The Indian Express, Platform Magazine, etc. for our work.

We are quite positive about the coming future because people are realizing how our activities impact the environment. Most importantly the “culture of Regeneration” is back. We have been seeing the shift toward the sustainable approach and this gives us hope.     

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BeautySustainable Startup Stories

Ataasii – Promoting various aspects of conscious living

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

It all started when the founder went on a holiday from work, and decided never to return. The break exposed her to an alternate way of living. To how necessary it is to be mindful – in every aspect of life. Whether in the food she ate or the kind of exercise she carried out. Or even the way she communicated. That was the moment of awakening and soon was born Ataasii.

Based in Hyderabad, Suhani Dewra, the founder of Ataasii named the brand after the name of the protagonist from an unpublished book she had written as a teenager. Originally Ataasii is a blue flower of Indian origin.

“When I created Ataasii, I wasn’t thinking business. I just wanted to talk about somethings. I felt that there was a need of a platform like this to educate people of the details we, as a world, have ignored,” Suhani recalls. Thus was formed a platform with a magazine section for people to read about various conscious practices and a store with all things natural – soaps, shaving bars, candles, body scrub, face pack, etc.

About the founder:

Prior to establishing Ataasii, Suhani worked as a communications professional with the media and corporates. Even before she founded Ataasii, she had a strong impulse for focusing on self-care. A personal trait that was hidden and needed honing became her professional calling and that’s how Ataasii came into existence.

The journey:

Ataasii started small in 2020. Really tiny. On Instagram. The idea was to establish a magazine that spoke about various aspects of conscious living. But instead of including Ads to drive the revenue, Suhani chose to attach a store that would house stuff related to the content the magazine produced. “Ads can deter the viewing and reading experience,” she confirms. Strangely, the magazine section got lost (it definitely exists) while the store gained popularity.

The journey has been organic and slow-paced. The pandemic, of course, had the world at a pause. However, the founder is not complaining. For her, “things will happen when they are meant to happen.” Her only concern is to ensure that whatever little gets done, gets done well.  

The business has been promising but fluctuating in the last one year, from when the world started moving. At times it is flourishing with corporate orders coming in. And at other times, there’s a complete standstill.

The magazine section which is more like a blog now will soon see a physical copy of all the interviews published there.  

Bottlenecks in the journey

There are and were several bottlenecks for team Ataasii. The pandemic played a spoilsport. The world was shut down and therefore they didn’t see activities taking place. It was difficult for them to stay motivated in such times.   

To interview people for the magazine, they find it hard to scout people who follow a conscious lifestyle. “This leads to delay and the delay leads to lackluster entrepreneurial attitude,” says Suhani.   

Speaking of the store, there are several players who are already established in the same genre making the buyers unsure as to why should they gravitate to a newbie brand. Also, Amazon is a competitor they can’t compete with. “It’s a losing battle,” Suhani informs. Most people naturally tend to buy products from Amazon. 

The USP

To be specific, the store is confident of the products they house. “You have to use our face pack and bath salts and the scrub and the pain relief balm, you will come back asking for more,” Says a proud Suhani. Some of these products are what she has been using on herself for years, much before they become part of Ataasii’s store. “We know what we are doing,” adds Suhani.

The Mission

The company’s mission is to document many more interviews of individuals and speak about every aspect of conscious living. With this in place, the brand aspires to have a storehouse to create far more varieties of conscious products, say a jute bag or a yoga mat. 

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handamade, natural skincare
BeautySkin-CareSustainable Startup Stories

Lavanya – A  Natural Handmade Produce, from the Himalayas, Uttrakhand

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

Lavanya, a handamade, natural skincare brand from Uttarakhand, came into existence due to the skin allergy faced by  Megha Maheshwari, a hotelier and HR professional having worked with Taj group of hotels.  Her Mother in Law, Shiv Shakti Bhatnagar came to her rescue with natural homemade treatment based on Ayurveda.

“This sparked the idea of using our OWN heritage of Grand mother’s & Great Grand mother’s secrets of natural & homemade beauty recipes. Reviving forgotten recipes gave birth to Lavanya in October 2020”, says Megha

All its products are made of 100% Natural. Preservative- Free, Paraben-Free, Chemical Free, Cruelty-Free and Alcohol Free. And the raw materials are sourced under personal supervision & handpicked by Himalayan village women in Uttrakahand. These are then grinded in water mill (gharrat)

As our products are handmade there may be imperfections and their Shape, Size, Weight, Color may vary from each other but the authenticity of the raw materials is guaranteed

Challenges

There are a few challenges as every start-up faces.  We are currently creating small batches. Also, our product range is in dry powder form  and not in ready to use format as we don’t use any preservatives.  We are exploring and experimenting with available local herbs to be used as natural preservatives.

Milestones

We have sold to almost 1,000 customers till now and there is not even a single negative feedback. We are currently selling through Instagram and participating in government exhibition and through the word of mouth

Products being offered : 15 variants of soaps, 3 variants of body and face cream, 5 variants of Lip balm, Hair Oil, 4 variants of Face Pack, Face scrub, anti-acne pack, 3 variants of lip and body scrub and face oil.  Trials are under way to introduce body oil essential oils, navel oil and face and body wash

Vision

Our vision is to bring our vedic ayurvedic science back to the modern world which has better effects than synthetic chemicals, is reasonably priced and also provide a livelihood to our Himalayan villagers and help them sustain

Availability : Instagram Lavanya.beauty.products

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SustainabilitySustainable Startup Stories

Canaveda, hemp-based consumer products from Nepal

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

Canaveda was established by Pratik Karki with an intention of finding sustainable solutions, Today, there is nothing that Canaveda isn’t able to do when it comes to hemp as they manufacture hemp yarns, fabrics, garments, paper, bioplastics, glass, food products, cosmetics and more.

Canaveda,  a hemp-based consumer products company headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal,  opened its doors to business in 2019 after five years of research and development and successful initiation of large-scale production in 2018. Today their products are primarily exported to European markets, the United States, Middle East and a small share is also sold to local distributors in Nepal.

The global hemp industry has showed tremendous growth in the last decade and estimated prospects term the industry has highly lucrative over the next five years. Across the world, businesses of various scales are entering the industry with a rising demand for hemp yarn. While our portfolio incorporated finished products up until mid-2020,

“We intend on becoming the largest exporter of hemp yarn to global businesses in Nepal. It is possible to use hemp for a variety of day-to-day products and materials. Our current scope of work using hemp ranges from basic aspects such as hemp research, processing, production and recycling of hemp fabric, to the assessment of hemp-based construction materials. In doing so, we address many concerns that worry the world. Our work inherently addresses issues and helps toward environmental conservation, generation of employment, preservation of culture and a pressing need to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. To this end, Canaveda is doing everything in its capacity to champion the Sustainable Development Goals put forward by the United Nations, and playing its part toward global development.”, Says Karki.

Fair Business Model

Our business model is a fair trade model as most of our revenues and profits are committed to be invested back for the community to empower the lives in the grassroots where with our intervention, the whole industry is uplifted as we have been able to save some of the dying industry with hemp and nettle as the farmers weren’t getting enough benefits where we established a public company, Udhyogi Group Public Limited to provide shares to the farmers as well. Our vision is to transform the world with sustainable alternatives.

Canaveda’s Achievements:

  1. Built a supply chain in around 47 districts out of 77 in Nepal and also have developed a global supply chain in Europe, USA, Africa and Asia in over 7 countries.
  2. Developed the first hemp and nettle yarn in Nepal with a proprietary technology.
  3. Built the first hemp consultancy in Nepal for the world.
  4. Have over 100,000 hectares of community forestry for this project with National Scientific Forestry Association
  5. Developed over 400 types of hemp products.
  6. Established over 5 showrooms in India and Nepal.
  7. Launching different textile brands in Europe, USA and Asia.
  8. Developed the first bio-degradable sanitary pads out of hemp.
  9. Developed hemp glass cups and bottles.
  10.  Developed hemp biochar as the best fertilizer for growing hemp and other products.
  11. Developed over 150 types of fabrics out of hemp and over 50 fabrics out of nettle, neem and other natural fibers.

Canaveda’s Goals

We want to set up a local, independent and sustainable economic circle in Nepal, which helps the younger generation to find employment locally which will remove the need to travel to foreign destinations in search of work. This economic opportunity for a common Nepali will pave the way to social upliftment and elimination of many problems. Lastly, we also want to expand on our international export network through new distribution channels to provide local producers with more market options; this will help them make sound and profitable choices.

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FoodSustainable Startup Stories

All you need to know about THE CONSCIOUS BAKER

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

“It all started with the thought of providing healthy, nutritious and tasty food without letting go of either of the characteristics”, Akshay Sandu, Co-founder, The Conscious Baker

The Conscious Baker, a food start-up that makes No Refined Flour and No Refined Sugar products and provides an end-to-end solution for all the dietary needs without compromising on nutritional values. A one-of-a-kind bakery with all offerings diabetic-friendly, no sugar in any form (no honey, no jaggery etc.) no refined flour and everything made from scratch.

Tamara, (co-founder and business partner) and Akshay noticed the gap in the market for a truly healthy bakery because according to the, what normally happens in India is that people tend to hide a lot of ingredients. The basic rules for packaged food are very lax, and there’s also a general lack of awareness about what goes into the making of a product, especially packaged foods. “We wanted to change that perception. While it’s easy to hide an ingredient or two from your buyer, compromising on the overall quality of our offerings just for better business doesn’t appeal to either of us. Desserts needn’t always be your cheat meal. We offer the healthiest possible desserts while still maintaining the taste. And, that’s the USP of the Conscious Baker.

About the Founders

Albeit hailing from a finance background, fitness has always been Akshay’s calling.  On a personal front, he always wanted cleaner ingredients in his diet and would like to offer the same to customers too.  Prior to her foray into the food and beverage entrepreneurial bandwagon, Tamara Dzousa had a decade and-a-half-tryst with the hospitality sector. Brands like Della resorts, La folie, and Provenance, along with a few homegrown brands in New Zealand fall under her list of clienteles.   

The Journey

The founders started their journey in June 2019 with the launch of their first retail outlet Protein Rush – A 360-degree fitness café, serving sugar-free, refined flour-free, high protein meals ranging from pizzas to salads to protein shakes. The aim was to offer a healthy twist on all the traditionally frowned upon unhealthy but tasty dishes. The cafe was crowned “The Best Health Food Cafe” in the eastern suburbs at the coveted Times Food & Nightlife Awards 2020. Continuing this journey towards providing a complete solution for healthy food, they launched The Conscious Baker in March 2020, an end-to-end solution brand for all dietary needs without compromising on nutritional values and taste.

Bottlenecks in the journey

The venture was started in the midst of the early pandemic, the consequences of which were to shut down the business by the end of March 2020. They were forced to make a few necessary changes like re-working on the business strategy as per the industry situation at that time. The blessing in disguise was the amount of R&D that went into understanding the market &  product sampling led them to focus and invest more in the chocolates. Realising the dearth in the availability of healthy desserts, they decided to foray into the arena of desserts.  Technically, desserts cannot be healthy, but, can certainly be made a lot healthier than what’s currently being offered in the market.

The USP

“Our products are the USP and we take pride in offering the widest range of Chocolates.” Most of our products have a good amount of shelf life. The chocolate used in our products is made in our chocolate lab from pure organic cacao beans, sourced from the very best south Indian plantations. The resulting chocolate is Sugarfree (Maltitol free), Vegan , Keto , Gluten-free and ready to go into your favourite bakes. This makes us the only brand that makes its own chocolates to be used in desserts, allowing us to experiment with our products/offerings in a completely unique way. 

The Mission

Our mission is to gain maximum visibility and would like to cater to the different age groups of people. What we want for our consumer is to dig into a gooey cake slice or chocolates and not feel guilty about it.  We want to tweak the concept of guilty indulgence and make the idea of sinking your teeth into your favourite dessert a more fulfilling, and blissful experience.

The Conscious Baker – helping you make better and more informed dietary choices

theconsciousbaker.in

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Sustainable Startup Stories

ecoSansar – a Zerowaste online store for the conscious urban consumer

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

“At ecoSansar, we are creating a market place for end-to-end sustainable options– Everything that you would need for a zero-waste lifestyle from a sustainable source”, Gayatri Joshi, Founder, ecoSansar. Gayatri, an engineer working in the IT industry is now a mom and a social entrepreneur!

Every inch of the road was covered with plastic and dead entangled marine lives…yes, that really happens…not somewhere far away, but very close to our own homes, in oceans, in lakes and streams and we are directly impacted!

Inspiration

Having been brought up in Mumbai before settling in Bengaluru, oceans and beaches had always been a very integral part of my life. During the Mumbai floods in July 2005 the ocean literally threw all the garbage back into the city and that’s when the magnitude of our disposable plastic problem really hit me! and I stopped using plastic as much as possible. Thats when the seed of ecoSansar was actually sown which later took root in June 2018, starting with rural handicrafts

Moreover, after having a family I realised how it was getting increasingly difficult to run a household without plastic. I figured that like me many other consumers must be wanting to live a more ecofriendly life but may not be able to due to lack of options. That’s when the idea and vision of ecoSansar was born, with the goal of being part of a solution to the single use plastic problem.

ecoSansar took shape in 2018

ecoSansar started almost 5 years ago in Bengaluru with sustainability and equal opportunities as its core business values. What began as a venture to promote rural plant fiber based handicrafts in the urban market, went on to improve the sustainability impact further and added daily life items like groceries, home essentials and self-care products.

To ensure end to end sustainability and to avoid plastic packaging, ecoSansar began working on the principles of circular economy which states that all resources should be put to use until its end of life and only then sent for recycling. Their USP is that all the packaging is collected back for reuse, thus AVOIDING single use packaging waste.

We take back our packagings and Reuse for Refill. This is an essential part of our zerowaste delivery process as we make sure that our packagings are repurposed, functional and make use of existing resources. 

The Struggles

Awareness and consciousness towards carbon footprint was very low when we had started. And so every consumer had to be nearly taught about sustainability. Also, switching to sustainable lifestyle is a habit breaking process for everyone which requires a bit of unlearning and so even if the consumers are aware of the benefits of sustainability for themselves and the earth, the adaptability has been slow. A complete lack of any government support in terms of subsidies and environment friendly policies, the change is not economically competitive compared to the current ‘Use and Throw’ lifestyle. This limits the market size of sustainability to only the ones who can afford it which in turn limits the impact. The pandemic of course came with its own share of problems and we were forced to shut our store to cut costs. We are currently working only in an online format and still going strong. 

The Milestones

Every single packaging that gets repurposed/reused for refill is a victory for us as we save almost 58 gallons of water for every 1500 packagings saved from landfills. 

Mission & Vision

ecoSansar wishes to enable an urban lifestyle that can be guilt free and sustainable. We want to give our consumers the choice of conscious consumerism, where you can live without harming the beautiful environment! Nature has a circular system to ensure everything is back in the cycle and nothing is wasted, a wonderful rhythm which allows every living being to thrive! This circular cycle is what we are immensely inspired by and are trying to incorporate it into the urban lifestyle! Zerowaste can be a reality and we are inching towards it one product at a time, one conscious citizen at a time!

Website: www.ecosansar.com

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Sustainable Startup Stories

GOADOS – a 100% women-led ethical & sustainable fashion brand

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

For Kolkata born and raised Sanah Agrawal, her natural inclination had always been to create something that will preserve India’s varied crafts and culture. Thus, growing up in the beautiful state of West Bengal, which is home to incredible craftsmen and artisans, the zeal to bring these heritage textiles and techniques into contemporary wear began. And, given the current state of the fashion industry, which is dominated by polyester, nylon, and synthetic fabrics that are harmful to the environment, the idea of creating a sustainable and eco-friendly brand GOADOS.

She completed her MBA with a specialization in marketing, and after a series of roles as a digital marketing and branding specialist, she began working with Tata Trust as a behavior change consultant for Swachh Bharat Gramin and never returned to the corporate sector. After working in the development sector with Tata Trusts, Sanah founded GOADOS in 2021.

“GOADOS is an ethical & sustainable fashion brand where we use indigenous textiles and techniques to make contemporary clothing. All our products are 100% handwoven and plastic-free. We believe in making a sustainable lifestyle and wardrobe more accessible and available to all. From the very start have strived to give back, from using Handwoven Khadi to using Coconut Waste Fibres for our upcoming collection”, says Sanah, the young and dedicated designer.

Sustainability is the key Pillar

One of the key pillars of GOADOS is sustainability. The brand has a dual approach to being sustainable. First: it is an eco-friendly and ethical brand that can give a new silhouette, aesthetic, and market to the dying indigenous crafts, and provide an opportunity for artisans and craftsmen to continue their generation-old rich art. Their  first collection was made entirely of handwoven Khadi cotton. The materials were sourced, woven, dyed, and built locally.

The second is by using environmentally friendly techniques, fabrics, and closures. They are using Coconut Fibre waste and Banana Peel waste fabrics alongside the Handwoven Khadi Cotton in their upcoming collection. And do not use or incorporate elastic and synthetic blends in their products at all.

An all-women team

GOADOS is a 100% women-led company including all its vendors and employees. “This wasn’t intentional but has somehow just shaped itself this way, and we are very proud of that”.

Initial roadblocks

Starting something new is bound to bring challenges and they did and still do face our fair share of them, starting with – Starting a fashion brand on a small budget, Navigating the unfamiliar fashion industry, entering the competitive market of homegrown brands, figuring out a secure and swift way to connect with the artisans and follow deadlines, as most of their craftsmen reside in the rural parts of the state- establishing an effective communication was a challenge yet a priority. And the biggest challenge was to curate a solid design team, create clothing that did not use elastics or any synthetic material, and to still make it fit the body. These were to name a few of their initial roadblocks and struggles.

Future plan and the vision

With dedication and hard work, the brand aims to incorporate textiles and techniques from all over the country, not just from Bengal. “We want to make indigenous textiles a part of people’s daily lives and clothing and encourage our consumers of all ages and preferences to choose a sustainable brand over fast fashion. And we intend to use new and innovative textiles in our upcoming collection, which heavily incorporates food/crop waste textiles”.

Check out their collections at www.goados.co


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ProductsSustainable Startup Stories

Neeman’s – shoes made for you and the environment

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

The launch story of the brand might sound peculiar, but it came into being when Taran Chhabra and Amar Preet Singh, were going to Spain for a holiday. While packing their shoes, they realized that we were packing more than a couple of pairs for different purposes and occasions, which led to space and weight. So, they started looking for one pair that would suffice all their needs. When it didn’t happen, the duo themselves decided to produce comfortable footwear for all-day wear, but with the added trait of making them sustainable. Thus started the journey of Neeman’s.

Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Taran has worked in the USA in business analytics and strategy for various companies. While Amar, a veteran in operations with over 15 years of experience, has worked with various start-ups. Started in the year 2018 by two shoe aficionados, Neeman’s is India’s first footwear brand that uses Natural, Renewable, Recycled and biodegradable fibres in its shoes. Thus, the driving force behind the brand is innovation.

Neeman’s uses natural and renewable materials that reduce carbon footprints. Furthermore, all the materials usedfrom the uppers, insoles, soles to packaging, are high quality and eco-friendly. It also fills the gap of one shoe for anytime, anywhere purpose.He leads the R&D and is the visionary behind launching some unique fibres in the Indian footwear industry that were unheard of and unexplored. “Research shows (according to Quantis, a sustainability consulting group) sneaker production accounts for 1.4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. And let’s not forget that India is the 15th highest plastic polluter globally.

The challenges, Victories and the milestones

The challenge for any new brand entering the market is to garner attention, especially since marketplaces have become increasingly crowded and competitive. However, at Neeman’s, it was also about informing people about sustainable footwear and its importance. So marketing and sharing the story, USP, is essential during the initial months. Furthermore, as all companies dealt with the pandemic and the lockdown, so for us too, it was a speed breaker but, thankfully, not a roadblock. Victory for brand Neeman’s come in the form of customer’s acceptance. As a relatively new footwear brand trying to do something different by introducing revolutionary sustainable footwear, the customers have appreciated the comprehensive collection of shoes.

Since the launch, the brand has introduced many revolutionary fibres in the Indian market. The journey started with Merino Wool Sneakers made with Merino Wool that comes from Australian Sheep and is the finest and the softest wool and also apt for all year wear. People have valued the planet-friendly pairs made from natural yarns and materials that are harmful to the environment. This feedback indicates that the Indian customer is open to sustainable and comfortable footwear.

Future Plan

In addition, it is also looking at expanding categories and strengthening its commitment to the planet by being a sustainability champion through comprehensive research and development. Expanding offline presence and opening a flagship store in the future is also on the cards. Launching the international operations of Neeman’s is another aspect under consideration.

Vision: Creating Neeman’s, a brand that is synonymous with comfortable and sustainable shoes for all day wear. Being in the business of sustainable footwear, we took a revolutionary step of recycling the PET bottles into a shoe that offers supreme comfort and reduces carbon footprints. Every pair of ReLive Knits uses eight PET bottles . Neeman’s has so far recycled over one million PET bottles

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Sustainable Startup Stories

Mitti Ke Rang – A social venture to empower women across the country

by Team Conscious Carma
written by Team Conscious Carma

Hailing from Bhusawal, Maharashtra, Amit Jain, Co-founder, MItti Ke Rang, was barely  3 years old when he lost his father. His grandfather opened a tailoring shop for his mother and his cousins supported them which helped him to survive.

After graduation, Jain came to Pune in 2012 with 1,000 INR to look for a job and within a month’s struggle got a job at The Bank of New York Mellon. And his life took a drastic change.

Mitti Ke Rang took shape

He was lucky to get support from his relatives during their struggling day, now when he had enough, he wanted to help and support the needy. In 2014, he started a social group with Saket Deshmukh, where they started collecting clothes from people and donating them NGOs and slum areas. Soon volunteers started joining them and their group started getting bigger, and they named it Mitti Ke Rang (MKR).  For a couple of years, they kept doing various social activities alongwith their full-time jobs.

Having realized  there were many women in their community Pune, looking for opportunities to earn a livelihood, In 2019, Amit took a drastic step and left his cushy bank job to give MKR his full time and attention and help empower women economically..

Soon, they started training women entrepreneurs to make cloth and paper bags and got a few orders which helped them introduce more products for Diwali like tea light candles and sold more than 52,000 units in 40 days and generated Rs 17,500 each for five women entrepreneurs.

After Diwali, Amit decided to backpack across India, to meet women entrepreneurs across rural areas and understand the women entrepreneur ecosystem and challenges they faced in their businesses. “I had a plan to backpack across India covering Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Arunachal to Bombay. I started from Mumbai and went till Kanyakumari, then from there till Arunachal Pradesh. Then a lockdown happened due to which I got stuck in Guwahati for 70 days”, says the young social entrepreneur

During that journey, he met a lot of women entrepreneurs in different cities and after interacting with them, concluded that while many women want to start their own business, technology and social media as a means to promote and sell their products posed a big challenge for them.

“We thought that we already have a platform, so why not assist all such women entrepreneurs with the platform to ease the process and help them get the customers from across the globe. And by end of December 2020,  they started full-fledged operations of their e-commerce site by end of December 2020. We feel proud to say the MKR turned the Covid crisis into an opportunity for several women entrepreneurs. Many of them started the business at home as an experiment and now they are looking at making it mainstream and expanding it”.

Roadblocks and important milestones

There were many roadblocks, when we took this full time we did not have a full-proof plan of what products we would be making. Then, slowly we kept improvising. When we thought now we have some good plan, Covid came in. Everything got halted for some time.

Initially, Logistics was a big challenge and making people aware of the platform. But, over a period of time with everyone’s support and hardwork, we were able to pass all hurdles and create more livelihood opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

In a year of launch of our e-Commerce platform, we have bagged 5,281 Ordersfor our women entrepreneurs from all over the country. Also, we have onboarded more than 200+ Women entrepreneurs from 25 states in India.  And, Shipped to more than 250+ cities, and 5 countries.

Your mission and vision

Amit, all of 30 years and Saket 33, are currently bootstrapping this beautiful social venture and are aiming to support more and more women entrepreneurs with livelihood opportunities by selling online through Mitti Ke Rang

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