Bangalore based event management company Nose To Tail designs green events. Aishwarya Lonial and Indraja Khare, friends turn into partners are now designing green event throughout India. It started with a graduation project and turned out to be a successful event management company. Any event on an average produces approximately 1.89 kg of waste, 85% of which can be landfill, depending upon where and what kind of occasion it is. Nose To Tail wanted to deal with this environmental issue sustainably and the solution was green events.
In conversation with The Earth View, Aishwarya Lonial, Co-Founder spoke about the concept and challenges of being Nose To Tail. She said, “The idea behind bringing green event was to reduce waste and to save the environment as there is so much pollution in the world already. We try to minimise every waste and to introduce green culture event to everyone. We have many volunteers and many self-help group women, we teach them and pay them for their share of work. “
Started in 2018, the firm has already organised 20 weddings and 6 corporate events. The process of eco-friendly events starts from the start, from an Invitation which is made of recycled paper. All the decorations are handcrafted from up cycled and natural materials like paper cuttings, woollen threads and clothes, flowers instead of plastic flowers. The same decor reused and re-designed for future events, thus reducing waste. The local flowers are used minimally after the event it is collected by the organisations recycled into products like Holi Gulaal and incense sticks. The cutlery used in the event is glass or degradable material like leave straws and paper plates. The leftover food is later donated to needy. An essential part of the event is waste management. Their team strictly segregates the waste with Nose to Tail. They make sure the end happens in the right way, tied up with waste management companies like Scarp. We dispose off all the waste correctly, either for the composition or for recycling.
“As a guest, you learn a lot from an event because we have so much things written around the material which is used differently and obviously it makes a more significant impact on the environment because the scale at which event is to design a lot of unsustainable waste is produced compared to what Nose to Tail does. Green events do not mean bland and colourless. All our events are tastefully done,” mentioned Aishwarya
Green events may sound cool, Nose to Tail underwent lots of challenges. Aishwarya said, “It is easy to explain eco-friendly events to the younger generation, but their parents want things to be carried traditionally. It is a bit difficult to make them understand the importance of sustainability, why it is essential. It feels great when they understand and start adopting a sustainable lifestyle.” Nose to Tail believes that the concept of gifting is a very wasteful area. Wrappers and fancy decors are trivial. Nose To Tail gives hampers made of the bamboo basket with eco-friendly products in jars. Well-thought gifts which are supporting the green concept are trendy amongst the guests. Aishwarya further said, “There is a lot of change in the past decade and shift of ideas and beliefs. People have become more aware and switch to sustainable products. It is not an easy entrepreneurial journey, but we are confident of making a difference.”
She also suggested steps to save the environment and said, “It all starts with individual home. Waste segregation and composting go a long way. Avoiding plastics is very critical to the environment. If we all go back a few years in traditional India, we had a culture of plastic-free shopping things. So we all must go back to basics and use more eco-friendly products.”
“Be conscious! Make a wise decision which is in favour of mother earth too. Your one decision can make a tremendous difference,” she said as she signs off.
Written By: Vartika Prasad