A big positive change, movement, or revolution often starts with a single idea and one such idea towards sustainability is ‘Sustain and save’ started by Shroff sisters. This idea to conserve the environment came at a time when the world is grappling with a pandemic and several socio-economic problems that have followed it.
Founded by Pranati Shroff, an accomplished Architect, and Ankita Shroff, a management graduate from Imperial Business School, Sustain and Save is an initiative that focuses on bringing simple and affordable perspectives and applications for inculcating sustainability at businesses and homes. With a team of 400+ changemakers, they are successful in bringing a wave of changing mindsets and developing a sustainable consumer habit and brought out a traditional economy to a more resourceful Circular economy.
Adoption of Sustainability:
The need for development with sustainability has been a concern since the late 1990s. However, it is still meagre compared to the mass consumerist culture that is being practised by a major part of the world’s population.
“Developed countries may be developed but that doesn’t necessarily imply that they are sustainable and for these countries, to get rid of the issues such as waste management, composting and global warming are the major focus,” said Ankita in a conversation with the EarthView.
Ankita, further said “Eco-conscious consumers are progressively making the shift from bulky produced goods to eco-friendly goods to reduce the harm caused to the environment. However, whoever is trying to make a switch to a more sustainable lifestyle has struck with the stumbling block of affordability as sustainable products are often priced higher than mass-produced goods. To tackle the same, we bring to you affordable Green Products, Sustainable Initiatives, and inspiring stories from all around the world. We focus on educating people and spreading knowledge on Sustainability thereby creating a greener legacy.”
From using recycled or renewable resources to reducing energy consumption and waste, a universal effort by different startups in India to protect our planet is seen. Sustain and Save aims to encourage a paradigm shift from the classical “Make, Take, Dispose of” model towards a more integrated and sustainable eco-friendly approach from houses to offices.
India is facing a garbage predicament like never before, across the country, cities are drowning in garbage produced. Countering that at the Individual level, Sustain and Save is making conscious choices, doing Segregation at source, Save the landfills, and motivate the people to Live Sustainably. Through different projects, they have collected Plastic, Clothes, E-waste and other wastes from households to be upcycled and enabled a Circular Economy.
Currently, Sustain and Save are engaged in making eco-friendly bricks to save the environment and soon planning to come up with a new product launch.
Setting up the Journey:
Sustain and Save was founded in April-2020 when both the sisters leading a different path united and decided to work together. Ankita described that rambling in Sweden and Norway changed the way to perceive things and gave rise to consciousness of leading a sustainable lifestyle.
“I was overwhelmed by the idea of Sweden and Norway during a trip in 2012, how cities are completely fossil Fuel Free, how Companies and Citizens are respecting Nature and just taking simple steps for living a Sustainable Life. Nature preservation became the whole essence of the trip,” said Ankita
And now when the Prime Minister announced the Nationwide Lock down in March 2020, we realised that resources are getting depleted: Human, Capital, and Natural Resources are getting scarce, and even recurring they were indeed difficult. We need to look at the Earth with a different perception, conceive a movement of Youth to “Be the change, not the problem” and create positive engaging Impact during these tough times and Save resources, be conscious in our choices and simply sustain. It was the time to ‘Save and Sustain’ our planet earth, this thought later evolved into a youth-driven company “Sustain and Save”. A complete solution on Sustainability by the Indians for the world,” says Pranati.
Within a short period Ankita’s and Pranati’s venture ‘Sustain and Save’ got immense response and soon a startup instituted with students to work for the cause of Sustainability, soared with more than 400+ changemakers enrollments and 50+ joining hands of Corporates, 10+ Educational Institutes and Government to support the vision and mission of Sustain and Save of collaboratively working on 3 R principles:
1. Re-Innovate: Design, Produce, and Sell the Entire Chain.
2. Re-Define: Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse to Consume and Use.
3. Responsibility: Accountability and Share to create awareness.
How operations are done at Sustain and Save:
‘Sustain and Save’ consists of a core team of 4 members: Sumesh Karad, Vinita Lulla, Kailash Lahor and Aarya Tupe. Every month a topic such as Plastic Pollution, Fashion Sustainability, Tetrapak Packages, Sustainable City Projects, etc, is chosen. Young changemakers and Corporates work together to make a tangible impact to be measured in numbers in terms of Co2 Emissions reduced, Waste Reduced at Source and Simply, Water Saved.
Inculcating high values, Sustain, and Save is committed to transforming practices to deliver a more sustainable future for all. Working on a Sustainability Technology App, we have so far calculated 35000 litres of water saved, 82 kg of waste segregation at the source, and 1722 Kg’s of Co2 emissions saved. Along with these basic parameters, we have worked on different projects focusing on several types of garbage, in the industry and are on a mission to make Generate Asset out of Garbage, a WEALTH we shall soon value,” highlighted Pranati.
Values at Core :
Ankita and Pranati believes creating worldwide change isn’t done with just one person, it has to involve everyone. So, to involve more people in the efforts to help the environment, it’s important to get younger generations involved in the effort. By fostering a concern for the environment and sustainable habits at an early age, parents and teachers can raise children who will be more concerned with environmental issues. Though schools will teach a bit about sustainability, real teaching can be placed at home.
“Generations should be evolved and must be better than the last one. Establishing habits like recycling at a young age will more likely stick with kids as they get older. Since long back teenagers are enhancing their conscious way of consumerism, and diffusing environmental values at a young age will help. Children are our future, so it’s important to train them about environmental issues so they can continue to help create change together. As to establish a habit in children is easier than to teach them a new habit as they get older. Using reusable bags at the grocery shop in front of children will let them interpret this as the normal way of shopping and this shall inculcate them to do the same as an adult,” suggests Pranati
To apply the same values Save and Sustain have taken up the task to educate a minimum of 100 children every month as sustainability is not part of a curriculum and one must be aware of its produced carbon footprints.
Sustainable living is about respecting the limits of the earth’s capacity to provide. Sustain and Save value it and find the self-sufficient way of living working uniquely by using 3 R principles – forging powerful partnerships and delivering ground-breaking initiatives to support more sustainable economies and society, and successfully tied up with the Pune Municipal Corporation, FICCI, CII IGBC, Swedish Government, IKEA, TetraPak and Big Names who are now working with this Startup Making waves in Sustainability.
Shroff Sisters concludes, “Our mission is to help people improve their quality of life by offering information and products for a sustainable living making the world greener and a better place to live.”
Written by: Manoj Khetan