‘Revolution in sustainability will be more powerful than in IT’

A “revolution in sustainability” will be more powerful that IT revolution as the people who will get jobs are those in rural areas such as Shivamogga and Tumakuru in Karnataka, Muzzafarpur in Uttar Pradesh and Bhilai in Chhattisgarh, says Rahul Singh, Co-founder, EcoSoul Home, which produces sustainable and ecofriendly products.

“These are the places where the jobs will be created for the people who don’t have very high skill sets, who are not educated in Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Management (IIMs). These will be jobs created for the people in the real Bharat,” he told businessline in an online interaction.

EcoSoul produces a variety of eco-friendly and sustainable range of products such as kitchenware, tableware, and compostable bags totally from agro-wastes. They are manufactured using raw refuse materials such as dried leaves and waste bamboo, thereby preserving the ecosystem.

IN RURAL AREAS

The company, whose products are produced in such rural areas, adds a lot of value in creating jobs and empowerment opportunities in these places. The company is creating opportunities in that part of India where nobody’s thinking about, he said. When the Information Technology (IT) revolution happened, IITs and IIMs and computer science graduates benefitted. Cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Pune and Hyderabad benefited, he said.

At Ecosoul, 70 per cent of the company’s 400 employees in India are women. At the company’s Shivamogga facility in Karnataka, all the 85 working there are women. The start-up, founded in 2020, takes up such issues seriously and its Managing Director is a woman.

The e-commerce start-up basically uses less than half a dozen raw materials to manufacture its products. They are areca palm leaf, bagasse, straw and corn starch. The company produces 43 products and has 1,800 stock-keeping units, Singh said. At least 75 per cent of its products are produced in India, while another 10-15 per cent is manufactured in Vietnam and the rest in China. Besides India, the company is present in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, Germany, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China and Vietnam.

All its plates and bowls made out of areca palm leaf, an agro waste, are exported as the product has got tremendous reception in countries such as the US, Canada and UK.

Initially, the plates and bowls were produced in growers’ backyard with one to three machines. In order to make the product export-ready, Ecosoul set up a large unit with 30 machines at Tumakuru in Karnataka. “We had operated it for almost a year-and-a-half when a lot of farm organisations came to use and sought help to put up similar units,” the Ecosoul co-founder said.

This led to the setting up of the Shivamogga facility and today, the company operates one of the largest palm leaf ecosystems in the world. Some 28 farmer producer organisations across 28 districts in Karnataka supply to Ecosoul.

The entire areca palm leaf procurement is in Karnataka, which accounts for 78 per cent of the production in the world and all of it is exported. On the other hand, Ecosoul’s entire bagasse-based production takes place in Uttar Pradesh’s sugarcane belt.

7 CAPTIVE UNITS

The company sells 2 per cent of its products within the country and exports the remaining 98 per cent. India, thus, is the sourcing hub for all the importing nations. Overall, the company has seven captive units that are owned by it. But Ecosoul works with over 50 contract manufacturers in India spread across Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, North-East, Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

The company is not just about product and sales. We invest a lot in our communities

RAHUL SINGH

Co-founder, EcoSoul Home