Tag: Climate Action

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, climate pledges have gained considerable traction across the globe. Companies, as well as investment firms, have made significant commitments to achieve net-zero emissions by specific target years such as 2030, 2040, or 2050. These pledges demonstrate a growing recognition of the urgent need to combat climate change and transition to a more sustainable economy.

Closer to home, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has introduced the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) for the top 1000 listed companies. This standard builds upon the voluntary standards developed in partnership with the Greenhouse Gas Coalition in 2013. The BRSR ensures that these companies prioritise sustainability and transparency, thus aligning with global efforts to address environmental challenges.

In India, industry sources project startups to contribute 35-65% of the economic growth and create over 100 million jobs by 2030. But while startups are an integral part of the global and Indian economies, their dynamic nature and early-stage development present unique challenges. Existing sustainability frameworks and requirements are often designed for more established businesses with stable operations and profitability. Startups, on the other hand, require a tailored approach that considers their growth trajectory, financial dynamics, and evolving business models.

Recognizing the importance of startups as both the future of the business community and a major growth engine, there is a compelling case for developing a climate pledge and sustainability framework specific to startup operations.

This is why ACT For Environment, in collaboration with BCG, developed the Green Startup Pledge – the world’s first climate pledge that’s designed exclusively for startups and which aims to address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by them in their sustainability efforts. By offering a platform to commit publicly to sustainable practices, the pledge paves the way for a greener, more environmentally conscious future while helping startups future-proof their business by reducing switching costs when sustainable practices are adopted early on.

GSP acknowledges the unique characteristics of startups and embraces their staged and volatile growth. By adopting a phased approach, the pledge allows startups to progress gradually in their sustainability journey. Startups committing to GSP will benefit from frameworks that are flexible, streamlined and aligned with their business operations. Reporting will be streamlined and stage-relevant. A resource platform of tools, resources and reputable vendors will be made available to support implementation with the aim of building better from the beginning or transitioning economically.

Unveiled at COP27 and Bengaluru Tech Summit last year as an example of India’s leadership in building the green economy, GSP will be initiated with Indian startups with the aim to scale globally with startups from around the world. Early supporters of the pledge include prominent VC firms such as Accel India, Peak XV Partners and Matrix Partners as well as unicorn startup founders like Deepinder Goyal (Zomato) and Nitin Kamath (Zerodha).

To begin with, a group of 6-10 startups will be identified for the purpose of developing, beta testing, and refining the implementation process. This phased approach ensures that the pledge aligns with the unique characteristics of startups, allowing them to make progress over time.

GSP aligns with ‘net zero by 2050’ goals along with feeding into the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) and we’re excited to helm an initiative that will take startup-led climate action from India to the world!

Over 600 million people in India already deal with extreme water stress, and the country is moving towards becoming a water-scarce nation by 2030. This is exacerbated by the fact that over 74% of water in India is untreated, leading to almost 40 million litres of wastewater entering rivers and water bodies every day.

Indra Water has developed a decentralised point-of-source wastewater treatment system that has the potential to revolutionise the wastewater treatment industry. Founded in 2018 by two engineers, their patented and electrically-driven modular system is designed to treat water in a decentralised manner at the point of source, thus making it an ideal solution for both domestic and industrial water treatment. The company’s innovative design approach, which includes a structural flash reactor, enables the treatment of multiple types of wastewater, faster treatment time, higher throughput, reduced energy consumption, and lower overall treatment cost. Their enhanced water treatment efficiency would help reduce both freshwater extraction as well as the discharge of untreated water into our lakes, rivers, and water bodies.

With a mission to address the critical problem of hard-to-treat forever chemicals and promote wastewater circularity, one of the key advantages of Indra Water’s system is its modularity, which allows it to be 4x smaller, 30% lower in capex, and 40% lower in opex as compared to conventional chemical and biological wastewater treatment solutions. This makes it ideal for small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford to invest in expensive wastewater treatment solutions. Apart from its cost-effectiveness, their system is also aligned with the government’s zero liquid discharge (ZLD) norms and adheres to the National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) guidelines.

Since its inception, Indra Water has already made a significant environmental impact, reducing 3200 tons of sludge, saving over 500 tons of GHG emissions, and preventing over 750 million litres of wastewater from entering freshwater streams. They have already successfully deployed its system for clients like Grasim (Aditya Birla Group) in Gujarat and Unilever in Indonesia with a total treatment capacity of 2.2 million litres per day, proving its effectiveness in commercial and industrial water treatment.

With support from ACT For Environment, Indra Water’s decentralised wastewater treatment system has the potential to treat approximately 7 billion litres of wastewater in the next six years and revolutionise the wastewater treatment industry in India!

Water is one of the most essential resources for human existence and yet, access to clean water is still a major issue in many parts of the world. India, in particular, is facing a severe water crisis. According to the NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index, 54% of India’s districts are facing extreme water stress, and over 100 million people in the country live in areas with poor water quality.

The problem is only going to get worse with climate change, which is expected to exacerbate the water crisis and have a significant impact on food security, health, energy as well as the economy. It is clear that something needs to be done to address this issue, but the question is, where do we start?

Segmenting The Problem

To tackle the water crisis in India, it is important to segment the problem into different categories. The consumption of water in India can be broken down into three main sectors: agriculture, domestic, and industry. Agriculture is by far the biggest consumer of water, accounting for 91% of the country’s water usage, followed by domestic (commercial and residential) at 7%, and industry at 2%. However, industry’s water usage is rapidly growing, and it is causing severe pollution in the country’s water bodies.

Hypotheses On Possible Solutions

Water Monitoring & Analytics: Monitoring and analysing water usage can help identify inefficiencies and areas where water can be conserved. This can help in reducing water wastage, especially in agriculture and industrial sectors.

Water Treatment & Reuse: Water treatment technologies can help clean up polluted water and make it fit for reuse, especially in the industrial sector.

Water Saving & Management: Implementing water-saving techniques and managing water usage can help reduce water wastage and increase water efficiency, especially in agriculture.

Water Storage & Recharge: Storing water during the rainy season and recharging groundwater can help ensure a steady supply of water during the dry season.

What We’re Looking For

As a venture philanthropy platform, ACT is looking to prioritise water security as a key focus area under ACT For Environment. Given the scale of potential impact, we want to focus on 3 key spaces:

Water-saving, management, storage, and recharge solutions for the agriculture sector. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water in India, and implementing water-saving techniques and managing water usage can have a significant impact on the country’s water crisis.

Water treatment, reuse, saving, and management solutions for the industrial sector. As this sector’s water usage grows, it is causing severe pollution in the country’s water bodies. Implementing water treatment technologies can help clean up polluted water and make it fit for reuse.

Partnering with the government to find innovative business models to scale up municipal water management solutions. Because at the end of the day, solving the water crisis in India will be a collective effort; requiring the government, NGOs, businesses, and individuals to come together to scale sustainable solutions.

If you’re a social entrepreneur working on an innovative solution in any of these areas, we want to hear from you! Submit your grant application at https://actgrants.in/as-a-grantee/ or write to us at environment@actgrants.in.

With over 100 million tonnes of rice produced annually, India is the second largest producer of rice in the world. But this economic strength also leaves our country to deal with massive quantities of agricultural waste in the form of rice husk and straw. When used as biofuels, these waste materials leave behind an estimated 2-3 million tonnes of Rice Husk Ash (RHA) – which is often dumped in open spaces across India, leading to significant air pollution.

But there is a silver lining. The high silica content in RHA makes it an attractive source for extracting silica for industrial use; thus providing a sustainable solution to its growing demand. Regular silica production is traditionally done through illegal sand mining which ends up damaging the nearby rivers, floodplains and water tables.

Brisil Technologies has developed a patented technology that uses RHA to produce green precipitated silica and highly porous carbon, thus creating new commercial opportunities for what has only been considered a waste product while having a tremendous environmental and economic impact. Every ton of silica produced from Brisil’s technology can reduce over 10,000 Kgs equivalent of CO2 emissions as compared to traditional silica extraction processes and minimize open dumping of over 2000 Kg of rice husk/straw ash. But more importantly, the process is 35% more energy efficient compared to traditional extraction processes and also prevents the destruction of riverbeds and aquatic ecosystems that are a direct result of sand mining.

Since Brisil identified the problem and the market opportunity a decade ago, they have now successfully commercialised the technology and established trust with numerous Fortune 500 companies to export their green precipitated silica across Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, US and Brazil. The company, founded by Tanmay Pandya, exemplifies India-focused frugal innovations, the environmental impact of green chemistry, and the business potential of green silica.

With Brisil’s solution, the world has a chance to embrace a more sustainable future – where waste is used as a valuable resource instead of having a negative environmental impact. We’re proud to support them on their journey and look forward to helping them scale their product further!

Plastic is universally considered to be one of the biggest climate change problems that needs to be addressed. It covers our meals, carries our clothes and commodities and increasingly threatens our oceans – even while being found in our food and our blood streams. Packaging is the largest end-user segment for plastic products, accounting for more than 40% of the total plastic usage in the world.

With the petrochemical and plastic industries planning a massive expansion in production, the problem is on track to get much worse. If plastic production and use grow as currently planned, by 2030, these emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year—equivalent to the emissions released by over 295 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.

At the same time, the problem with plastic goes much deeper than the fossil fuels used to make it, and the emissions released as a result. It goes to how plastics are managed at end-of-life – in other words, where does the used plastic go? As we’ve seen, the short answer to that is mostly water bodies and landfills and unfortunately, even globally, our recycling rates are sub 10%. Plastic recycling has many challenges, including inconsistent demand for the recycled material, inadequate recycling infrastructure / space as well as complexity of processing many different types of plastic.

Zero Circle (ZC) is addressing the growing and global issue of plastic waste management by building an alternative to plastic packaging and related products. ZC extracts dried biomass from seaweed, and then uses proprietary processes to make seaweed resins. These resins can be used to make flexible films for a multitude of use cases, including food covering, bags,and packaging. The final product is fully home-compostable and marine-degradable with no residues. This means that not only can the films created from ZC resins be completely composted without any industrial facilities, the products are also fully ocean safe.

A brief digression here to jump into what some of these terms mean:

Bioplastics: Bioplastic can mean that a material is biobased. Bioplastic can also mean that a material is biodegradable. These terms are not mutually exclusive; biobased refers to the feedstock – what was used as the input material – whereas biodegradable refers to the end of life of the material. Therefore, a petroleum-based plastic that is biodegradable counts as a bioplastic, as does the vice versa of a biobased plastic that is not biodegradable.

Biodegradable: These are materials that can be broken down by microbial activity (bacteria and/or fungi) into carbon dioxide, water vapor, and microbial biomass.

Compostable: These are materials that disintegrate and biodegrade under specific conditions and time-frames without releasing any harmful chemicals, toxic components, or heavy metals.

Biodegradable materials will not necessarily biodegrade of their own accord in unmanaged environments such as landfills. Without the right conditions – temperature, moisture and oxygenation – biodegradable materials can actually persist in the environment for long periods of time or worse, disintegrate into smaller and smaller microplastics invisible to the human eye. This is why the aim is for plastics to either be circulated completely, or composted.

The environmental impact potential of the ZC product is immense:

• Carbon absorption by the seaweed produced: Seaweed production, which will be used as raw material for ZC’s product, has significant natural carbon absorption capabilities. As per estimates, 1 metric ton of dried seaweed can absorb up to 120 kg of CO2.
• Offsetting of the carbon emission from the plastic replaced: As per industry assessments, each ton of plastic resin produced, leads to generation of 1.89 metric ton CO2 from cradle-to-resin. As ZC is a true substitute, each ton of plastic which ZC replaces, has a direct impact on CO2 emission by 1.89 metric ton.

And this is in addition to the human health benefits – as per a recent study, scientists analysed blood samples from 22 anonymous donors, all healthy adults, and found plastic particles in 17.

We are excited to partner with the Zero Circle team to support the scaling and growth of their pioneering resins, for a number of reasons:

1. Massive potential impact on plastic waste through a truly circular solution –
a. Using seaweed (which is better than other bio-plastics) for “plastic” solutions
b. Home-compostable film and packaging
c. Additional revenue opportunities for seaweed cultivators / farmers
2. Strong market tailwinds from emerging demand for sustainable packaging and a conducive regulatory environment –
a. Growing demand from large FMCGs and corporates with increasing incentive to meet net-zero targets
b. Government of India’s new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules mandate recycling and reusing a certain percentage of plastic produced by manufacturers, importers and brand owners thus creating additional incentives to move towards plastic alternatives.
3. Dynamic, mission-driven team with a clear understanding of the market

Addressing the plastics problem, globally, will require a number of solutions to come together. The demand for packaging materials is not going to abate anytime in the near future, and as such, we see innovative and environmentally sustainable substitutes as a critical piece of the solution.

Plastic has become an all-pervasive part of life on Earth. ~350 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated globally each year – only 20% of this waste is recycled while the remaining 80% makes its way to landfills, water streams or gets incinerated. Right from our blood streams to oceans, plastic chokes life.

But given the reality of plastic being a lifeline of a large number of industries, removing or replacing and managing it has been a herculean task. Dumping this waste for someone else to manage has been the easiest solution.

Historically, efforts have been made to convert mixed plastic waste to energy through pyrolysis – a process through which matter is broken down in the absence of oxygen to produce liquid oil which can potentially be used as an industrial fuel. Pyrolysis enables the recycling of materials which are otherwise inappropriate for conventional recycling. However, conventional pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste often produces contaminated oil that is unsuitable for use by refineries/petrochemical plants as is and is also usually commercially unviable to purify.

APChemi has broken this cycle. Their patented pyrolysis and oil purification technology PUREMAX™ removes contaminants from pyrolysis oil to produce a high quality oil PUROIL™ from mixed plastic & biomass waste. Through their proprietary technology, they have been successful in reducing the cost (capex and opex) of pyrolysis oil purification by multi-folds. Further, PUROIL™ has been proven to be the best feedstock for the production of biofuels, circular polymers, sustainable chemicals and sustainable vehicle fuels.

APChemi minimises the amount of plastic that gets dumped by enabling circularity for the post-consumer mixed plastic waste; by 2028, they plan to recycle 500 million kgs of plastic per year!

From an environmental standpoint, this is a double whammy – achievement of scalable plastic circularity and the production of feedstock (PUROIL™) for the generation of biofuels which can potentially replace fossil fuels.

Since 2007, APChemi has established over 45 pyrolysis plants across Asia, Europe, Africa and Middle East where they provide turnkey sustainable pyrolysis solutions. They have converted ~180k tonnes of plastic to oil and reduced dependency on crude oil by ~110k tonnes.

ACT For Environment will support APChemi in building a first-of-its-kind pyrolysis oil purification which can purify 17.5 thousand tons of pyrolysis oil. This project will exemplify the scalability of sustainable recycling of non-recyclable plastic waste globally.

We are beyond excited to partner with APChemi in their journey to build global waste circularity and produce clean energy!

India produces approximately 500 million tonnes of crop residue every year – most of which is burnt on-site, causing serious air pollution. Researchers estimate that each year, farmers burn about 23 million tonnes of paddy stubble in India. If stacked in 20 kg, 38 cm tall bales, that massive amount of straw would reach a height of almost 430,000 Kms. Stubble burning in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is attributed as one of the biggest contributors to the rising levels of air pollution in the region during winters; accounting for close to 30% of Delhi’s winter air pollution.

For many farmers, burning off crop leftovers from previous harvests is the most cost-effective way to clear the fields for the next planting and get rid of weeds and pests. At a macro level, this practice has resulted in India accounting for 13% of total global carbon emissions for the 2015-2020 period.

At the same time, 60-70% of the electricity generated at thermal power plants comes from burning fossil fuels; often low-grade coal. In 2021, the Government of India launched the SAMARTH mission under which power plants are mandated to use between 5% and 10% of biomass alongside coal.

ACT For Environment is proud to support A2P Energy and their new biomass marketplace Carbon2Climate – an AI based platform that uses satellite imagery to identify areas where crop waste burning is prevalent & creates a marketplace where crop waste can be turned into clean biofuels instead. It connects farmers, manufacturers and buyers of biofuels as well as covers the entire value chain of biomass from identification and collection to processing and the end use of the green fuel supply chain.
A2P was one of the winners of ACT’s India Clean Air Challenge (ICAC) held in early 2022. Their solution displays a deep understanding of the crop burning challenge, aligns with the farmers’ economic realities and helps create radical efficiencies in the market for environmental impact.

ACT For Environment will help A2P increase the adoption of biomass and biofuels produced from agriculture waste to 1600 MT monthly and 6800 MT respectively. This has the potential significant environmental impact – the use of 6800 MT of green fuel for conventional fuel, the reduction of 9928 MT of CO2 emissions and the prevention of 20.4 tonnes of particulate matter from entering the atmosphere.

The company will implement a program model to onboard biomass and biogas producers as well as buyers on its proprietary trading platform, test biomass and biogas quality and create market linkages so that farmers, FPOs and related groups are able to increase their income and reduce crop burning.

Solving for air quality issues across India will take multiple interventions with multiple stakeholders like policy makers, businesses and citizens – it is a complex balancing act of economics and environment. We are excited to see A2P Energy at the forefront of fighting this critical problem with their technological solution that reduces agricultural emissions and increases clean energy use in the country.

India accounts for 18% of the world’s population yet just 4% of the world’s water resources. It is the 13th most water stressed country in the world. Agriculture uses 84% of this water. At the same time, our utilization of agricultural water is clearly inefficient – 38% efficiency in comparison to 70-80% in the USA; in other words, 62% of water used for agriculture is being wasted. Groundwater in India contributes 62% of irrigated farming, while groundwater withdrawal increased tenfold between 1980 and 2015.

The challenge is practically nationwide with 256 districts experiencing water stress, and increasingly farmers must rely on expensive tanker water as local groundwater is unavailable. Groundwater is used to grow high-value farm income crops of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and agro-forestry whose demand is rising. Most fruit trees mature to peak yield phase and fetch high income only after 3 to 5 years; in the absence of steady water supply and expensive tanker water, many farmers retain a few high productivity trees and let the others wither. At the same time, farmers face little incentive to conserve water, and often overuse water, to the point of requiring excess fertilizer consumption and sub-optimal yields.

In short, inefficient use of water is devastating to both India’s natural environment as well as agricultural incomes. We need to urgently address our groundwater levels, and radically improving agricultural water utilization is an important starting point for this.

We are excited to fund CEC (Centre for Environmental Concerns) – the creator of SWAR – to dramatically reduce water consumption, promote soil health, reduce fertilizer requirements and improve crop yields and thus farmer incomes.

System of Water for Agricultural Rejuvenation (SWAR) is a sub-soil water diffuser which can connect to existing drip irrigation systems to deliver moisture in a calibrated manner to the root zone, where it is most needed, ensuring optimal absorption and eliminating evaporation losses. It has been proven to yield water savings of 30-70%, reduce soil nutrient requirements by approximately 30%, improve crop quality and yield (5-10%) and increase farmer incomes by Rs. 35,000+ per acre.

The product was developed with scientists and farmers with the dual purpose of ensuring water security and increasing livelihoods for small and marginal farmers.

The SWAR system is much more comprehensive than just water savings and covers the 5 Ms:

• Moisture
• Measurement
• Microbes
• Mychorisae (Fungi to support plant root health)
• Management

To us, this holistic and systemic approach to soil health, farmer needs, and agricultural water efficiency is an enormous area of differentiation.

ACT For Environment will be working with the CEC team to ensure the widespread adoption of SWAR, scaling the business side of operations and accelerating sales to reach more farmers across India, while continuing to serve marginal farmers.

Planting the seeds for social change; one farmer at a time!

Climate change cannot be solved without addressing ecosystem destruction and biodiversity loss. This was the thought that led Krutika Ravishankar, Jaspreet Kaur and Arti Dhar to start Farmers For Forests – an organisation that empowers the farmer community to combat deforestation.

Farmers For Forests was born of an urgent need to come up with a sustainable & scalable solution that enables reforestation; in a way that is inclusive of the economic interests of the community.

Using the innovative payment for ecosystem services (PES) model, local farmers are treated as stewards of the forests and are financially compensated for implementing actions that nurture young forests or protect the biodiversity of existing ones – like carbon sequestration, groundwater recharge, nurturing biodiversity habitat, afforestation etc.

The model provides a sustainable way to encourage indigenous communities to work towards ecosystem protection by helping them get additional income & livelihood security.

We’re thrilled to have them on board and look forward to the positive impact their work will have on India’s green goals!

If you’re a social entrepreneur working on a revolutionary environmental innovation, get in touch with us here.

Because we believe that everyone can be a co-founder of social change!

When Madhusudhan Anand’s son was an infant, he would wake up choking and gasping for air every morning. Doctors were unable to figure out the reason and while Madhusudhan suspected air pollution to be the cause – he couldn’t find any reliable measures on air quality.

He built a sensor and drove around his neighbourhood in Bengaluru; creating a heat map on air quality. As it turned out, the air was indeed toxic but no one had identified it as an issue because there was no one measuring it.

Ambee was born of one man’s resolve to drive climate action on air pollution using real time data. Using proprietary data science and AI that combines raw data from satellites and thousands of on-ground sensors, it provides hyperlocal intelligence that can help cities identify pollution hotspots and take action in real time.

Having partnered with the likes of NASA, Ambee is now working on enabling India to act against air pollution by partnering with local government bodies on using Ambee’s data sets to manage city-level climate action plans.

We’re proud to have them on board and can’t wait to witness the impact they’ll help create in the time to come!

If you’re a social entrepreneur working on a revolutionary environmental innovation, get in touch with us here.

Because we believe that everyone can be a co-founder of social change!