Enterprise: InnovateGreen Technologies Private Limited

Founder: Hardik Shah

Year it was founded: 2017

Sector: Environment

Based out of: Ahmedabad 

“The future will either be green or not at all.” - Bob Brown

Mankind is now at a crossroads - how we as a society embrace sustainable practices will define the course of our times. With environmental concerns escalating, innovative ecopreneurs are taking the challenge of making an impact with offerings that will lead to a greener planet. Hardik Shah, Founder of InnovateGreen Technologies Private Limited, became aware of the need to embrace sustainable practices on a visit to Japan in 2011. With the experience came a conviction to mainstream green practices and after much Research and Development (R&D) established a business that provides environment-friendly products that are substitutes for items used every day. With 700 products and counting, the company’s online portal, www.recycle.green, is growing rapidly and making ‘eco-friendly’ a household phenomena in many homes. A unique feature of the portal is that it displays the environment saving value of each product and even has a reward system linked to one’s environmental saving - a win win for the consumer and the planet.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL) Hardik Shah (HS) shares his company’s story.

GL: Tell us about your business and how it came into being.

HS: The vision of InnovateGreen Technologies Private Limited is to create a world where the environment, an underrated but crucial part of our lives, is given primary importance. Our mission is to innovate lifestyle products, technologies, services which help save the environment. Our USP is to perform R&D on the nature of daily living and find out the environmental impact of our current lifestyle. We aim to innovate and create products which can save the environment without hampering lifestyle.

For instance, if you are using paper, we do not say stop using it –  we would rather suggest use of recycled paper. So without change in the business process we can help the environment. We have 700+ such products to make people’s lifestyle become eco-friendly. We also find out if relevant products and brands are already doing this, then we promote them on our e-commerce portal – www.recycle.green

The idea for this business took root when I visited Japan in 2011 on an official training. I saw firsthand their approach and vision towards our planet’s problems and how to resolve them. That changed my thought process. I started doing research on climate change and global warming and started finding the root cause of what is causing it. Ultimately after much research, I found that I could identify root causes. As I am an IT professional with 20 years of experience, problem solving is my forte. I used that skill in defining a solution to this problem and this company came into existence.

Currently our focus is on correcting harmful consumer behaviour. We have more products in the pipeline which also solve problems like garbage management, energy management, home management, vehicle management etc

GL: What are the challenges you have faced in establishing your business?

HS: Everyone considers environmental conservation as a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity independent of the core business. Corporates or individuals don’t keep track of trees saved, CO2, land and air pollution reduction. The entire ecosystem has knowledge about the problem but very little know-how about the solution.

There is no standard in the world that guides us to find out Environmental Saving Values (ESV) of a product. We had to define our own standard which can be easily understood by consumers. For finding eco-friendly products, manufacturers, artisans we had to do independent research, connect individually as there is no common platform or place where all eco-friendly manufacturers congregate. Everyone has their own setup, standard, methodology and everyone is working alone - something that does not bring results.

There is a lack of resources directed towards research on products’ environmental impact analysis. Students have little interest in adopting this as a life path. Student want to do big projects for plants and machinery, but no one is interested in innovating simple products which can change the lifestyle of a person.

Mentors are not interested in such subjects to motivate students to work on such projects. The customer doesn’t care – India doesn’t have an awareness of carbon footprint and other such environmental measures. For them, it is fine to pollute and damage the environment if it comes cheap. They do not know what they will have to pay for facing disasters that can be caused due to global warming.

No one is ready to fund a green startup immediately. We struggled a lot to find interested VCs and investors. Currently, we are completely funded by my family savings.

GL: How did you hear of GlobalLinker? How has it helped you?

HS: I found out about GlobalLinker through mailers. It is a wonderful network of SMEs and startups. GlobalLinker is taking an interest in creating a story for my startup – this is a crucial way in which they are helping us.

GL: What is your big business dream?

HS: I would like to make www.recycle.green as the Green Amazon – where we have the world’s green, eco-friendly lifestyle products, technologies, services available. So people who want to go eco-friendly, can find everything easily under one roof.

GL: What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs?

HS: Work hard, have confidence in your idea, don’t copy anyone’s idea, push yourself to create something new and ensure the business is solving some problem on ground. 

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