LVBL Accelerator

We're #hiring a new Urban Greens and Gardens (Internship) in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Apply today or share this post with your network.

We're #hiring a new Regional Manager - Business Development and Operations in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Apply today or share this post with your network.

One of the things we were keen to do in accelerating sustainability is to work with event venues to see if we can turn the parties, weddings, birthdays and other get-togethers that are held there to be more sustainable. There is a lot that can be done in such places - for food, utensils and cutlery, napkins, waste management, water, gifts, transport, stay, decor, and clothes are all things we're working on. So far we have identified several locations where we the venue owners and operators are willing to give this a shot - Miraya Greens, The Finer Side, The Woodrose Club in South Bangalore, and a couple of others elsewhere. We're now putting together our curated intervention for each of these places. On a smaller scale, we're also putting together a 'Party in a Box' solution for small parties, including at home. Besides the usual food and decor, we are building games and puzzles to be part of this, and also curating activities that kids can engage in as part of the celebration. If you are hosting or holding an event and want it done sustainably, we'd love to help at these venues. We'll keep adding more venue partners as we go forward, and plan to enable the shift to sustainable events in other parts of the city too. We're also keen on conversations with those who have products, services and ideas that can be included in sustainable celebrations. Lingaraj Dinni Divya Chennagiri Nagendra Aditya Jhingan Arvind Balasubramanian Aswana Mathew-Srinivas Ranjini Rao

Sometimes all that is needed to accelerate better choices is to connect the dots - and this isn't something that producers or retailers can do by themselves. At LVBL, we've been drawing lines of connect for different products and services to see how our intervention can produce the key thing we're aiming for - accelerated adoption of something that is already available in a small way, but could happen a lot more if the connections were made. Here's one of those: a local farmers collective, specified plots, foods that the buyer likes, grown naturally, assured purchase at fair rates, transported to a common drop-off point in the neighbourhood, distributed by people who are common distributors for many different livable products. Once a chain like this is built, many others can ride the same infra. Unsustainable choices already have such chains in place, and even more - financing, marketing, design, stores, and so much more. To compete, the better choices also need the benefit of all these inputs, in addition to being better for people and the planet. Building that social and environmental infrastructure around livelihoods and business is an important part of the transition we need to make. We're putting these together in a few communities in South Bangalore. Lingaraj Dinni Arvind Balasubramanian Ranjini Rao Prasad Hassan

The LVBL spectrum is taking shape. It's been a fun journey of ideating with so many others and putting together the different ways in which can accelerate the adoption of sustainable choices by leveraging what people already do, rather than expecting them to make dramatically different choices. We're also building different presentations of how this ecosystem can work for each type of stakeholder - RWAs, developers, non-profits, designers, architects, retailers, teachers, etc. Always happy to work with more people and ideas.

When we began holding weekend events in South Bangalore months ago, they were limited to one or two a month, and also of somewhat similar type. Now we're up to doing one event each weekend, and sometimes more than one. Our partnership with Akshayakalpa Organic has also resulted in a monthly farmers market, with a growing number of people interested in bringing their products to pop-up stalls. We're also starting to do more things with schools, and that has led to a new possibility - using their space on weekends for neighbourhood events. The rhythm now is to hold one Farmers Market, one Repair Cafe, one event for Senior Citizens, one for children, and whatever else we come across that interests any local group or community. We are also planning regular book readings and occasional new menu launches at cafes based on local and natural produce. Eventually we hope to do a monthly event on sports, one on science and tech, and another on arts and crafts. The goal is simple - these things should be available near our homes and workplaces because they contribute to a better quality of life. If you'd like to partner to host something, or would like one or more of these in your neighbourhood, we'd be happy to add that to the schedule too.

We've revamped the flow of the website to show the full range of what we're doing, where and how to accelerate sustainability. There are still a few small pieces to be done, but with this version it should be easier to create mobile flows and custom personal versions too later.

We've been curating a lot of different weekend events in communities that engage people on sustainability and a better quality of life. This is one that is easy to present, and it's getting more interesting with each iteration. In addition to fixing a few things, we get to talk to people about making personal choices in consumption. Additionally, they're kicked to find that right in their locality, it is easy to extend the life of thing they'd like to keep longer and use.

As much as the business is focused on accelerating adoption of sustainable products and services, it is clear that livability is about more than such consumption. Learning opportunities, experience centres, games, promoting diversity and inclusion, enabling access to welfare schemes, repair cafes, DIYs, farmers' markets, dramas and plays, quizzes ... there is a very long list of other things that are also needed to ensure a high quality of life. If you'd like LVBL to enable such events in your locality / community in South Bangalore, we'd love to hear from you. We're now doing at least one event each week and have also started including them in our Calendar page - Also, we'd put together a 'LVBL for Communities' deck that provides examples of the things we've done so far and will keep adding to that as we discover and hold new event types.

Today we hit another milestone at LVBL - for the first time, we helped a couple getting married to choose sustainable options for their celebration. Weddings are big events, with attendance in the hundreds even in small functions, so going green at such events matters a lot. There's a lot one can change - food, decor, transport, gifts, stay, and more. Thanks a bunch to The Finer Side in the Vajrahalli - BSK-6th Stage neighbourhood and even more to the happy couple. LVBL has curated a lot of this. And we're starting to work with multiple venues to make this a wider and more frequent outcome in the area. In addition to birthdays and weddings, even office get-togethers, class reunions, book clubs and all sorts of other groups can choose better. There's more. In the process of doing this, we realised there are lots of little things that can be done better in most events. That opens the door to just being better, in addition to being sustainable. That's the best goal to aim at - when people looking for the best and people looking for sustainable options both find the same answers. Deepti Nagendra Ranjini Rao Arvind Balasubramanian Lingaraj Dinni Pruthvi Banwasi