A few years back, “healthy eating” was just a phrase limited to celebrities and Instagram/TikTok influencers.
Then came a flood of companies manufacturing ragi and millet goods. And people caved!
They caved and they craved and now we see platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart riddled with healthy snacks, so much so that they’ve dedicated entire sections to healthy snacks.
Similarly, sustainability was considered nothing but a buzzword till very recently. In fact, it still is.
And you as a customer are not at fault. There’s so much greenwashing going around that we have started to believe that brands talking about sustainability do so only in their ad campaigns that span 1 in every 5 years, just so they can make us say… “awwwwww!”
So what in this no-longer-green planet’s name is the truth?!!
Is sustainability really just a fad or do companies actually mean what they say?
Is this just a topic we hear once every year when
Narendra Modi
goes to a COP summit or newspapers publish about the Paris Agreement, or has there really been a shift in the way brands are thinking about sustainability??
- Out of the 452.69 GW of India’s India's total electricity generation capacity, renewable energy-based electricity generation capacity stands at 203.18 GW - a good 46.3% of our total installed capacity!
-
Recykal.com
, based in Hyderabad, has created the fastest-growing waste commerce marketplace in Asia, by using Google’s open-source ML model for waste management, CircularNet, achieving more than 90% accurate detection of metals, bottles, tubes, cutlery, PETE, HDPE and LDPE plastics. Already operating in more than 30 states, Recykal has now diverted 50,000 metric tonnes of waste from landfills every month. By using an innovative Smart Skan solution, Recykal has been providing recycling bags with unique identifier codes to almost 13,000 households, which are converted to Smart Centers and Material Recovery Facilities. These households are in turn rewarded on how well they’ve sorted out their recyclable waste, thus generating passive income for the households while helping reduce our landfills.
-
Renew Power
, a Gurgaon based startup, is leading decarbonisation efforts globally, produced 19,492 GWh of clean energy in FY24 - enough to power ~5.3 million Indian households annually, earning them a 31% YoY increase in net profits, with solar energy sales increasing by 14.5%, followed by wind energy and hydropower.
-
Gruner Renewable Energy
, specializing in converting organic waste into high-quality bioCNG is rampantly working towards lowering India’s reliance on imported compressed natural gas, bagging a funding of $60 million, looking to jump their turnover from ?100 crore to a whopping ?4,000 crore in 1 year. Its 1st out of ordered 11 CBG plants for Reliance has the capacity of producing 44 tonnes of biogas per day (16,000 tonnes a year) from biomass feedstock such as paddy straw, pressmud, cane trash and municipal solid waste, and is set to be Asia’s largest CBG plant.
-
FluxGen
, an innovative water management startup has developed AquaGen, an advanced water management system that monitors water flow and levels in real-time to optimise water usage using IoT-enabled sensors and AI, helping industries reduce their water wastage by 30%. The company’s revenue increased from 1 to 5 crore INR, and booking value from ~2 to 11 crore INR, within 1 year. FluxGen has partnered with Microsoft to implement a water replenishment project in Bengaluru’s 2 reputable hospitals, to reduce their water usage by 50%.
- Brands like IKEA and H&M are integrating circularity, with initiatives like furniture buy-back programs and recycled clothing lines.
- Walmart’s Project Gigaton aims to eliminate one billion metric tons of emissions from its supply chain by 2030.
This begs to ask the question - WHY! Why are companies so invested in moving towards sustainable solutions? I mean… why would they want to expend so much time and money in feel-good loss-making ventures??
- According to
World Resources Institute
, sustainability is projected to contribute $26 trillion in economic benefits, with ambitious climate action opening doors for 65 million new low-carbon jobs in 2030.
- According to a 2019 Nielsen study, 73% of global consumers said they are willing to change their consumption habits to lessen their negative impact on the environment.
- According to KPMG’s 2024 Global ESG Due Diligence Report, investors are prioritizing sustainability and ESG considerations while ranking the companies for investments. 71% of investors reported an increase in ESG importance in investment transactions, with more than 50% seeing ESG as potentially a deal breaker.
- 90% of Fortune 500 companies are now requiring suppliers to disclose their carbon footprints, with B2B brands adopting tools like
Emitwise
and
Plan A
to track, reduce, and report carbon emissions, meeting growing ESG requirements.
- EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) mandates comprehensive ESG reporting, requiring large companies to establish due diligence procedures to address adverse impacts of their actions on human rights and the environment.
- India has made mandatory a Extended Producer's Responsibility (EPR) certificate for Indian producers, importers and brand owners to control their post-consumer waste, thus requiring them to utilise eco-friendly materials, reduce trash output, design products with recycling in mind and ensure an ethical disposal of their e-waste at the end of the product’s life cycle.
- According to LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report, 67% of employees prefer to work for sustainable companies, with younger generations viewing corporate responsibility as a dealbreaker.
All in all, there’s an aggressive move towards building sustainable solutions by both, B2B and B2C brands to ensure they:
- Improve their brand loyalty
- Build trust and credibility, especially amongst the Gen Zs
- Are able to differentiate themselves in a competitive market
- Enhance their brand reputation
- Mitigate risks and heavy (very heavy) fines in the future
- Future-proof their businesses
- Improve their mergers & acquisitions opportunities
So what are you doing to future-proof your business?
And what do you think of this latest “fad” brands and governments seem to have towards sustainability?
Do you think it’s here to stay or do you think it’s nothing but a whole lot of loss-making ventures that can just be substituted with a 30-seconder ad?
