With meticulous planning and commitment to the society, some young entrepreneurs from UPES are positively impacting the planet and finding commercial success in the process

For a nation’s progress, it is important that the universities equip their students with robust entrepreneurial skills and help them create jobs. UPES has been a wellspring and breeding ground of entrepreneurs with smart business ideas contributing to the nation’s economy. Read on to know more about some of the start-ups strengthened by the student entrepreneurship ecosystem at the campus. These are run by eco-minded entrepreneurs who are seeking to make a positive impct on the global and local environment through their sustainable business ideas.

Environ Tech

Nishant Belwal, Nandit Srivastava and Neel Adwani from UPES School of Engineering thought of an innovative waste bin that is as convenient as a normal bin, but smart enough to segregate waste on its own. The bin ensures separation of waste at the source and can be used in all the metropolitan and local municipalities. It is aimed at making the waste collection service and recycling of waste more efficient, thereby protecting the environment.

Highlighting the need for effective waste management measures, Nishant says, “The amount of waste our country generates is enormous. India is also one of the largest importers of scrap material. We researched the process of waste management and disposal. We realized that people were not segregating the waste; instead disposing of all the waste together. If this waste had been segregated right at the source, it could be used in a variety of ways.”

Speaking about the challenges, Nishant adds, “Contacting people and creating awareness about waste segregation was a big problem for us.  We intend to get a contract from the Uttarakhand government and place bins all over the state. We will contact the private sector to install bins in their area and efficiently manage waste. The application process we roll out will gather global users.” 

Talking about the role of UPES in nurturing their business idea, Nandit says, “UPES will help us in testing and deployment of the product by providing us with a platform to place it on the campus. Our mentors helped us with all the documentation and guided us through our business model.”

From And To Nature LLP

Paurush Dobhal from UPES School of Engineering, along with Tanmay Benjwal, Vibhor Singh, and Utkarsh Singh, wanted the environment to be a little greener. From And To Nature is a green tech startup revolutionising the bottled water industry with its unique bamboo bottles and supply chain. Commended on multiple platforms for their mission against plastic and vision to empower local craftsmen communities, they now have some of the most reputed hotels, cafes, restaurants, and corporate institutions as their customers.

“I embarked on this journey to provide an eco-friendly sustainable plastic-free alternative to PET bottled water. Our bottles are locally hand-crafted, all-natural, 100% biodegradable, reusable, food-grade, eco-friendly, sustainable, and best-in-line with quality and aesthetics and a food-grade inner inert coating. With our business model, we not only tackle the plastic waste, but empower and employ the local handicraft communities as well,” says the founder of From And To Nature LLP, Paurush.

He adds, “With the constant guidance our mentors at UPES we were able to build a business model and a scalability plan. We are about to launch the 1st pilot run soon.”