Energetica India Magazine October-November 2021

23 energetica INDIA- Oct-Nov_2021 EMERGING INNOVATORS worked in hospitality as head of mar- keting and technology for India’s largest backpacker hostel startup. As a part of their core team, I played a pivotal role in helping them grow. While I was working there, I got stuck with the problem of electricity wastage that was happening on our property. I left my job and Co-founded a company that helps commercial properties re- duce their electricity wastage by 40 per cent. This led to understanding climate change in depth. India’s biggest EV lo- gistics player eBikeGo decided to back the idea of Lowsoot with a shared mo- tivation to reverse climate change and help the world reach net neutrality by 2050. Q. What kind of response you have seen in the industry towards carbon credits awareness? Sachin Sengar: I believe that the aware- ness of carbon credits especially in India is low but growing fast, especially due to the growing media coverages around this. Our main focus is on a large-scale awareness campaign to educate Busi- nesses, NGOs, and farmers about the potential of working in this space. Q. As an entrant what kind of chal- lenges you have faced? Sachin Sengar: I think trust is the big- gest problem that we need to optimize for. Another challenge we are facing is en- suring that NGOs are delivering on the project properly on the ground. Q. What are your views on govern- ment support for the start-up ecosys- tem in the country? Any suggestions? Sachin Sengar: I think it’s one of the best times to be starting a company in India as India is in a transition phase moving from analog to digital age, fos- sil fuel to renewable age, carbon-inten- sive to carbon-neutral age. I think that a government sufficiently acknowledges that and has been undertaking a lot of initiatives to uplift the startup community in India. But I think that the government must do a better job of communicating their startup policies and initiatives to those who need them the most. Q. Kindly share details about Low- soot’s investment and funding? Any new plans? Sachin Sengar: Lowsoot has been in- cubated by India’s biggest electric ve- hicle (EV) logistics company eBikeGo. We are actively receiving offers for impact investment and many stra- tegic investors are looking to come on board. We are taking our time to take a call on this as we already have a decent runway. Q. How a person can easily calculate and erase their carbon footprint on their own? Sachin Sengar: For anyone to erase their carbon footprint they first need to track their carbon footprint (You can’t improve what you can’t measure). Once the carbon footprint is calculated we know clearly what to do, we need to be- come carbon neutral or net-zero. The first step towards net-zero is to reduce your avoidable carbon emissions, with the help of technological or behavioral interventions. Once you have sufficiently reduced your personal carbon footprint, you can now fund green initiatives that suck carbon back out of the atmosphere like large-scale mangrove reforestation, direct air capture, etc. Q. What are your future targets? Sachin Sengar: In the next 6 months, we are onboarding more than 10,000 NGOs and green projects on our platform. We are also building a 10,000 community of climate-conscious students, startup investors, research scientists, and activ- ists. This community will be the breeding ground for rapid innovation and collabo- ration which is extreme. “In the next 6 months, we are onboarding more than 10,000 NGOs and green projects on our platform.”