Kanpur, one of the major industrial cities in Uttar Pradesh on the banks of the holy river Ganga, is also home to more than 300 temples and 100 mosques. The shrines generate and discard approximately 2,400 Kg of flowers daily which have been used for worshipping. But as the devotees and shrine authorities consider them sacrosanct they cannot dispose them to landfills, instead the used flowers are thrown off to the Ganges, a venerated waterbody. The flowers rot there turn the water turbid and produce a foul odour. The chemical pesticides which are sprayed on the flowers seep into the river and increase the toxicity levels.

Childhood friends Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi spent a fair share of their lives answering their friends about why no one does anything about Ganga and saw this as an opportunity. In 2015, with an initial investment of INR 72,000 (around USD 1,000) they launched HelpUsGreen with an aim to collect the discarded flowers and upcycle them to marketable consumer products. But, the beginning was not easy. Ankit and Karan had to toil hard for a year and a half to make their voices heard to the shrine management, experimenting with (now their trademarked) “flowercycling” technologies and pitching the idea to potential investors.

Currently, HelpUsGreen operates with 11 core team members and 80 local low-income women to produce 3 Product lines:

• Phool – Their brand of incense sticks and cones made from flower waste and organic products like natural resins
• Mitti – Their brand of vermicompost which is made of the green parts of the flower waste, cow dung, 17 natural ingredients and earthworms
• Florafoam – Yet to be commercialized the world’s first ever biodegradable thermocol is made from waste flowers and natural fungi

Along with the above three, the organization is now heavily investing into R&D of “Flora-Leather,” an eco-friendly leather which again will be manufactured from flower waste.

At the basis of HelpUsGreen’s model is a circular economy approach where it uses waste as resources and reduces its operating costs and environmental impact. In the process, the organization is also boosting the livelihoods of local low-income community. In an interview to The Hindu, Founder & CEO, Ankit Agarwal explained how multifaceted his solution is, “Our priority is not just cleaning the Ganges, but also empowering local women.” On the sourcing side, local waste pickers form an important part of the operation. They collect the flowers from the rivers and shrines, sort them into different types and take out the unwanted objects like garland strings, paper and plastic. The pickers – mostly women of lower castes, normally earn about INR 10 a day (about 15 cents) but now get at least INR 150 (more than USD 2). The flowers are then sprayed with organic biocullum to offset any chemical remains. HelpUsGreen currently employs eighty local women from Self Help Groups in their Kanpur facility, who are instrumental in producing the handmade incense sticks. The women segregate and wash the collected flowers, knead the dried petals and natural resins into a dough, roll the sticks onto the dough and pack them into boxes. The organization strengthens their social security by providing provident funds, health insurances and organizing a pickup and drop facility to work.

HelpUsGreen collects 1.5 Tons of floral waste every day and has managed to upcycle 735 Tons till date. Last year it earned revenue of USD 43,210 with 27% profits. The majority of their products are exported to Switzerland and Germany and they also sell their products on e-commerce websites like Flipkart and Amazon. In an interview with Fast Company Agarwal says, “Rarely you get social enterprises that have revenues and that are in profit. Everyone says eventually they’ll make money, but we’re doing it. And we’re touching lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid.”

Earlier this year the founder duo has managed to raise a seed funding of INR 4.2 crores (around USD 600,000) from Tata Trusts’ Social Alpha, Greenfield Ventures and Echoing Green – with which they have opened two facilities in Varanasi and Mathura, where temples are in abundance. Combined with the Kanpur facility, the new facilities will increase the processing capacity of the organization to 38 Tons of floral waste each day.

HelpUsGreen surely stands out as one of the rare examples which seamlessly impacts people, planet, and profit through its operations. But what may remain steady as a silent victory is the flowers from temples, mosques, and gurdwaras coming together to shape the future of the Ganges and the community at large.