This social entrepreneur is empowering companies towards climate action and sustainability

Hari Prasad from Coimbatore always desired to create a positive effect on the society, but did not have any good ideas.

“Since childhood, I was moved by freedom fighters and heroes in movies. They used to challenge moral issues and fight for that cause till they died. These stories instilled a desire in me to do something meaningful for the society,” he tells SocialStory.

Prasad started watching documentaries about climate change in his second year of college, and was concerned about the devastating effects of climate change.

He says this realisation stirred something within him. He was suddenly struck with a cause he wanted to fight for–climate crisis.

This desire to work towards climate action eventually led him to start Beyond Sustainability in 2021.

“I was consumed by an overwhelming sense of responsibility sparking a deep desire to become part of the solution to the global climate crisis,” he says.

The startup helps manufacturing companies and large corporations achieve high standards in environmental, social, and governance development according to the ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) criteria.

“We act as knowledge partners for organisations, helping them in sustainability management,” he adds.

Taking conversation beyond sustainability

Beyond sustainability helps companies in ESG Management with a focus on Carbon management.

The startup first understands the organisation’s vision for sustainability, bottom-line challenges, and their driving force–whether it’s market need, compliance demand, or investor’s ask.

The next step is to conduct a baseline study to understand where the company stands. For this, it measures metrics like carbon emissions, waste generation, material consumption, diversity of employees in company, and more.

Post this, the startup starts devising the action plan, KPIs, targets to be achieved, followed by implementing the plan. “The company is supported in developing their short term, mid-term, and long-term targets,” he adds.

Beyond sustainability has divided its function in three broad categories. The crafting and implementation of the action plan is part of the skill set. Alongside, it also helps in changing the mindset of the company. For this, it conducts online and offline awareness workshops on capacity development, carbon management, ESG management, and climate change awareness.

So far, it has reached 4,050 people in close to 65 companies through these awareness sessions.

“ESG is new for companies. It is important to make people aware and bring them on the same page for fostering climate action,” Prasad emphasises.

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It has also built a tech platform, Beyond Sustainability OS, that provides insights on a company’s sustainability performance, does predictive analysis, compares with their past performance, and provides them with a plan to improve sustainability performance.

Prasad explains that for achieving environmental goals of a company, they assess the impact the company has on the environment.

“We avoid negative environmental impacts involved in the manufacturing processes, including carbon emissions,” he shares.

He explains that they would suggest the company use renewable sources like solar power or biogas instead of fuel or electricity to run machines in factories. Moreover, they frame plans to reduce material consumption, thus reducing waste generation.

Under the social aspect, they assist companies in developing policies to ensure the health and safety of their employees, as well as fostering diversity and inclusion within the workplace. Additionally, they offer analysis and support to help companies assess their performance and drive positive change. This is done through their tech platform, wherein the company can track progress and identify areas for improvement.

“We play an advisory role in the social and governance areas. We suggest policies and suggest ways to implement those,” he adds.

The startup has so far worked with more than 50 companies, including ABB Mobility, Raj Petro, SRG Apparels, CII, and more.

According to the data provided by the company, around 931,611 units of carbon emissions have been accounted for, out of which 161,300 units are actively being reduced using strategies like saving energy and using renewable sources. This effort has already cut emissions by 2,500 units.

Prasad mentions that their competitors include companies like Normative, Plan A, Breathe ESG, and Updapt CSR.

“Our USP is our tech platform and we provide holistic solutions in terms of end-to-end sustainability solutions,” he adds.

The bootstrapped startup has a team of 12 members. It has received a startup India seed fund this month of Rs 25,00,000.

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Stepping stones

After completing his graduation, Prasad wanted to learn more about climate change. He did an internship where he worked on building a platform for social entrepreneurs and creating awareness on sustainability to people through events.

“It became my ikigai to become a social entrepreneur and make a difference in combating climate change,” he adds.

Prasad then went on to pursue Environmental Engineering from University of Twente, Netherlands, where he worked on his thesis with the restoration of peatlands, which consume 3-5 times more carbon from the atmosphere than forests.

Since he wanted to start up, Prasad started working at SPI Edge, a social startup accelerator, to gain more experience with deeptech startups that are taking climate action. In 2020, he decided to return to India and eventually started Beyond Sustainability.

However, his journey has not been without roadblocks. Talking about the challenges, Prasad explains that there is a lack of awareness and consciousness about climate action. Hence a lot of effort is needed in that direction.

He further explains that many companies try to achieve their goals with the intent of meeting their regular compliances.

“It is disheartening to witness such things. We have one planet and we have been tampering with it for a long time now. It is high time we rethink and change our mindset and ways for good. Sustainability needs to be at the center of a company’s strategy,” he adds.

“My aim is to use my abilities and energy to help people take climate action,” he continues.