GreenTalks 2022 | Adani GreenTalks

Green Talks 2022

Green Talks 2022, the second edition of engaging, interactive and stimulating Adani talk-series initiative, focused on climate change was held at the Adani Corporate House in Ahmedabad on 22 December 2022. This year’s edition was like a Pandora’s Box of truly inspiring real-life stories of noteworthy social entrepreneurs who have made a difference in society and environment through their path-breaking visions, hardwork, and resilience.

Reaffirming its commitment towards a greener Earth, the Adani Group, under the leadership of its Chairman Gautam Adani, has articulated an ambitious vision to aid social entrepreneurs that are bringing about broad transformation in a range of sectors to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “We exist not because the odds favour us–we exist because we challenge the odds,” these words by Dr Priti Adani, Chairperson of the Adani Foundation, was the essence of each talk holistically. She further said, “Each of the 5 social entrepreneurs here symbolize power of hope, guts, resilience, humanity and belief. They demonstrate the nerves of Indian founders who believe they can help build a greener and cleaner world of tomorrow.”

More than a talk show, it was a 360° experience—for the social entrepreneurs to present their social-driven impact stories to a galaxy of dignitaries which included authors, academicians, business executives, policy makers, thought leaders including the Chairman of the Adani Group, Gautam Adani, one of the most celebrated global entrepreneurs.

Urgent Action: Mitigating impact of Climate Change

While climate change is a global crisis, solutions must emerge from local realities and Green Talks is a small step in that direction. Green Talks is an opportunity to growing companies from around the country to bring a social change and directly help in accelerating our collective journey as a nation to achieve SDGs, while providing a platform to social entrepreneurs to demonstrate their capabilities in design, engineering, equipment and supplies and support services.

Green Talks also acts as a platform for the selected social entrepreneurs to foster business alliances. The platform is a ‘green’ reminder of the need for swift action and ideas that scale.

Green Talks has subtly worked from haze of today to clarity of tomorrow. With focal points as innovation, Make-in-India, enlightening youth and bridging gaps, Green Talks has come a long way. Taking concrete action via several levers of action, Dr Priti Adani also announced grants to last year’s winners (Genrobotics, Ikure, Dharavimarket and Robo Bionics) to support social entrepreneurs in testing, scaling, and accelerating their solutions for a larger good in the society. Moreover, Green Talks 2021 cohort members were ushered into a fellowship program which qualifies each of the cohort members access to mentoring, coaching, business planning, go-to market strategies among others.

Recognising the impact creators

The audience heard from social entrepreneurs who are recycling, upcycling, and repurposing resources. Ganesh Shankar, the founder and CEO of FluxGen, who is on a mission to help industries become water positive, was the first speaker of the day. Shankar discussed AI and IoT-based water solutions for industries, while Som Narayan, co-founder of Carbon Masters, discussed converting wet waste into bio-CNG and organic fertilisers. To address the climate crisis, Narayan has dedicated himself to assisting organisations in reducing their carbon footprint by replacing their fossil fuel consumption with clean energy solutions.

The third speaker was the undisputed master of putting waste to use. Vidyut Mohan, co-founder & CEO of Takachar talked on converting crop residues into bio-products; followed by Kaushik Kappagantulu, co-founder & CEO of Kheyti who spoke about modular, affordable small greenhouses to help small farmers. One thing they all had in common was their passion to solve climate crisis whilst creating job opportunities. The last speaker, Sandith Thandasherry, founder & CEO of NavAlt is harnessing the power of the infinite sun and the endless ocean to develop Green Marine Transport solutions. Thandasherry is the man behind India’s first solar ferry boat and aims to conquer seas with green energy. He talked about the company’s breakthrough in making low carbon marine transport solutions.

Each of them is rooting for greener policies, influencing other businesses’ behaviour; and transforming the power balance by giving communities the tools they need to protect their health and livelihoods from climate devastation in line with the Green Talks philosophy of building equitable and sustainable solutions for social and environmental impact.