“It’s better to do and be an example rather than just suggesting or advising.”

With these thoughts in mind, Anand Chordia, an agri-preneur and the founder of The Eco Factory Foundation shared his inspirational journey with Sustain and Savein transforming and practicing sustainable living both in professional and personal life.

When we talk about food, spices, edibles we can imagine the tons of waste being generated and thrown away every single day. Research shows about 40% of food waste is not used efficiently in India valuing to about some crores per annum. Concerned and moved by this thought, Mr. Chordia came up with The Eco Factory Foundation. Its India’s 1st ever waste management park to provide sustainable lifestyle solutions to rural and urban communities. Generating wealth from waste, empowering farmers with a focus on green buildings, a revolution in agro-industry, and social upliftment using the Sustainability Development Goals has been the focus of The Eco Factory Foundation since 2017. 

“Waste is some sort of wealth or energy; so why do we throw it away?” is what Mr. Chordia believes in. So to bring the change in the waste management at Suhana Masala factories, he came up with the greenfield project at Bhulehswar which aims at zero-waste production and managing waste efficiently. “If your intentions are good and if you want to do something better for the community, the entire cosmos works for you”, says Mr. Chordia. Passionate about a greener, healthier and prosperous India, luckily he met the right people to help him in this journey towards sustainability. 

After talking to many experts, many scientists, watching interesting movies on YouTube, and ardent learning from everything and anything around him, Mr. Anand learned how to manage waste sensitively and efficiently. It’s the result of the hard work that today after4-5 years of green practice, the warehouse and factories witness an increase in the levels of underwater. They’ve managed to recycle more than 1400 truckloads of waste till date. It’s because of sowing 100’s of trees, that today the warehouse is like a food- forest in the bare, dry area. Installing solar panels has helped in the production of clean energy . Many more steps like trenching the water, using the greywater for plantation, treating the kitchen waste, animal waste has spurred in generation of zero-waste.

On asking him about the circular ecosystem, Mr. Anand said, “things we consume in the city as our food, we generate a lot of organic waste and that should go back to the soil. Because we are taking a lot from the soil. And nature works in that perfection.” He is of the opinion that; the biggest composter is the mother earth. That’s the reason we can compost on any surface. 

This isn’t it. This visionary man isn’t just working towards revolutionizing his business unit or warehouse but also towards assisting households in adapting this. Going green and recycling, reusing the waste is simple. And simple is replicable. “India should shift from oil-based economy to soil-based economy”, advocates Anand Chordia. 

As it’s rightly said, “Stop wishing. Start doing.” It’s time we all stop only worrying about the climatic changes and environmental degradation. It’s time we start incorporating these changes into our daily routines before we reach the stage where all can do is regret. “It's better to have tried and fail than to live a life wondering what would have happened if I had tried.” So let’s heal the world, heal the environment to heal ourselves. 

By : Riya Nathe