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Lowsoot was founded in 2021 with a mission to calculate the human footprint and reverse climate change practically. They envision a world where everyone including individuals and organisations will operate carbon-neutrally by adopting sustainable practices and paying by erasing their unavoidable carbon footprint. Lowsoot is coming with an app that tracks human footprint.

BE’s Saptarshi Deb spoke to Sachin Sengar, Founder & CEO, Lowsoot.  

Q. Tell us about the idea behind your company?

A. Climate change is no more a potential threat, it is the biggest threat to the future of our civilization. Every year human activities contribute 51 billion tonnes of CO2 each year. This is equivalent to clearing down an area as big as the Amazon Forest each year. A large number of such emissions contribute rapidly to climate change by trapping heat. At this rate, we will face a climate catastrophe by 2050. Lowsoot is helping individuals and organisations calculate and offset their carbon footprint by funding verified green initiatives. 

Q. You have been involved with many start-ups. What will be your opinion about the Indian start-up ecosystem?

A. I think the start-up ecosystem has never been more bustling in India. We are seeing unicorns being made left right and centre. But I still believe that there are not enough players working to solve the real on-ground issues of India. Like irregular agriculture production, affordable education, sanitization, acute poverty, drought, etc. We need a more vibrant culture of innovation in using emerging technology in India. 

Q. This company has taken off this year. How has been the journey so far?

A.  The journey has been a pleasant surprise. There are more people out there who are in this fight against climate change than I probably thought. We have got 10k people who have calculated their carbon footprint on our platform and many others who have backed green initiatives undertaken by trusted NGOs in the field of sustainability. 

Q. The application is about calculating an individual’s carbon footprint. However, more than individuals, it is organisations and industries that are contributing to the problem. What is your take on that?

A. I think personal carbon footprint is more about people becoming self-aware about the impact that they are making by leading the kind of life that they have got. This hopefully will lead to some change in behaviour which in turn will compel businesses and organisations to look at sustainability as the end consumer is more conscious. 

Yes, carbon footprint contributed by organisations is much higher, and that's why we are also building a B2B offering for businesses who need help in carbon auditing of their operations and processes and this means that we help them calculate their complete carbon footprint. We also provide verified carbon offsets to the organisations to become carbon neutral. I believe that there is a lot of long-term incentive in going green even for businesses and organisations. The only problem is that most of these businesses are not aware of these upsides. 

Q. Going forward, what are your plans? Are there any tie-ups on the cards?

A. Going forward we plan to rapidly onboard more than 10000 green initiatives by different NGOs and start-ups working in sustainability. We wish to connect such initiatives with an active community of 200000 donors, CSR grants and governments who can help accelerate these initiatives. Also, we are working on an app that calculates people's carbon footprint on the go. It will be like a Google fit for personal carbon footprint calculation. 

We are also building an active community of student activists, start-up founders in sustainability, a research scientist working on climate change and investors willing to invest in start-ups and researchers in this space. We believe that climate change is the biggest problem that humanity has ever faced, and there are a very handful of people who are actively working to reverse the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Most of these people are working in silos. To achieve the rate at which we need the change to happen, we will need all hands-on deck. That’s the objective of getting all the climate-conscious warriors together on one platform to promote rapid collaboration and innovation. We are to bring in more than 20000 search people on one single platform in the next three months.

Q. Tell us about your beta calculator?

A. The beta calculator that we have helps to calculate your annual carbon footprint by answering certain simple questions about your day-to-day life. The objective of this exercise is to make individuals aware of the impact that their choices are creating on the planet and the footprint is calculated by individuals who can either adopt a sustainable life to reduce their carbon footprint or they can donate to verified green initiatives curated by us, and executed by reputed NGOs.