Enterprise: KRISHPA
CEO: Yashwanth Reddy
Industry: Environment
Location: Hyderabad, Telangana

"We don't need few people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions to do it imperfectly." This is the thought that drives Yashwanth Reddy to take action against the looming climate emergency and bring awareness on how a few actions by citizens (especially the youth) can have a massive impact.

Fighting Climate Change: Engaging, empowering & rewarding youth

Yashwanth has a master’s degree in Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Buildings from RMIT, Melbourne. This is where he nurtured his aspiration to adopt a creative approach to tackle climate change. He has developed a unique mobile application called ‘SUP: Sustainable Upgrade Program’. “SUP is a mobile application to fight climate change 3 steps at a time: Engage, Empower and Reward,” explains Yashwanth.  It’s a fun and interactive climate action app, where users can track their carbon footprints based on their lifestyle. The app gives you personalised tips on how you can save money along with the climate. It rewards the user with points, prices and deals for taking action to fight climate change,” he adds.

His idea is to engage the youth of today to protect the planet of tomorrow.

We are the first of its kind mobile application designed to fight climate change by nudging communities to adopt sustainable lifestyle practices and in return rewarding them for their behavioral change.

The programme’s objective is to help youth in India be part of green communities and empower future generations to become environmentally responsible citizens through a holistic communication approach.

Motivation behind initiative

Ask Yashwanth what drives him, and he is quick to highlight, “Wealth and waste are distributed unequally. A small, powerful fraction of humanity takes most of the former and forces the rest of the people on earth to live in the latter. This is environmental injustice. I’m not doing this for passion, I’m doing this out of concern for the ecology, for the future humans, for the species dying in the forest fires and the list is endless!”

Yashwanth proudly shares, “We are the first of its kind mobile application designed to fight climate change by nudging communities to adopt sustainable lifestyle practices and in return rewarding them for their behavioral change. We are the only people bringing sustainable revolution in lifestyle change.”

For his tireless efforts to bring about positive change in the environment, Yashwanth was selected as a changemaker in Telangana in 2019, as part of the Changemaker Fellowship.

Challenges

Explaining the ambit of social entrepreneurship, Yashwanth opines, “Entrepreneurs usually solve an individual problem, whereas social entrepreneurs solve a societal problem. It involves behavioral change - in other words people need to give up something or they need to adopt new practices into their lifestyle.”

He adds, “Pricing of sustainable products is one of the biggest challenges and their availability is also limited. However, we have strategies defined to engage users to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), freebies and governmental intervention.”

The GlobalLinker Advantage

Yashwanth is enthusiastic about expanding his network on the GlobalLinker platform. He shares,“I am looking forward to leveraging GlobalLinker to find more sustainable product suppliers and establishing partnerships in all cities.”

Big business dreams

“Empowering and engaging as many individuals as possible to reduce the carbon footprint is the social aspect of our dream. Speaking of the entrepreneurial aspect, we have to go pan India and have a presence in every possible state,” Yashwanth shares.

Meet the person behind the entrepreneur

The first thing I do when I wake up: Smile

Things I do to unwind - Speak to friends and mentors. Take a power nap and start thinking of the solution for the problem. Sit calmly.

When I face a big challenge - I become calm and my presence of mind peaks.

The best piece of advice I've ever been given - Manage your stress, you can achieve lots.

The one book everyone should read – Chanakya’s Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

Advice to aspiring entrepreneurs - Start with your gut feeling and do a business analysis chart to understand the process, flow of organisation, roadmap etc. Just do this and keep pushing yourself daily!

Also read: A commercial kitchen with big dreams and a bigger heart

Network with Yashwanth Reddy by clicking on the 'Connect' button on his GlobalLinker profile.

Disclaimer: This article is based solely on the inputs shared by the featured member. GlobalLinker does not necessarily endorse the views, opinions & facts stated by the member.