In the past few decades, there hasn’t been a time that has raised the collective consciousness of humanity as it has been with Covid-19. I myself couldn’t believe that a few days into the lockdown, the skies were blue, the trees were lush green and you could even hear the birds chirping in the middle of the day — was I still in Bombay?
I run Humans of Bombay in the city of Mumbai where our lungs feel alien if the air quality isn’t grotty and our eyes sense something amiss if the water of Juhu beach isn’t borderline tarry. So, on World Earth Day, we pledged to tell the story of 12 sustainable businesses and help their businesses, help the environment. We had a deluge of entries and I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief — there were people; millennials, adults, even children doing great things to undo years of damage inflicted upon our planet.
So far, we’ve told the story of three founders making bamboo toothbrushes — terra brushes — because something as seemingly harmless as our everyday toothbrush adds about 1.3 billion pounds of plastic waste to our planet, every year! Then there was the founder of SheCup (a man) who began a movement to help women switch to a menstrual cup which is the more hygienic but also more sustainable choice. With his narrative, we were able to hit two birds with one stone — the stigma around the period and a man trying to normalise it!
I was most intrigued with Shreeyash’s story whose life ambition is to plant trees via an organisation he founded — Swapna Vana. What was impressive was that he saw a barren piece of land and took upon a quixotic endeavour to secure permissions to build a forest on that unused land. The result? He persisted until the permission was granted and today, he’s already planted 3,000 trees with the help of young school children, who he wants to educate on the importance of environment and climate change.
As soon as we told the story of these incredible founders and their vision, support poured in from all over the world. People began following their accounts, asking how they could help and join the movement or simply dropping a comment about how they would make a conscious decision to make the more sustainable choice. The conversation had begun and an urgent need for change was being recognised.
At Humans of Bombay, we’ve always believed in the power of story-telling. Over the past few years, through the written word, we’ve raised over Rs 12 crore through crowdfunding. We know that social media has grave flaws — an obsession to gain more followers, validation on the Internet that sometimes leads to anxiety — but it also saves lives, brings about thoughtprovoking conversations, and allows us to have this conversation. The one about climate change, the one that’s paramount to have now.
The beauty of social media is that you have the power at any point to start that movement; you don’t need a large audience. Begin today. Begin by pledging to do more for the environment this year.
The writer is CEO, Humans of Bombay. Copy edited: Ambika Hiranandani