Footprint is a one-stop, engaging, and positive guide on the what, how, and the who’s who of sustainable living and solutions in an Indian context. With host Shriya Suriyanarayanan, tune in to conversations with entrepreneurs and influencers leading the sustainability revolution, along with a dose of practical ‘green tips’. With every episode, we take up a segment of our daily lives (self-care, food, shopping, fashion) and break down the accessible and affordable sustainable alternatives available today!
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Pilot
Introduction to the series.
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Introduction: Why live sustainably?
What is sustainable living anyway? And why do people want to do this? To understand the motivations and everyday challenges behind living a sustainable lifestyle, we speak to Mridula Joshi, founder of the eco-conscious community 'Ullisu by Mridula'. A graduate of NIFT Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Science (Environmental Studies), Mridula is a sustainable lifestyle blogger, exploring ways to eliminate carbon-intensive, polluting habits and products from her life. She’s got a wealth of waste management techniques, creative DIYs, jugaad solutions, and even some ‘sustainability fails’ that she shares with us in the episode today.
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Fast Fashion
The mammoth, ubiquitous, $2.5 trillion industry. There are a host of issues with the fast fashion industry today, and hence an onus on consumers to ask wise questions and act. We deconstruct the relationship between fashion and your sustainability journey, as we chat with three guests: Aliya Curmally, India Strategy Head of the global movement Fashion Revolution behind the No.1 trending hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes on Twitter; Soumya Kalluri, Founder of Dwij Products, an ethical brand from Mumbai that upcycles post-use denim scraps; and Anya Gupta, a sustainable lifestyle and fashion blogger armed with a consumer perspective and an arsenal of Indian sustainable brands.
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Food: Farm to Plate
“You'll be surprised to find that most people, even in urban areas, can grow all the vegetables they need on their own and it's so much healthier”, says Kapil Mandawewala, Found of Edible Routes. We trace the fascinating journey of food as it travels from the farm to our plates, with Kapli as our guide. Sustainable eating means not only choosing foods that are good for our bodies but equally important for the sustainability of our planet. In this episode, we discuss ecological degradation in cities, the values growing your own food can teach you and your children, terrace farming, and some tips for beginners to get started today!
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Zero-waste Events
A multi-billion dollar industry, weddings in India are a notoriously opulent affair. On a topic that embodies all things extravagance, we explore ways to be minimal and eco-friendly. In this episode, we chat with Veena Balakrishnan, an entrepreneur who organized her very own zero-waste wedding in Chennai. Tune in to know how she pulled it all off! There’s also a bonus segment at the end of the episode with actionable tips on how to make your next event eco-conscious - be it a birthday celebration, house party, or work gathering!
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Self Care
We have a remarkable ability to both under and over-estimate the impact self-care and beauty products have on us. For example, we casually overestimate the potential benefits of glowing skin or shiny hair but significantly underestimate the harms. With so many buzzwords and health trends in the market today, it can be confusing choosing self-care products that are right for you. Fear not, you’re at the right place. In this episode, we explore the deleterious impact everyday products like soap and shampoo can have on your health and the planet, and we showcase home-grown, inspiring, and sustainable self-care brand, Vilvah, and its founder, Kruthika Kumaran!
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Waste Segregation: Divide and Conquer
Garbage doesn’t exist in the animal kingdom. The output of every organism is the input for another, and we have a perfectly circular ecosystem. This human-origin menace is quite literally taking over the world around us today, because by 2050, India will need a landfill the size of Delhi to dump all our waste. The first step to fight against this, unsurprisingly, starts at our households through waste segregation. Why should I segregate my waste? Isn’t composting smelly? What can I do with that old, defunct laptop? To answer these questions and more, tune in to our panel with ‘Compostwali’ Poonam Bin Kasturi, a pioneer of urban waste management, and Ann Anra, the founder of India Wasted, a leader in hard-to-recycle dry waste and social justice for waste pickers.
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Food Choices
The global food system contributes to about one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions and the transformation away from this environmentally-damaging model must include more plant-rich diets over diets based on animal protein. This is the arguably the most difficult lifestyle change, so we try to navigate the topic in a judgement-free, non-polarising, and objective way. Tune in to our chat with Abhay Rangan, the inspiring 24-year-old founder of Goodmylk, India’s largest vegan dairy brand, where we speak about the evolution of human tastes, busting the perfectionism stigma around our food choices, and more!
