Mangroves matter

Mangrove plantation in the Sunderbans

Lowsoot, a Bengaluru-based start-up, believes that everyone in the world should be able to wear the badge of #CarbonNeutrality with pride. Set up in 2021, they have been guiding individuals and organisations to track down their carbon footprint with realistic advice and practical steps.

Sachin Sengar, its founder and CEO, shares, "We are building software and digital tools to bridge the journey of individuals towards Net-Zero." Net-Zero is a state in which the emission of all greenhouse gases is balanced out in the atmosphere. "With the help of the Co2 calculator on our website, an individual can calculate their carbon footprint. We analyse your activities and provide you with solutions to reduce your footprint by adapting to some eco-friendly practices. There are some unavoidable footprint that cannot be reduced, so you can offset them by supporting some green initiatives," he elaborates.

Sachin Sengar

One such green endeavour is the recently launched Adopt a Mangrove initiative. Here, they deploy mangroves in over 100 acres in the Sunderbans and work on such plantations by partnering with different NGOs. So, all you need to do is take a subscription from their website, and adopt a mangrove where the money is invested in its maintenance. When asked why only mangroves, Sengar explains, "One mangrove absorbs around 3,000 kg of carbon footprint in a year which is equivalent to the carbon footprint of one person. Mangrove reforestation has been happening for a very long time; we are merely acting as a channel to accelerate it."

To reach out to more people, Lowsoot has plans to introduce a mobile application soon. "The app will be able to detect your carbon footprint in daily actions such as taking cabs, ordering food online, paying bills etc, and suggest how it can be reduced or avoided," he adds. "The basic idea is to track, reduce, erase and communicate. Track your carbon footprint and reduce it by developing environment-friendly behaviour; if it is unavoidable, erase them by offsetting its effects. The final step is to create awareness," he signs off.

Log on to lowsoot.com