Best friends Anand Tanna and Adejare Doherty are setting up a one-of-a-kind, sustainable, socially-responsible manufacturing unit in Karnataka next year that will make you ditch paper plates at parties for cooler areca palm leaf (betelnut leaf) plates.
Best friends Anand Tanna and Adejare Doherty are setting up a one-of-a-kind, sustainable, socially-responsible manufacturing unit in Karnataka next year that will make you ditch paper plates at parties for cooler areca palm leaf (betelnut leaf) plates. 
Women at a unit of The Wholeleaf Co heat-press betelnut leaves
into plates
"The larger we become, the more we can give back," is how Tanna, COO, The Wholeleaf Co, describes his ambition for the brand. In this case, giving back includes being responsible for generating employment for women from underprivileged families in Karnataka, as well as creating a sustainable manufacturing unit that gives back to the environment and has a significantly low carbon footprint. But Tanna and his partner, Adejare Doherty, CEO, The Wholeleaf Co, seem to have all that covered.
Born out of the realisation that a rustic-looking plate made out of the fallen leaf of an areca palm tree had lasted them five years, The Wholeleaf Co is now all set to begin operations to create eco-friendly cutlery at their manufacturing unit in Karnataka.
The best part? Since manufacturing involves no mixing or addition of any other substance, it's completely natural. "The raw material falls from treesu00a0-- classed as agricultural waste. We then pick it up, wash it, and heat press it into shape. The plate is then treated with UV light for extra-sanitisation," explains Doherty.
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Their ethical vision doesn't end there. The duo also plans to make this a one-of-a-kind, completely sustainable manufacturing model. That means using the off cuts of the leaves as biofuel, generating a substantial amount of their own power using nothing but waste material, recycling 70 per cent of the water used for washing the leaves instead of wasting it, and employing rainwater harvesting methods.
Tanna explains, "We will try to reduce our environmental footprint as much as possible and embrace technology that allows us to become self-sustaining."
The Wholeleaf Co will also employ women from lower income backgrounds in a bid to generate employment for them in a chemical-free environment. To that end, The Wholeleaf Foundation, a charity arm of the company, plans to tie up with an NGO to provide education to the children of these women, right on the site.
"Our workforce involves women, who are usually the caretakers of the child in a traditional set-up where the man goes to work. The women need an infrastructure to take care of their children. The foundation will do that by extending help to have a wider impact on the lives of the workers," says Doherty.
Next on the agenda? "Finding ways to create products out of other naturally-occurring substances that don't need to be harvested," says Tanna.
The Wholeleaf Com is a socially responsible, eco-friendly manufacturing unit that will make plates from fallen leaves and recycle them after use. We'll see them in action in 2011
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