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At a young age, Suren has set out on a difficult challenge. But after all it is the difficulty of the challenge that makes it so exciting. A lot of the waste materials around us have a huge life but only a small percent of its life is utilized before it is discarded and reaches the dump yards. Suren has set out on a mission with Thunk in India to reallize the residual value out of the waste and in the process enable livelihood for the marginalized. We wish him all the luck.
A brief profile:
1. Hi Suren, Welcome. Thank you for speaking to us. For our readers please tell us something about Suren, the individual?
I, Suren Vikhash studied at Rishi Valley (KFI) and then went to Srishti (specialized in product design, graduated in dec'2008). Got inspired to do something that makes a difference to the place I live in, and for the underprivileged communities around me. I am now a Social Entrepreneur and currently leading this project, Thunk in India.
Doing several projects for big companies,I began questioning and looking more deeply into what exactly I was doing and where I was contributing and its socio-economical impact. I realized that most of the times it had very little value. I believe that I have one life time for sure and can use my design learning for the betterment of the place I live in and for those not so privileged communities.
I truly believe that design is a tool that can be used to address a lot of problems around us. I do not agree that technology is a solution to all problems. However, technology can aid in implementing various creative solutions. I feel privileged to have studied design and I would like to spend my time creatively addressing various problems around me that need to be immediately looked into. One of them being the problem of waste. I would also like to empower the livelihoods of various underprivileged communities around me by providing them various platforms.
Through this venture, I am working on providing a better livelihood to various underprivileged communities including rag pickers, slum women, farmers and craftsmen. I hope to be able to make as many of them independent and self sustained.
Through this model, I would like to use design as a tool to uplift various communities around me and also address various crucial problems we are facing around us. As a designer, one has the privilege to choose the kind of work one wants to do. I feel that one can either do what they want to or what needs to be done. I personally feel that there are lots of needs around us and I believe that creative thinking can be used to address these needs.
2. Please tell us in brief about the operating model of Thunk In India, how do you manage the waste supply chain in creating value and livelihoods?
Thunk in India is passionate and dedicated towards innovating with waste materials that generally find their way into landfills, and transforming them into useful, durable and well designed day-to-day-use products. Thunk is establishing itself as a Brand, and our products have the assurance of great design and quality. Through the process of conversion of waste into useful products, the lives of various Underprivileged Communities (slum men and women) and Craft Communities (weavers, tailors etc.) are benefited.
By looking at different ways to manage waste at source and by understanding how the existing system works, we understood how intervention at various points with small changes would result in big differences. We decided to make the so-called 'useless' waste ‘useful’, providing value for these otherwise discarded materials.
Our vision is to innovate with everyday waste materials, whether the materials are from household waste or industrial waste or natural waste. A lot of these waste materials have a long life span, but only a small percentage of its life span is utilized before it is discarded and reaches the dump yards. We use this so called waste, as new rich raw materials to innovate with (processing innovations, weave exploration and product innovation – please see below for more detailed information). This not only utilizes the waste materials and increase their life span but also reduces new natural resources from being used up. We re-use and thereby “up-cycle”, following a cradle to cradle design approach (i.e. waste from one process is used as “food” for another; waste = food).
We help companies go green, manage their waste and transform some of it into products, reduce their ecological footprint, and work towards converting the company into a zero waste organization.
We also do a waste- eco-carbon audit to see how any company can truly make a difference in going green and we offer various green product solutions and services
3. Tell us about your mission?
Thunk in India is passionate and dedicated towards empowering the livelihoods of various underprivileged communities by innovating for a cleaner environment. Thunk currently works Slum women, Rag pickers, Craftsmen (Traditional sarree weavers) and organic farmers. Thunk provided job opportunities, Micro financing opportunities, skill training and various other platforms to empower these communities.
Under the larger domain of innovating for a cleaner environment, some of the interventions we currently focus on are:
1) Up-cycling trash: Innovating with waste materials that generally find their way into landfills, and transforming them into useful, durable and well-designed day-to-day-use products (Waste management) and
2) Designing and producing desirable Organic Alternatives (food, clothing and cosmetics) at affordable prices.
Thunk creates job opportunities in its various aspects of the project. We train and provide a platform for these communities to form sustainable self-help groups and take care of various aspects of production. In the long term, these self-help groups become independent production units and the people from various underprivileged communities run the production houses eventually become shareholders of the unit. Craftsmen take part in the processing. Thunk provides a platform and a market for various Organic farmers. We provide micro financing options for various organic farming groups to come up independently. Lots of organic farmers covert back into chemical farming due to lack of right access to the market. Under the brand of Thunk, we provide a market to them.
Thunk is establishing itself as a Brand, and our products have the assurance of great design and quality. Through the process of conversion of waste into useful products, the lives of various Underprivileged Communities (slum men and women), Organic farmers and Craft Communities (weavers, tailors etc.) are benefited. Small-scale fabricators.
Organic farmers are supported by our Organic venture. We have now creating innovative applications of alternative sources of energy.
Thunk in India head quarters is located in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. However, production happens inhouse and in the various villages in the interiors of Tamil Nadu
4. What motivated you to take this inspiring step of converting waste into accessories? When did you decide to take this step of setting up Thunk?
Thunk is a start-up company, established in 2009. It came forth from a design project carried out by me in the field of waste in 2007- 2008. The project consisted of designing composters that converted organic waste into manure. That project lasted a year, and during that period Suren familiarised himself with the current waste management system in Bangalore, and understood the various stakeholders’ roles in the entire system.
For the vast majority of the urban people (middle class/upper class), their houses are clean and the sense of cleanliness is obtained when their waste is put into black polythene bags and left outside the house. Most people are not concerned about the waste once it leaves their doorstep. This is what Suren observed and understood: what happens to the waste once it leaves one’s doorstep, where it goes and what happens to it. There was a lot of disappointment in the process. However, there was a positive outcome in following and understanding ‘waste’ disposal: he could see that there were many intervention points where a small change could make a substantial difference.
Visiting landfills around Bangalore, he was surprised to see that lots of materials that were considered to be recyclable or downcyclable found their way there. Further, a lot of materials had a long life, but only a small portion of their life span was utilised before they reached landfills. For example, tetrapak has a lifespan of more than 60 years. But from the time of manufacture till the time it is used and thrown away (product life) only 2 – 3 months would have passed. It is sent to the landfill where it stays for many years, harming not just that piece of land but the water bodies around it, the atmosphere etc. This led him to start exploring other options with the waste materials. One such identified interventions was Up-cycling waste materials. He designed various products using waste materials like tetrapak cartons and polythene covers.
At the end of 2008, Suren realised that a lot of people were interested and supported (by purchasing) the concept and the products. Moreover, many companies and stores were increasingly interested in selling these high end products made from waste materials. After completing a successful pilot stage, he realised that there was demand for such products and that it was worthwhile to start an organisation, which constantly innovated with waste.
5. What stage are you in, in your operations and growth? How did you go about setting it up?
So far, we have been involved with research and development of our concept, product and service ideas.
We put our products and services into the market within 3 month of starting our venture as we started with a small financial back up and needed money to continue the venture. However, we will be launching our first collection of products across India (in 25 stores and boutiques) on June 5th 2011 (world environment day)
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