Beyond global warming: Climate change may cause more frequent shifts in weather patterns

Climate change is here and several severe weather events are happening across the world. Several climate tech startups are trying to solve the challenge coming from climate change, leveraging technology. These startups are trying to record the carbon footprint of several industries and helping those enterprises to reduce their emission levels. In this process, they are not only able to help enterprises to come up with more sustainable products, but also enable them to charge a premium from customers, GreenStitch is one such startup, which enables companies in the textile industry to reduce their carbon footprint. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, Narendra Makwana, CEO, GreenStitch said that the company is helping several fashion brands to track the emission levels and reduce those for producing environment-friendly products.

He also said that the company has launched an AI product, which helps in tracking of data more efficiently, leading better and faster reports. According to the SaaS company, it helps enterprises to claim carbon credit through reducing their carbon footprint. The company, currently, has customers in India, Norway and Switzerland. It plans to increase its footprint in the US and Europe in coming years

Can you provide a brief overview about your SaaS company, GreenStitch? What is the motivation behind starting the company?

Despite all the uncertainties seen in the global stage, the real threat to mankind is climate change. Not only global warming, climate change leads to very frequent changes in weather pattern. We have seen several changes in the world in recent years. If you see the occurrence of such extreme events, the frequency has increased in the last 200-300 years.

It has led to massive destruction, and loss of livelihood. That is why we believe that climate change is the biggest challenge in front of humanity. The motivation behind starting GreenStitch came from this understanding. I always have been close to nature and seen challenges related to water and related things. I did my graduation in textile engineering.

I have worked with several government agencies on policy side. In my professional career, I have worked closely in meeting the objectives of United Nations Development Goals. Then, I started GreenStitch. Our fundamental understanding is that you have to measure the problem to manage it. Through our software platform, we help enterprises to do monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV). We focus on textile industry to help them measure how much climate change they are bringing, so that they can reduce the carbon footprint.

We started the company almost three years back. Right now, we are the largest climate tech company in India. But being a B2B SaaS company, we aim to spread our reach globally. We also have a global workforce. Most of our customers are in India but we also serve enterprises in Norway and Switzerland also. Globally, the demand for climate tech industry revolves around regulations and also around rising customer awareness.

How the software products of GreenStitch work? Can you give some perspective in this matter?

The role of software products is to collect the data at scale and being able to model the data at a scale. For instance, a fashion brand works with hundreds of suppliers. Our software helps a fashion brand to collect the data across the supply chain. Once the data is collected, it helps in creating reports for carbon accounting. In case of textile industry, the carbon emission happens from the use of natural inputs like cotton, jute and other related materials.

Once the data is collected, several models are generated which help companies to understand the base line, benchmark and how do companies fare against those benchmarks. Then, the intervention measures are initiated. We help companies to do ESG reporting.

Through our carbon accounting and other software products, we help companies to understand which brands are emitting more carbon. In that way, they can reduce the emissions levels. It also helps in design of those textile products.

Do fashion brands undertake carbon footprint mapping on their own or is it more regulatory driven? Can you provide some perspective in this matter?

Both factors drive the mapping. There are customers, who ask for it. For instance, European customers are more conscious. So, they are asking for it. Therefore, it has been integrated into their policy making. Nordic countries are very conscious about it and customers in these regions are willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products.

There are many fashion brands which have successfully built a model around sustainable products. This is driving the demand. Moreover, as customers are asking for sustainable products, governments have acted upon it and made regulatory changes.

Carbon credit is a big market globally and it growing at a sound pace. Do you enable the textile and fashion brands to claiming carbon credits? Can you provide some view about this matter?

We don't do it directly but we help them understand how they can claim carbon credits. Because there are different types of carbon credits. We help brands to understand that, so that they can claim credits

Can you provide some view regarding the revenue model of GreenStitch?

We are a SaaS (software as a service) firm and we charge our customers on an annual revenue subscription basis. We have different price slabs depending on the number of users.

You also have an AI product as part of the portfolio. How are you leveraging AI in making your services better?

We have an AI product which helps in better reporting of data and making reports. It also helps brands to understand where are the loopholes in terms of reporting, so that they can improve on those areas. This is a free tool and our customers use it to get better insights.

As far as revenue cannibalisation is concerned, we don't think it will do that. Rather, it has improved efficiency in our operations.

Are you operationally breakeven now? Can you give some perspective on this matter?

I can't talk about those things as of now. But we are not a cash burning company. As far as team size is concerned, we are around 20 people now.

Most of the team members are in India, while some are abroad like UK and Europe. We are already large in India and we want to be a large player in Europe and the US. Our long-term goal is to emerge as the gold standard in this space.

Global trading is facing uncertainty due to Trump tariffs. What kind of impact do you see owing to this uncertain global environment?

Minor hiccups may happen owing to trade policies of the US government. But you can’t stop an idea.