Profile of Purpose: Flowers in the River

Meet Ankit Agarwal, Founder of Phool, a flower recycling business based in Kanpur, India. By collecting waste flowers from temples and converting them into eco-friendly products, the company is making an impact on both the women they employ who live near the sacred yet polluted Ganges River and the river itself. 

Ankit’s entrepreneurial journey began with a question from a friend who was visiting the Ganges:  “If this river is so sacred, why is it so polluted? And why don't you do something about it?” Ankit did just that.

“Every year, we, Indians, put in about eight million tons of waste flowers in the waters. All the pesticides that are used to grow these flowers mixes with the river water, making it highly toxic. That is the leading cause of diarrhea, hepatitis and severe cholera across India and Bangladesh, where the water flows. Finally, I decided to form a company where we can collect waste flowers and do some products.”

Ankit believes real change will not happen in this generation...but he is hopeful. ”It will happen in the next generation, when the kids of the women that we're able to employ start going to school: their next generation will be liberated from scavenging.” 

Listen to Ankit’s mini profile to learn how a great business idea can change lives for generations.

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