We all know that climate change is real. The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is urgent. The problem is living sustainably is hard, confusing, costly, and frustrating. Nobody knows where the begin. Today, there are many sustainable brands but no tools to measure an individual’s or household’s carbon footprint. Nutritional labels on packaged foods provide us with a list of ingredients and caloric information. Is it possible to go one step further? Is there a scientific way to model which of these brands legitamitely discslose suppliers, data on environmental impact, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly? Will this newly obtained information create a flywheel? A flywheel which drives consumers towards buying products from chemical, plastic, and waste free brands? A report from CapGemini Research Institute says “Nearly 88% of consumers in India were willing to purchase a more sustainable product once they were made aware of the sustainability issues.”

Introducing Step Change, “a sustainability platform designed to help you reduce your environmental impact and live sustainably.” How does the app work? Users are requested to answer a series of questions related to annual and monthly household spending and consumption patterns. Categories include utilities, water, travel, groceries etc…These inputs generate a sustainability report along with your city’s average. And, this is just the onboarding process.

After your profile is created, StepChange’s recommendation engine suggests what you can do today through a curated list of steps to bring down your ‘number’ in line with your city’s average. These steps may include once a week turning vegan, setting your air condition to 25 degrees Celsius, or instead of traveling domestically by flight you take an overnight train. Each ‘step’ earns you points until eventually this new behavior becomes a habit. A low environmental impact score means a majority of your carbon footprint will be offset through the plantation of trees or carbon capture projects in your local community.

Stepchange launched on April 22nd of this year (Earth Day) and word is spreading organically from community members. Available on IOS and Android today, early users are encouraged to join a WhatsApp community so we do not feel alone in tackling a big problem like Climate Change which can feel overwhelming at times. In app, the team provides weekly updates on how everyone is progressing. Last week, 60+ members earned 4704 impact points equivalent to saving 1474 kg of carbon dioxide, 269,000 liters of water, and 3191 grams of plastic.

At Speciale Invest, our investment philosophy is continuously guided by learnings from actually working with our portfolio. Founders in our portfolio typically have a unique insight into a particular industry. An archetype we admire, is a PhD student ready to formalize his or her academic thesis into a business. Another is a team of hungry, ambitious, and frugal founders who have a pitch deck and a mission.

Through our investments in Ultraviolette Automotive, ePlane, and Uravu we believe that consumers are willing to pay a premium for electrified and renewable transportation and water respectively. The unique insight Ankit Jain and Sidhant Pai had was corporations are not incentivized to immediately reduce net carbon emissions, choosing to defer this responsibility to future generations. Inspite, of stricter regulations and the hype of ESG goals, accounting loopholes allow for big balance sheets to buy ultra cheap carbon credits in bulk. This ironically allows for company A to not make any fundamental changes and continue pollution heavy practices years in perpetuity. Here, is where individual consumers and communities can bridge the gap by voting with his or her currency which will create meaningful impact in moving the needle towards a carbon neutral future.

At a surface level, Step Change looks and feels like a simple to use consumer mobile application. The underlying product however is really a back-end heavy recommendation engine which can process large amounts of behavioral and purchasing data.

Ankit brings senior management level experience with Ola & Ola Electric to the table. In addition to having a front row seat to Ola’s zero to one journey, we have known him for close to three years. Sidhant recently earned his PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry and is the brains behind the product. Both co-founders crossed paths at Massachussets Institute of Technology where they shared similar interests in environmental science. These qualities along with a now stellar team give us conviction that StepChange will raise the bar as the premier sustainability platform designed to reduce your environmental impact and live sustainably.

Company: StepChangeWebsite: www.stepchange.earth
Co Founders: Ankit Jain&Sidhant Pai
Location: Bangalore & New York City
‍Instagram: @stepchangeofficial ‍

P.S. Download the app today on Environment Day via iOS and Android. Join the community here!