In India, Shiva is the god of destruction. His job is to destroy the universe to re-create it. Every morning, Hindu temple bells ring out across the mist. The sound mingles with chanting, as groups of people gather to offer orange and pink flowers, milk and incense.

But in the same way that metal can be melted down and cast into a beautiful statue, Shiva’s strength lies not in destruction but in the creation of something new. Where there is disruption there is renewal, and worshippers pray for opportunity and positive change.

This is what entrepreneur and Young Champion of the Earth finalist Ankit Agarwal contemplated one day, when he hit upon an idea. Looking out onto the River Ganges—the lifeline for more than 400 million people which provides 40 per cent of India’s population with water—he realized a paradox.

The Ganges river has deep religious significance for Hindus. Millions bathe in its waters, believing they wash away sins. It is also highly polluted.

“As I was thinking about this, a temple truck dumped flowers right in front of me. Then it struck me: this is something I’ve seen all my life. I didn’t think of flowers as pollution. I started studying the life-cycle of flowers and was amazed,” says Agarwal.



From flower waste to incense:

“Every day, around half a million people go to temples and offer flowers, but no one thinks what happens next,” he added. “More than eight million tonnes of flowers are dumped in the river every year, along with toxic pesticides and insecticides used to grow them.”

When Agarwal started collecting 18 kilograms of flowers a day, flowers from small temples in Kanpur, Utter Pradesh—India’s most populous state —people thought it was “nuts,” he says. With US$900 three years ago, he founded HelpUsGreen social enterprise.

Today, the company has raised US$1 million in investment. Working directly with temples at the nearby Ganges river, the initiative has upcycled 2,753 metric tonnes of flowers before they even reach the river, and offset around 275 kilograms of pesticide residue to date.



A small truck rolls into the factory grounds, dumping a mess of yellow, orange and pink flowers into waiting buckets. From there, the flowers are sorted and sprayed with organic extract to remove pesticides, washed, kneed and rolled into incense sticks and cones. 


The enterprise now supports 79 women and Agarwal has big ambitions to bring that number to 5,000 by 2020. Most were previously working in hard manual labour jobs in the city or as sanitary workers with unpredictable income.