Building a sustainability business in India has shown that good technology is the beginning. Customers adopt solutions only when they can understand the problem, trust the technology, see practical value, and change behavior without unnecessary friction. Our journey from sanitation research at IIT Delhi to waterless urinals and natural cleaning products has reinforced one lesson: sustainability must work in the world before people will make sustainability part of everyday life.

When we started working on sanitation a decade ago we thought the difficult part would be developing the technology. We were wrong. The technology was difficult, of course. But convincing people to change something they had been doing for years was harder.

In 2013, Ekam Eco Solutions began as a research spin-off from IIT Delhi’s sanitation studies. We asked a question: Can we change how water and waste are handled in everyday buildings? That question produced Zerodor, a water‑free system. Now Ekam Eco Solutions works on water saving, clean toilets, wastewater treatment, and eco‑friendly cleaning. After thirteen years, the biggest lesson for us is not a product but the whole approach. We strive to bring hope to communities. It is about how people adopt change.

Sustainability Is Easy to Agree With. Changing Habits Is Not.

Ask someone whether they want to save water, reduce waste, or use safer products, and the answer is usually yes. The difficulty begins with the next question: “What are you willing to change?”

Consumers have routines. Facility managers have operating procedures. Procurement teams have budgets. Housekeeping teams have established products. Building owners have maintenance contracts. A sustainable alternative has to enter this existing system. That means “better for the environment” is rarely enough.

A product has to perform. It has to be understandable. It has to justify its cost. And, ideally, it should make the customer’s life easier rather than asking them to make a heroic lifestyle change. That has shaped almost every major decision we have made.

Lesson 1: Solve a Problem People Already Feel

Our experience with Zerodor was a useful education. Water conservation was the obvious environmental benefit. But customers did not always begin the conversation by saying, “I want to save water.” They talked about restroom odor, maintenance, plumbing, operating costs, and user experience.

That distinction matters. The environmental benefit may get attention, but the immediate operational problem often gets the purchase decision.

Zerodor’s waterless urinal system was developed around this intersection. Its mechanical design eliminates flushing water from the urinal while addressing odor through the drainage system rather than simply masking it with fragrance. Ekam says its installations have now crossed 85,000 and reports more than 4 billion litres of water saved.

For anyone building a sustainability startup, this is an important lesson: Do not sell the environmental benefit separately from the customer’s problem. Connect the two.

Lesson 2: Trust Is Part of the Product

One of the barriers to selling sustainable products is the trust gap. I have noticed that consumers see many labels promising green, natural, or eco-friendly. Institutions are even more cautious because a product failure can affect operations, budgets, and compliance.

This is where evidence matters. For us, the IIT Delhi research connection provided an important foundation. But over time, we found that credentials alone were not enough. Products had to survive real installations, real maintenance conditions, and real customer expectations.

The same principle applies to our cleaning business. CARE products are positioned around plant-based ingredients, enzymes, and bio-based technologies, while the range carries GreenPro certification. Products are made for use. Products avoid ingredients like parabens, phosphates, chlorine bleach, and petroleum solvents whenever possible.

Trust comes from product performance, information, and independent standards. Trust is not earned by marketing. Claims are only true when backed by product performance, transparent information, and independent standards. Customers feel safe when products meet these rules.

Lesson 3: Price Matters, Even When the Mission Matters More

Many people think people will pay more for products because people truly care about the environment. This belief is widely shared among eco-shoppers and each time people shop.

Sometimes they will. Often, they won’t. Indian consumers and institutions are highly practical. A sustainable product still has to answer a basic question: “What do I get for the money?” That is not a weakness in the market. It is a useful discipline for entrepreneurs.

If a water-saving technology reduces operating costs, demonstrate the economics. If a cleaning product can replace several conventional products, explain the practical use case. If a solution reduces maintenance, show where that saving comes from. Sustainability is easier to adopt when the environment and money both benefit.

Lesson 4: Don’t Ask Customers to Become Someone Else

This lesson may be the most important lesson we learned about designing for sustainability. Scalable sustainable solutions are not necessarily the ones that require behavior change effectively. Facility managers should not have to redesign a building to save water, yet small changes can make a big difference.

A housekeeping team should not need a completely new workflow just because a cleaner has a different environmental profile. A family should not have to become an environmental expert to choose a better household product.

That thinking influenced our move from B2B sanitation into consumer cleaning. The B2B chapter taught us how to solve infrastructure problems. The B2C chapter made us think about habits inside the home. Today, consumers can explore natural home cleaning products in India through the CARE range. It covers categories like floor cleaning, dishwashing, handwashing, and multipurpose cleaning.

The products are made for use. They don’t ask households to change how they clean. The lesson is not that every household needs the product. It is that sustainable choices become easier when they fit existing routines.

Lesson 5: B2B and B2C Teach You Different Things

Selling to an institution and selling to a household can seem like two different businesses. In fact, both are built on trust—only the questions change. A corporate buyer may ask about ROI, maintenance, certification, installation, and long-term reliability.

A household buyer may ask if a product works, what is inside, if it is safe around children and pets, and if it is worth swapping something under the sink, then buying something new, and if it is easy to use. The underlying challenge is the same: Reduce the perceived risk of changing. That requires better education, clearer communication, and products that perform consistently.

What Didn’t Work

Not every sustainability idea should survive just because it sounds appealing. We discovered that technical detail can become an issue when customers cannot see its value for them today. We learned that environmental messaging can become too abstract. We learned that adding more features does not necessarily create more value.

And we learned that asking people to change behavior before giving them a compelling reason to change rarely works. The answer was not to make sustainability louder. It was to make it more useful.

What I Would Tell a Sustainability Founder Starting Today

Start with the problem, not the label. Spend more time with users than with your own assumptions. Measure what you can. Be careful with environmental claims. Treat certification as evidence, not as the entire story. Build for the infrastructure that actually exists. And understand that adoption is part of innovation.

A brilliant technology sitting unused is not a successful sustainability solution. The real measure of impact is what happens after the sale: Is the product installed? Is it used correctly? Does it continue working? Does the customer recommend it? Does the behavior become normal? That is where sustainability moves from a pitch deck into the real world.

The Next Chapter Is About Making Better Choices Normal

When we started this journey, sustainability was often seen as something from regular business. Now the talk is changing. Companies are looking at water costs, waste, indoor environments, resource efficiency, and environmental rules. Customers are asking more about what they bring into their homes. Organizations want solutions that mix how well things work with being good for the environment.

But awareness alone will not create scale. Sustainable products have to become ordinary products. They need to work on Monday morning, fit the budget, survive procurement, make sense to the person using them, and deliver the benefit promised.

That is what 13 years of trying to build sustainability solutions in India has taught us. We do not need everyone to become an environmentalist overnight. We need better choices to become easier choices. And when that happens at scale, changing habits stops being the biggest barrier to sustainability—and becomes its biggest multiplier.

FAQs

Q.1. What makes sustainable products difficult to sell in India?

Ans. The greatest obstacles are usually price sensitivity, lack of trust, ingrained habits, and doubt about whether a new option will work as well as the current product.

Q.2. How can sustainability startups improve customer adoption?

Ans. Begin by solving a customer need to show clear, measurable benefits, lower the effort required for change, and back environmental claims with real evidence, tests, or trustworthy certification.

Q.3. Why is trust important when selling green products?

Ans. Consumers and institutions increasingly encounter broad environmental claims. Clear product information, relevant certifications, real-world performance, and transparent communication can reduce uncertainty.

Q.4. Why did Ekam expand from water-saving solutions into cleaning products?

Ans. The company’s experience in sustainable sanitation created a broader understanding of how resource use, hygiene, and everyday behavior are connected. CARE extends that approach into household and workplace cleaning.

Q.5. What is the biggest lesson from building a sustainability business?

Ans. The environmental advantage becomes easier to expand when it ties into things people already value— performance, more convenience, lower cost, higher reliability, or a superior everyday experience today.

Author: Founder, Ekam Eco Solutions

Note: This founder-voice article should be reviewed and personalized by the actual founder before publication, particularly the first-person reflections and any specific “what worked/what didn’t” examples.