LVBL Accelerator

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Artisanal products check a lot of boxes. They're based on distinct local traditions. They provide livelihoods in their native places. They are often creative, having been iterated over centuries. But notwithstanding all this, they're not widely available, and are not top-of-mind for a lot of people when they buy gifts for themselves or for others. At LVBL Accelerator we've been asking ourselves what it will take to change that, and make this lorry go faster. It seems as though many artisanal collectives are caught in no-man's land. They cannot produce more unless they can be confident of selling more. But they cannot sell more because they have not built a sales engine for themselves. Any intervention to improve matters, therefore, has to simultaneously focus on more market development and also on production. But the 'market' for artisanal gifting is for all sorts of products, whereas every collective is focused on one kind. While they can look for more buyers for the one kind of product that they make, that in itself is not enough. What's needed is a multi-collective platform for sales. So, we asked ourselves, why not build this? We began speaking with a few collectives known to us - in Bidar, in Channapatna, in Kanchipuram, in Dharwad, and other places to see what they currently do, and how an accelerator like LVBL can help. It was quite an interesting journey of learning - not only about the arts and crafts of each place, but also about the challenges at different stages of making and selling them. We're now ready with the first step in building the platform we've been thinking of. LVBL has partnered with Fairkraft Creations and the collectives they work with to build a template that many others can use. During the next few months, we will bring on to this platform the other collectives we have spoken with as well. A lot of retail channels are also pointing us to collectives that they like a lot, and this gives us even more conversations to have. Gifting is an evident channel for artisanal products. But many of the products are also quite useful as everyday objects, and would be chosen by more customers if they were simply made available based on their functional value. It should be possible to build a range of offerings by which, one day if a customer walks into a home products store, many of the things on the shelves are artisanal in each section, instead of one corner alone being set aside for such products. Raj Subramaniam Aditya Jhingan Lingaraj Dinni Aswana Mathew-Srinivas Divya Chennagiri Nagendra Vinay Prashant Nikhil Nadiger Arvind Balasubramanian Vivek Vivek Chandra Elango Vinay Ramesh Dr. Rahul Walawalkar Sharaschandra Shankar Nag Vignesh Nandakumar

As an accelerator, LVBL is focused on taking the good things that are already in the market - both products and services - to the next level, so that the adoption of sustainable choices that support quality of life for lots of people can be speeded up. This action - SPEED - has to be an irreplaceable focus if we are to give ourselves a chance of mitigating the climate crisis that is now upon us. With this in mind, we have been developing a number of partnerships during the last few months with organisations whose work for sustainability and quality of life we really like. Here's the first of those, with one of the best-known names in addressing water challenges - Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt - India. There are a lot of options out there for people to turn to, when they need to address a water-related problem. But these are dispersed, with different organisations focusing on different pieces of the puzzle. The Biome-LVBL partnership is an effort to integrate the dispersed solutions set into something that can be accessed more readily. This also means that while talking to customers about one of their challenges with water, we can also point to other solutions. Lingaraj Dinni Vivek Vivek Vikram Rai Raj Subramaniam Zaffar Sait Juggy Marwaha Era Chaturvedi Shobha Regunathan Renuka Rajagopal (she/her)

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One of the things we were keen to do in accelerating sustainability is to work with event venues to see if we can turn the parties, weddings, birthdays and other get-togethers that are held there to be more sustainable. There is a lot that can be done in such places - for food, utensils and cutlery, napkins, waste management, water, gifts, transport, stay, decor, and clothes are all things we're working on. So far we have identified several locations where we the venue owners and operators are willing to give this a shot - Miraya Greens, The Finer Side, The Woodrose Club in South Bangalore, and a couple of others elsewhere. We're now putting together our curated intervention for each of these places. On a smaller scale, we're also putting together a 'Party in a Box' solution for small parties, including at home. Besides the usual food and decor, we are building games and puzzles to be part of this, and also curating activities that kids can engage in as part of the celebration. If you are hosting or holding an event and want it done sustainably, we'd love to help at these venues. We'll keep adding more venue partners as we go forward, and plan to enable the shift to sustainable events in other parts of the city too. We're also keen on conversations with those who have products, services and ideas that can be included in sustainable celebrations. Lingaraj Dinni Divya Chennagiri Nagendra Aditya Jhingan Arvind Balasubramanian Aswana Mathew-Srinivas Ranjini Rao

Sometimes all that is needed to accelerate better choices is to connect the dots - and this isn't something that producers or retailers can do by themselves. At LVBL, we've been drawing lines of connect for different products and services to see how our intervention can produce the key thing we're aiming for - accelerated adoption of something that is already available in a small way, but could happen a lot more if the connections were made. Here's one of those: a local farmers collective, specified plots, foods that the buyer likes, grown naturally, assured purchase at fair rates, transported to a common drop-off point in the neighbourhood, distributed by people who are common distributors for many different livable products. Once a chain like this is built, many others can ride the same infra. Unsustainable choices already have such chains in place, and even more - financing, marketing, design, stores, and so much more. To compete, the better choices also need the benefit of all these inputs, in addition to being better for people and the planet. Building that social and environmental infrastructure around livelihoods and business is an important part of the transition we need to make. We're putting these together in a few communities in South Bangalore. Lingaraj Dinni Arvind Balasubramanian Ranjini Rao Prasad Hassan

The LVBL spectrum is taking shape. It's been a fun journey of ideating with so many others and putting together the different ways in which can accelerate the adoption of sustainable choices by leveraging what people already do, rather than expecting them to make dramatically different choices. We're also building different presentations of how this ecosystem can work for each type of stakeholder - RWAs, developers, non-profits, designers, architects, retailers, teachers, etc. Always happy to work with more people and ideas.

When we began holding weekend events in South Bangalore months ago, they were limited to one or two a month, and also of somewhat similar type. Now we're up to doing one event each weekend, and sometimes more than one. Our partnership with Akshayakalpa Organic has also resulted in a monthly farmers market, with a growing number of people interested in bringing their products to pop-up stalls. We're also starting to do more things with schools, and that has led to a new possibility - using their space on weekends for neighbourhood events. The rhythm now is to hold one Farmers Market, one Repair Cafe, one event for Senior Citizens, one for children, and whatever else we come across that interests any local group or community. We are also planning regular book readings and occasional new menu launches at cafes based on local and natural produce. Eventually we hope to do a monthly event on sports, one on science and tech, and another on arts and crafts. The goal is simple - these things should be available near our homes and workplaces because they contribute to a better quality of life. If you'd like to partner to host something, or would like one or more of these in your neighbourhood, we'd be happy to add that to the schedule too.

We've revamped the flow of the website to show the full range of what we're doing, where and how to accelerate sustainability. There are still a few small pieces to be done, but with this version it should be easier to create mobile flows and custom personal versions too later.