Aniket Kawthalkar
Samvida Ray
Krishna Kadakia
Rahul Swain
Debajit Baidya
Goa Institute of Management
Divya Singhal
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Ecoplore is a platform for booking eco-hotels across the country. It is curated and managed entirely by women only. All the eco-hotels promoted by Ecoplore are made from naturally occurring materials such as stones, mud, bamboo, etc. In such a way, Ecoplore enables the local community and their traditions and architecture.
Ecoplore not only provides a lifetime experience but also ensures that each and every eco-hotel is personally verified by the Ecoplore team, in order to encourage “solo-woman travel”. With that, they only prefer locations amidst forests or mountains or near waterfalls or rivers. That way, the clients experience a noise-free, pollution-free, away from the crowded environment. This way, they aim towards the conservation of nature and natural beings.
Also, the eco-hotels maintain at least 33% greenery on the site. Several sustainable measures such as solar panels, organic farming, composting, rainwater harvesting, no plastic zone, etc. are also taken.
These contributions to society have been recognized by the UN as fulfilling the SDG 12 of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Currently, Ecoplore has visited and verified about 150 eco-hotels. This allows them to offer several options to their customers in all parts of the country.
Quoting Prerna, CEO of Ecoplore from the interview, "Ecoplore is about promoting sustainable tourism in India. We promote hotels that are made up of mud, wood, stone, or any local architecture and all these hotels have at least 30% tree coverage within them. All these hotels are located in completely nature-based places like riversides, mountains, and waterfalls, unlike the other hotels that are located in mainstream towns or cities. These properties also follow a lot of sustainable features like rain-water harvesting, composting, waste management, and no use of plastic. Right now, there are 150 properties that are personally visited and verified by our team. Every property we promote we take the pain of personally visiting the property and checking whether they are comfortable, hygienic, safe for the tourist and maintain all the sustainable features we are talking about."
Ecoplore was founded in 2014. It contributes mainly towards the UN SDG 12 which is responsible for consumption and production. They were also recognized by United Nations Environment Program for fulfilling this SDG. Through all these properties they are trying to reduce carbon emission. For example, the food provided in these properties is either grown in the property itself or procured from the villages nearby. This results in very fewer transportation costs and, in a way, there is a reduction in carbon emission. Also, waste management technique is used very seriously and no food is wasted. Maximum carbon emission happens during the construction of building so if the buildings are made from local materials, then also it leads to a reduction of carbon emission and as a result reduced consumption of resources.
The tourism industry is assumed to be mainly male-centric. To combat this, through her endeavour, Prerna also aims to keep maximum female members as a part of Team Ecoplore. Solo woman travellers personally vet every eco-hotel promoted by Ecoplore. This assures tourists of safety and encourages more women to travel without hesitance. Along with creating a safe travel space for women & ensuring universal accessibility, the primary vision of Ecoplore is to restore forests, rivers, mountains, and deserts to their natural form through a pool of experts who assist in building up a new eco-stay or convert a non-eco-friendly place into an eco-stay.
Reference - "https://www.fempower.in/social-enterprises/prerna-prasad"
Prerna Prasad is the Founder and CEO of Ecoplore. She was a journalist and an activist. She worked in the field of journalism for 8 years. She was also part of the Anti-Corruption movement that started in 2011. The idea struck Prerna’s mind when she went on a holiday to Malaysia and stayed in different eco-hotels which she booked after too much effort on the internet for almost a month. Prerna struggled to find websites with having a comprehensive list of eco-friendly hotels. Travelling was her hobby and she combined it with her love for the environment.
She realised that people are taking the environment for granted and these environmental issues needed to be looked after. Prerna says that “Innovation drives sustainability”. She also believes that “Curbing environmental issues is a group task. People have to come together to tackle environmental problems”. Her urge to work towards the environment and sustainability gave her the motivation to start Ecoplore.
The impact could be made in multiple ways. But entrepreneurship/business is the most innovative way of making a social and economic impact. Business runs on a very simple formula. Demand and supply. Ecoplore promotes the setting up and running of ecohotels throughout the country. "We could notice that the demand for sustainable products is rising at a very fast pace." Ecoplore as an organization strategizes and promotes building eco-friendly hotels instead of concrete buildings. This would promote better conservation of environmental resources preventing exhaustion thus attaining sustainability. Ecoplore is also focused on implementing various environment-friendly policies like no use of plastics, LED bulbs, Energy-efficient systems etc. This would help in conserving resources even with the existing concrete properties.
Ecoplore promotes sustainable hotels so any new hotelier who decides to build an eco-friendly hotel will contribute largely to environment conservation. Ecoplore has been promoting and helping facilitate booking for various eco-friendly properties to increase the revenue of these properties and also create an awareness for these properties. Ecoplore directly contributes to SDG 12 which is responsible for consumption and production. Ecoplore tries to reduce the carbon emission in all of its properties e.g the food which is provided in these hotels is grown inside the property or is procured from the village so there is little to no transportation which in turn reduces carbon emission. All the eco-hotels that are promoted by Ecoplore emit only 9kg carbon per room per night which compared to the avg of 75kg carbon emitter by normal hotels and 1000kg emitted by luxury hotels per room per night is significantly less. This is possible only because of the efforts taken by the property owners and Ecoplore.
Ecoplore, as an organization is setting an example for innovation, led sustainability.
Ecoplore apart from being a networked platform for ecological hotels is also promoting the construction and maintenance of eco-friendly hotels with environment-friendly materials.
According to Prerna "Eco-friendly hotels would prevent future environmental problems."
And the organization is also focused on "creating impact with the existing property".
The use of biodegradable materials, LEDs, organic fabrics would sum up to enormous environmental conservation. Currently, Ecoplore has already set a network of appx. 200 such eco-hotels.
Most of these eco-hotels are focused on one or various environment conserving procedures such as
- energy-saving technologies
- embrace recycling
- promoting guests to go green
- start composting
- save water.
- promoting local and sustainable business
- implement alternative energy sources.
Apart from this the organization also works towards women empowerment. The organization has a maximum work-staff consisting of women.
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Prerna Prasad, Founder and CEO
Ecoplore is a booking platform for curated eco-hotels. They promote only those hotels that are made of mud, wood, bamboo, stone, or any local architecture, and maintain at least 33% greenery on its campus. The eco-hotels also follow other sustainable measures like rainwater harvesting, solar panels, composting, no plastic zone, organic farming, and so on.