Sustainability case-study with Go Do Good

Khushboo Gandhi's journey to starting Go Do Good stemmed from a lifelong fascination with packaging and a deep concern for the environment. Her passion for understanding how products are packed and her love for nature merged, leading her to identify a gap in the market for sustainable packaging in India. After working in the packaging industry for years, she noticed the lack of viable options for sustainable packaging locally. Motivated by her desire to align her work with her environmental values and inspired by the sight of plastic pollution during her treks, Gandhi made a decision. She started Go Do Good, aiming to create functional, eco-friendly packaging solutions to address the pressing need for sustainability.

Disha Chakraborty (DC): The moment I saw the name of the company, I was fascinated by it. How did you come up with it?
Khushboo Gandhi (KG): It took me three months to settle on a name for the company, but eventually, I landed with Go Do Good. This encapsulates our core value of promoting circularity in packaging. I wanted an anagram to symbolise this concept, hence "Go Do" rearranged to form "Good," which resonates visually. The logo is something that is part of the world resembling an elephant and a rhinoceros, to acknowledge that we don’t make materials, we identify natural materials that have the potential to solve industry problems. After all, everything that we have is from nature.

DC: Can you help me understand the products that you have launched and the ones you plan to launch in the future?
KG: We operate in two main areas. Firstly, we innovate and supply in-house materials, often sourced from agricultural waste streams, aiming to divert them from landfills. Secondly, our core focus lies in material innovation services. 

The good wrap

DC: How does this work?
KG: Over the past three years, we have brought to market products like The Good Coating, which offers water resistance, waste-proofing, and heat sealability. Our ethos demands products to be 100% bio-based and home-compostable before commercial launch. For instance, our coating replaces laminated or PE-coated paper for various applications, from food packaging to mailers. Although we have encountered challenges, like with seaweed transparent pouches, commercialising such innovative materials remains a high barrier. Yet, we have scaled offerings like The Good Coating, aiding in moisture-proof packaging for a range of products. 

DC: Any aha moment so far?
KG: A significant breakthrough has been our development of 100% natural, seaweed-based inks, providing completely home-compostable printing solutions. Complementing our portfolio are bubble wrap replacements and thermal insulation made from coconut coir or wool waste, along with tamarind seed-based glue for various applications, including labels resilient to water and refrigeration.

DC: When you say you want to commercialise, which you have been in the process of doing for two years now, what is the annual manufacturing capacity you have built?
KG: In terms of printed products, we’ve printed close to two lakh products. In terms of the coating, we replaced 10-tonnes of plastic with our packaging. It’s still at a nascent stage because. We rely on in-house production so far. Now, we are collaborating with multiple stakeholders across the supply chain to reach our target audience. We can manufacture our coating and ink in-house, for the end application we have multiple partners that we work with.

DC: What type of pigment is imparting colour to your inks?
KG: Every colour has a different source. We work with more than 50 types of natural pigments to develop these colours. These pigments go through various mechanical processes to achieve the output that we need. These are waste sources like fruit and vegetable peels, leaves, berries, barks of trees, and so on.

DC: How much would the ink production capacity be?
KG: Currently, we are in the early stages of growth. Our current capacity is up to 1,000 litres per day. We produce 20-30 tonnes daily, and depending on the client’s requirements, we can always scale up the production or keep it to the base we have right now.

DC: When you print, there are lots of processes which are available to customers. Are your inks compatible with all those processes?
KG: We have different variants depending on the machinery. We have a set compatible with screen printing machines, we have a set compatible with flexo and gravure, and we have a set compatible with offset. These are water-based inks.

DC: Please give me an example of where The Good Sticker applies perfectly.
KG: The perfect application is for glass bottles, which could be bottles of Kombucha, ghee, honey, or anything that needs a sticker. This glue is compatible with all sorts of paper and glass. It is not compatible with plastics or laminated plastic. The thing with metal is that we have faced a lot of complicated surfaces with metals. We prefer that clients do the trials based on the metals they have. We know that the glue takes well to aluminium or tin, as long as it's not powder-coated.

The Good Ink

DC: What applications are you looking at in terms of the coating?
KG: Currently, our focus is on packaging, specifically pillow pouches, sachets, and takeaway food containers, which are the main applications. Also, we have introduced eco-friendly pastry boards, filling a gap in the market. Each of our products serves a specific sector; for instance, our coating targets FMCG-based quick commerce, addressing the prevalent plastic usage. Conversely, bubble wrap and eco-friendly thermal insulation cater to heavier items like furniture and ceramics, providing a robust solution equivalent to four to six layers of traditional bubble wrap. These offerings aren't suitable for delicate, lightweight products, as alternative solutions exist for that niche.

DC: In this sector, people working with crop waste or seaweed choose to focus on just that one thing. How are you managing so many product verticals?
KG: We keep asking ourselves this as well. It’s been a transformative journey; one thing led to another. I felt our approach was different — it’s not about your raw material source, but about the problem you want to solve. I think that’s the difference between both of the approaches. The industry has become so dependent on convenience because of plastic, so you have to deliver across the board. Replacing one element of the supply chain won’t make that large a difference in sustainability terms. 

DC: There is no standard costing value across the supply chain. What is your costing process? If one litre of the other water-based inks costs Rs 100 per litre, where would your product stand? 
KG: Our inks are 10% cheaper. We locally source all our raw materials. We have a very large network of partners and collaborators. That’s the beauty of working in India — everyone and everything is connected. 

DC: What is the biggest challenge you have faced yet?
KG: Our key challenges revolve around prevalent misconceptions about sustainability being costly and inaccessible, affecting both large corporations and small businesses alike. Additionally, there's a significant influx of materials falsely labelled as eco-friendly, exacerbating the environmental impact. While plastic has its benefits, the proliferation of single-use plastics has highlighted the lack of proper disposal infrastructure. This includes recycling and composting facilities, in India. This contributes to a systemic issue where waste pickers struggle to segregate different types of plastics effectively. 

DC: What next?
KG: As a startup, navigating these challenges while promoting sustainable practices requires a persuasive mindset to drive meaningful change. Despite these obstacles, adaptation and perseverance remain integral to our journey in creating a more sustainable future.