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Mr. Ankit Agarwal is the Founder-CEO of Phool.co, a social enterprise that has pioneered the ‘flowercycling®’ technologies to reduce pollution in the river Ganges, by upcycling vast quantities of flower temple-waste in India. Every year, more than 8 million metric tons of pesticide-laden temple-flowers are dumped in the Ganges, choking the river & causing severe health concerns - diarrhoea, hepatitis, and cholera. At Phool.co, over 11.4 tons of temple-waste is collected daily in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and converted into charcoal-free incense and an animal-free alternate to leather called Fleather (PETA’s Best Innovation in the Vegan World 2020). Awarded by the Fast company for world changing ideas and recognized by Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, and Stanford Social Review, Phool.co is driving systems change in a community that has been exploited for centuries by creating opportunities & revolutionizing the way India handles the ‘Million-ton temple waste disposal.’
Mr. Ankit was named a Queen’s Young Leader in 2017 and is both an Echoing Green and Acumen Fellow. He is amongst the 21 young leaders selected for extraordinary skills by the Asia Society and recently received the prestigious United Nations Young Leader for Sustainable Development Goals Award, the Takeda Young Global Entrepreneur Award, the Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award, and The GSG Millennial Honor. He is also a finalist for the H.R.H Prince William’s Earthshot Prize 2022, launched to support climate and environmental innovators around the world.
