I am Prashant Lingam, an award winning social entrepreneur from India with over 15 years of experience in social business having specialization in building low cost shelters using bamboo, agriculture and plastic waste. I am a Postgraduate in Urban Environmental Management & Law.
In 2006, the quest for having an eco-friendly furniture for my home took me to a small village called "katlamara" on the India-Bangladesh border whereupon understanding the difficulties faced by bamboo communities, I decided to help them by tapping the latent market potential of the wondergrass and established my social enterprise www.bamboohouseindia.org
The motivation for establishing my social enterprise was to provide enhanced livelihood opportunities to bamboo-dependent rural and tribal communities at the base of the economic pyramid and promote bamboo as an eco-friendly substitute for wood, steel, iron & plastic, and bridge the gap between the forests and the markets with a focus on providing cost-effective, eco-friendly bamboo housing solution.
To date, I have constructed close to 300 plus bamboo houses and developed a robust bamboo housing social business model. Through my entrepreneurial innovation, I Innovated low-cost recycled plastic shelters to give a second lease of life to plastic waste and to provide fair and enhanced income & livelihood opportunities to waste picking communities and to date have built over 100 low-cost recycled plastic shelters, laid 10,000 sft of recycled plastic tiles, installed 5000 recycled plastic dustbins, circulating close to 10000 Tonnes of plastic waste ensuring plastic waste does not reach dumping grounds, water streams or is incinerated.
I also developed low-cost shelters using agricultural waste like rice husk, coir, bagasse, straw, paddy, etc ensuring agricultural waste is not burnt and is converted into shelters and helo generate revenue to the farmers for their waste and to date has constructed 25 Agri waste houses circulating close to 40,000 Tonnes back into the mainstream and curb pollution caused due to stubble burning.
I developed furniture with scrap Tyres, scrap drums, discarded bicycles, and textile waste and am currently working on designing innovative projects and products to develop "green micro-entrepreneurship, lean business models, to build green livelihoods".
My social business models have been adopted for classroom discussions by Harvard, Cornell, and Kellogg, with ISB, IDEX & ICFAI university doing a case study on our social business. I am a TEDx speaker and speaker on topics of social entrepreneurship, bamboo, plastics, social innovation, motivation, sustainability, and to date have covered over 500 speaking assignments at various national and international platforms.
My work has been featured in over 1500 global media platforms, including Brut, Entrepreneur, BBC, World Economic Forum, French TV, Australian TV, Russian TV, etc including a video feature by US Consulate on my innovative work.
I was fortunate to be part of the Government of India’s 6-member project team for implementing the "single-use plastic" campaign under the Prime Minister’s office and could contribute my learnings for the country’s benefit.
I received an invitation from the government of Kenya to replicate bamboo and plastic social business models in their country and was also received an invitation from the government of the United States for the prestigious IVLP as a foreign opinion leader bringing a global change with my work. My innovation of low-cost shelters with plastic waste found a platform under the United Nations program for global replication.
A few of my Professional Recognitions include:
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Green Entrepreneur of the Year Award
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Pride of Telangana Award
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Social Entrepreneur of The Year Award
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Innovation in Plastics Award
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HMA Small Enterprise of the year Award.
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CII Contribution to Bamboo Industry
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CII Innovation in Bamboo Housing
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APTDC contribution to the environment
I strive to develop innovative products/projects which can make a significant impact on society and for me, social entrepreneurship is not a career, but a way of life, and the credit for all the work I have done go to my team and community members. I firmly believe that hard work eventually pays off, and I know that working hard each day will take me closer to my goals. Explore my portfolio, and feel free to get in touch with any questions.