Devang Vora, Chairman SSRDP (Art of Living) on Sustainability, EcoKranti & Rural Entrepreneurship | Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast
Updated: 9 hours ago
TL;DR: Sustainability is often presented as something that demands sacrifice. Give up convenience, change your habits, spend more, or make a conscious effort every time you consume something. Devang’s perspective is considerably more pragmatic.
Episode 101 of the Brain Box - The Leadership Podcast explores how sustainability can become a default choice, why rural India needs stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems, and why mental equilibrium may be one of the most overlooked qualities of effective leadership.
Sustainability is often presented as something that demands sacrifice. Give up convenience, change your habits, spend more, or make a conscious effort every time you consume something. Devang’s perspective is considerably more pragmatic. His argument is that if sustainable alternatives are going to replace products that people already use every day, they cannot merely be environmentally superior. They also have to be convenient and functional.
That philosophy sits at the heart of his work with SSRDP, or Sri Sri Rural Development Program, where he has been involved in rural development and sustainability initiatives, including EcoKranti. What began with a question around replacing single-use plastic garbage bags evolved into a much broader attempt to create an ecosystem around sustainable alternatives, authentic suppliers and collaboration.
Running through all of it was one recurring idea: meaningful change does not necessarily begin with grand gestures. Sometimes, it begins with changing something as ordinary as a garbage bag.
About Devang: From Computer Engineering to Rural Development and Sustainability
Devang’s journey did not begin in sustainability or rural entrepreneurship. He studied computer engineering in Mumbai, and during his first year of engineering, a friend introduced him to a meditation program. The initial motivation was almost humorous: he was told that if he completed the program, he would need to study less to achieve the same marks.
What began as an incentive to get through engineering became a much more consequential experience. Devang was already interested in yoga, but his experience with meditation changed his perspective enough for him to eventually dedicate his life to the mission of the Art of Living.
Over the next 20 to 25 years, his journey involved organising youth programs, introducing thousands of young people to meditation and yoga, becoming a facilitator, and eventually being part of Gurudev’s office. Working from the international centre also exposed him to people from more than 180 countries.
That experience shaped something beyond his professional capabilities. It gave him exposure to different cultures, ways of interacting and perspectives on the world.
In the last two years discussed in the conversation, his focus had increasingly moved towards rural development and sustainability through SSRDP.
Why Did EcoKranti Begin With Something as Ordinary as a Garbage Bag?
The genesis of EcoKranti was surprisingly simple. Someone approached the team with an idea for replacing single-use plastic. What followed was a deeper investigation into the problem, and the team realised that single-use plastic was far more pervasive than it appeared.
One of the first problems they chose to address was the garbage bag. The reasoning was connected to an otherwise positive development in waste management: segregation at source. Wet and dry waste were increasingly being separated, because wet waste can decompose relatively quickly while dry waste can take far longer to break down.
But the execution contained an unintended contradiction. People began using single-use plastic garbage bags to collect their wet waste.
In other words, a good environmental practice had acquired a damaging implementation layer.
Devang estimated that this could translate into roughly 8 to 12 kilograms of single-use plastic per person every year. That became the starting point for EcoKranti.
The larger philosophy emerged from there: “Small steps, big impact.”
The point was not to ask people to completely transform their lives overnight. Instead, the team wanted to identify ordinary decisions that people could change immediately. Changing a garbage bag could be one such decision. Switching tissue paper could be another.
The underlying insight is important because it addresses a fundamental behavioral problem. Many people may want to participate in sustainability but feel that they do not have the time, knowledge or ability to make a meaningful contribution. Lowering the barrier to entry changes that equation.
Sustainability Will Not Scale If It Is Inconvenient
Perhaps the most practical insight from Devang’s approach to sustainability is that environmental virtue alone is not enough.
If a sustainable product is significantly less convenient or functional than the product it is supposed to replace, consumers will naturally find reasons to return to what they already use.
Devang’s team therefore adopted a straightforward product philosophy: sustainable alternatives should be as functional and convenient as existing products, or preferably better.
This is where his perspective moves away from sustainability as a purely ideological movement and towards sustainability as a product and behavioral challenge. People do not necessarily need to be persuaded to care about the planet every time they make a purchase. The ecosystem around them needs to make the sustainable choice easier.
As Devang put it, “We are making sustainability convenient.”
That distinction matters. Asking people to sacrifice convenience creates resistance. Making the better choice equally convenient can gradually make that choice habitual.
It also explains why accessibility becomes an important part of the EcoKranti philosophy. If alternatives are available through familiar channels and can be obtained as easily as conventional products, the psychological and practical barrier to adoption becomes considerably smaller.
The ultimate ambition is therefore not simply to persuade people to make better choices. It is to make those choices so straightforward that sustainability gradually becomes the default.
EcoKranti Is Trying to Build an Ecosystem, Not Just Sell Products
Another important distinction in Devang’s approach is that EcoKranti is not positioned simply as another product manufacturer. The stated focus is elimination of single-use plastic, while creating a platform for authentic eco-friendly suppliers and helping build networks around them.
That creates an interesting collaborative model. Devang gave the example of a partner who had previously manufactured plastic products but had transitioned towards compostable alternatives. Instead of viewing other manufacturers as competitors, the ecosystem could help facilitate that transition.
The philosophy is essentially that collaboration is necessary because the problem is too large for a single organisation to solve. The conversation touched on collaboration at multiple levels, including society, research, manufacturing and institutions. Devang described this through the Sanskrit idea “Sanghe Shakti,” the power of collective effort.
That approach also addresses another increasingly important problem: greenwashing.
As sustainability becomes commercially attractive, more businesses can position themselves as environmentally friendly without necessarily providing meaningful alternatives. Devang believes the credibility and intent behind the ecosystem matter, particularly because the initiative is backed by the SSRDP foundation and its volunteer-driven model.
The emphasis, therefore, is not simply on putting an “eco-friendly” label on a product. It is about building trust around the intent, the supplier and the alternative itself.
Why Rural Entrepreneurship Could Be Critical to India’s Growth
The conversation then moved from environmental sustainability to another form of sustainability: creating sustainable economic opportunity in rural India. Devang spoke about an initiative aimed at entrepreneurs from rural India and Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns. His argument was straightforward. If India is going to achieve the scale of economic growth being discussed at a national level, rural India cannot remain a peripheral participant.
SSRDP and the broader Art of Living ecosystem have an extensive on-ground presence, which Devang sees as an important advantage in understanding the realities of rural entrepreneurs. His observation is that the entrepreneurial hunger often exists. What is missing is the ecosystem around it.
One barrier he identified was exposure. Entrepreneurs in rural areas may not have the same access to English-language networks, mentors, service providers or business ecosystems that founders in major cities take for granted.
The ambition discussed in the conversation was to potentially build a pool of around 500 rural startups operating in the rural and sustainability space over the next two years. The metric of success, importantly, is not simply the number of startups brought into the ecosystem. Devang said the real measurement is how many of those entrepreneurs actually become successful.
Why a Small Increase in Rural Income Can Have a Large Impact
In addition to EcoKranti and rural entrepreneurship, there is another subtle point in Devang’s argument.
The definition of success does not necessarily have to resemble that of a technology startup in Bengaluru or Mumbai. If a rural entrepreneur increases household income by ₹15,000 a month, the economic significance can be disproportionately large. For a household with a much lower baseline income, that increase can potentially transform the economics of the family.
This changes the way entrepreneurship itself can be evaluated. In urban startup ecosystems, the vocabulary often revolves around valuations, funding rounds, scale and millions of dollars in revenue. In rural India, entrepreneurial impact can sometimes be measured much more directly through household income, employment and local economic resilience.
That does not make the ambition smaller. It changes the unit of measurement. Devang’s larger objective is to create an ecosystem in which rural founders can access better services, networks and support without having to navigate an overwhelming number of choices on their own.
For a founder, finding the right accountant, marketer, consultant, mentor, technology provider or other specialist can already be difficult. In a less connected ecosystem, the problem can become even more pronounced. Creating trusted access to those capabilities can therefore become a form of infrastructure.
“We Don't Have a Plan B or the Planet B”
The sustainability discussion eventually arrived at a more fundamental question: why should individuals care?
Devang’s answer is not particularly complicated.
There is only one planet. His point is that destruction and regeneration operate on very different timelines. A forest can be destroyed relatively quickly, while rebuilding the ecosystem can take centuries or even longer.
That asymmetry makes prevention considerably more rational than relying on future repair. This is also where his philosophy of small steps becomes important. He does not argue that every individual needs to become an environmental activist. Instead, people need to become more conscious of what they consume and the consequences of those choices.
His aspiration goes even further. He wants a future where terms such as recycling and reuse become less necessary because the materials people choose in the first place are designed to return naturally to the ecosystem.
That is the meaning behind another of EcoKranti’s central philosophies: “Soil, back to soil.”
The idea is that what is taken from the natural ecosystem should ultimately be capable of returning to it without leaving behind the persistent pollution associated with plastic.
What Does Devang Believe Makes a Good Leader?
The conversation eventually moved from sustainability and entrepreneurship to leadership, which brought together many of the themes discussed earlier. Devang identified three qualities that he believes leaders need to cultivate: empathy, team building and the ability to create win-win situations for stakeholders.
The first is empathy. Leadership cannot be reduced to execution because organisations are ultimately made up of people.
The second is team building. Devang’s view is blunt: “You are as good as your team.” That is particularly relevant to his own journey. His work has involved volunteers, facilitators, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, communities and institutions. None of those ecosystems can be built through individual effort alone.
Leadership, in this interpretation, becomes less about extracting value and more about creating conditions in which multiple stakeholders can create value together.
Why Mental Equilibrium May Be More Important Than Mental Strength
The final part of the conversation took a different but deeply connected turn. After spending decades around meditation and yoga, Devang argued that the objective should not merely be mental strength. It should be mental equilibrium.
Strength suggests the ability to withstand pressure. Equilibrium suggests the ability to remain balanced while experiencing pressure, success, failure and uncertainty.
That distinction is particularly relevant to leadership. A leader may have intelligence, ambition, resources and an impressive team, but if the mind itself is constantly unsettled, those external advantages may not translate into a fulfilling life.
Devang expressed the idea in one of the strongest observations of the conversation:
“The quality of the life that you live is directly proportional to the quality of your mind.”
His argument is that learning how to deal with one's own mind should be treated as an integral part of education rather than an optional pursuit. That brings his journey from computer engineering back into focus. What began as an unexpected introduction to meditation during his first year of engineering eventually became a 25-year exploration of the mind, leadership, service and human behaviour.
For someone who has spent years working across cultures, communities and causes, his definition of wellness is therefore not simply physical health. It is the ability to maintain balance internally while dealing with the complexity of life externally.
And perhaps that is where the different threads of this conversation intersect. Whether Devang is talking about plastic, rural entrepreneurship, collaboration or leadership, the underlying principle remains similar: build systems that make better outcomes easier to achieve.
For sustainability, that means making the sustainable choice convenient.
For rural entrepreneurship, it means making access to the right ecosystem easier.
For leadership, it means building teams and relationships where everyone can win.
And for personal wellbeing, it means developing enough mental equilibrium to actually experience the life that those external achievements are meant to create.
Key Takeaways from Devang on EcoKranti and rural entrepreneurship
Sustainability has to become convenient.People are unlikely to consistently abandon functional products simply because a more sustainable alternative exists. The alternative needs to match or exceed the convenience and functionality of what it replaces.
Small actions can become behavioral gateways.The “small steps, big impact” philosophy is about lowering the barrier to participation. Changing a garbage bag or tissue paper can become the first step in a much broader shift in consumption.
Rural entrepreneurship needs an ecosystem, not merely encouragement.The entrepreneurial hunger may already exist in rural India. Better access to exposure, networks, expertise and trusted service providers can help convert that hunger into successful businesses.
Collaboration can multiply impact.The scale of problems such as single-use plastic makes isolated efforts inadequate. Research institutions, manufacturers, communities, governments and individuals all have roles to play.
Leadership begins with the quality of the mind.Empathy, team building and win-win thinking matter, but Devang also argues that leaders need mental equilibrium. External success becomes less meaningful if the mind is incapable of experiencing it.
