Only Earth, a plant based milk brand launched by Kunal Mutha in May 2021 has been spreading its presence across India through retail, online, and HORECA Channels.
Only Earth’s narrative is to educate people on the larger positive impact of the plant-based alternatives. As part of the Ocean Conservation initiative, Only Earth teamed up with Reefscapers to start propagating corals and restoring coral reefs on the locally inhabited island of Fulhadhoo Due to Human activities such as factory farming and increased use of fertilizer, there are over 400 dead ocean zones that cannot support marine life. There is an urgent need to protect and preserve the habitat from the human wrath of economic expansion in the name of growth and progress. The Reefscapers international team of marine biologists has been working on marine environmental projects for 20 years.
Kunal mutha says “At Only Earth, we’ve made fighting to preserve our planet our business and together we want to work towards making a meaningful change!”
Tell us about Only Earth’s partnership with Reef Scapers?
We have joined hands with Reefscapers to propagate corals in the locally inhabited island of Fulhadhoo in the Maldives. The project to plant about 1600 corals on artificial frames took us a couple of months to finish and was completed on the 29th of September in presence of local school kids from the neighboring islands. The coral frames will be monitored and maintained by the reefscapers team from the floating observatory near the project site. We will also install live cameras to monitor the growth of our coral frames.
How does this initiative protect the coral reef in the Maldives?
Coral reefs are home to 25 % of marine life. They play a key role in maintaining the ecosystem underwater. Unfortunately due to global warming 50 % of corals today are dead and the remaining few are also expected to die as they cannot withstand the rising temperatures. We wish to mitigate the threat to these sensitive marine animals by supporting and funding such projects.
What is the process followed in the initiative? How will it be implemented?
Two key components for the project are the frames and coral fragments. Artificial frames made of metal are manufactured by the local community in different sizes. The corals are freshly collected from the sea and broken into smaller fragments. The fragments are then attached to the frames which with time end up growing into large corals which support marine life.
What are Reef Scapers’ expectations from Only Earth?
We are the 1st consumer brand to work with Reefscapers to fund such a project. With this partnership, we have planned to expand this project every year and inspire our consumers to contribute to such a cause to preserve marine life from the impact of climate change.
What are the other CSR projects in the pipeline?
We have associated with 3 environmental projects in total. Coral propagation is the first one to have been completed so far. On December 5th which is World Soil Day, we have planned to start our afforestation initiative to plant about 1 Lakh trees in central India. We have chosen a remote location that has high farmer suicide rates. This project with fruit-bearing trees will provide farmers with alternate income and improve their livelihood. Wildlife conservation is the 3rd initiative we have planned to work on. We are in discussion with wildlife agencies like WWF and a few others to identify, adapt and improve the habitat for endangered animals in India.
Climate change due to human activities has impacted wildlife, marine ecosystem and reduced the green cover significantly. With these initiatives, we wish to fight climate change and inspire other businesses to take up such causes to save our ONLY EARTH.
