Brown Living shares the journey of a self-taught climate activist. Learn how one person can make a difference and join the movement toward sustainability.
This blog was originally posted on Tang Magazine on March 17 2021.
The pandemic had given us a moment to pause, take a long, hard look at the damage we have caused to the world we live in and rethink our ways.
We have, for decades gotten used to living a certain way and what was normal before is now a lifestyle choice that we seem to be making. Commercialization of plastics and ill-effects of products with shorter lifespan is embedded so deep that with our ‘woke’ minds and hearts, that we realise the need to switch to companies, brands, services that are thoughtful towards the environment and we still seem to miss out on each detail that makes them honest.
Chaitsi Ahuja, founder of Brown Living is one environmentalist who is making it easier for us. The vision, depth and reason for this company come from a simple and logical life that Chaitsi lived and turned all her knowledge into good practice for the environment.
“I grew up falling in love with my garden at home and the beauty of mother nature; contrastingly studying the damage that we had caused all these years, and instead of just mulling over the vast ill-effects of pollution and environmental damage, I wanted to be part of the solution.
Founding Brown Living is an attempt toward changing the mindset of consumption and the impact it has over the environment in all the stages of demand, production, aesthetics, branding, and impact of said products on the environment.
Brown Living is not just a marketplace for brands and companies to sell organic and environment-friendly products, it is a system of impacting a larger change in our lives. The change begins by following The Brown Lens method – a selection and consumption framework that is ethical and authentic each step of the way.
Source of material, method of production, packing of product, the life of the product and its effects upon the environment after use, and finally aesthetic branding of products is a framework we subject all our associates to, making sure to reduce carbon footprints and to follow a genuine pattern while converting any damage caused by reconciliation via reformative practices that can reduce the harmful impact on the environment.
The framework is thorough and is followed by the curator’s council to look at each business and product through this lens. With a selection process as this, The Brown Lens allows us and our business associates to improve and convert their processes to reflect sustainable business practices and curating a range of products true to the ethos and cause, also improving the shopping and consumption process.
Understanding the importance to make a change and being part of a network that works towards this is rewarding in every way. With the lack of conventional competitiveness, we are focused on sharing the work as well as helping each other grow together, improving all along the way.
Finally, we must realize that this change is not easy, but a necessary one. The methods and lives our forefathers have followed had a positive impact in various ways and now, it is all a conjunctive mess of mass production and wastage. We must learn to go back and adapt to the present.
I am fortunate to work with various companies and organizations that are committed to the cause and are impacting the world one less wasted product a day.”
True to her love for nature, Chaitsi shares the motivation behind her vision,
“I believe in living life like a Banyan Tree - rooted, strong and dynamic in its yield.”
Practicality, problem-solving and honest in their approach, Brown Living is making a change in a world of influenced consumerism resulting in mammoth heaps of waste and poisonous living. Chaitsi Ahuja and her company teach us the essence of caring for the environment, moving along with the times and being the change the world needs.
