Onlygood – Entrepreneurs Rajeev Sinha And Vivek Mehra’s Vision For A Greener Planet

After his engineering and business degree, Rajeev began his career in the merchant navy, then travelled across the globe consulting for global supply chains. Over the last decade Rajeev has been running a very successful online apparel brand ‘the Vanca’. Vivek studied Physics, Computer Science, Management and design and began his career on Wall Street in New York. For over two decades he consulted for some of the world’s major banks, pharma, retail and manufacturing companies, helping them with digital transformation and technology strategy before turning entrepreneur in 2017. Rajeev and Vivek had met and worked together at NTT DATA earlier and had shared their passion for sustainability through multiple tree plantations, supporting local schools in urban villages for underprivileged children and various other community initiatives. Over the last few years, both felt that individual contributions to the environment were not enough, and a larger institutional involvement was needed to save the planet. ESG (environmental, social and governance), or CSR (Corporate social sustainability) initiatives are not new for companies. However, because of the global lack of consistent standards for ESG reporting, many companies and polluting industries have been getting away with ‘greenwashing’, or making false claims about how they are meaningfully contributing to a cleaner environment.

To Rajeev and Vivek, it was clear that qualitative ESG reporting was not adequate and data had to be part of any discussion on environmental sustainability. So, in 2018, along with their like-minded technology and user experience team they began developing a new cloud-based data platform with IoT (Internet of Things), machine-learning and blockchain-based capabilities. The platform was designed for remote-data capture, analysis, prediction and reporting. They used the platform initially to monitor energy, machines, buildings, vehicles and then turned their focus to carbon management. Onlygood was initiated in 2022 with an objective for a business in any industry vertical to manage their carbon footprint and obtain international certification. The vision was to create an easy-to-use system that would move ESG and carbon management from being a cost centre to a revenue generating competitive advantage for the enterprise.

They ensured that the Onlygood platform allows for automated data entry, has a wizard for editing and adding invoices and a workflow for validation and document management built in. The platform can ingest data from devices and sensors on machines and vehicles in near real-time, and from ERP systems. The configurable dashboards are providing industry and user specific insights. Data in the system is encrypted, secure and GDPR compliant. Today the team is working on helping its clients to incorporate carbon offsets to lower their carbon footprint. The team is also identifying carbon credits, registering certified projects on global registries for monetization on carbon exchanges.

Sustainability is a long journey for any business, but it begins with an understanding of the carbon footprint across the supply chain. Rajeev and Vivek’s vision is to help businesses wrestling with thinning margins change their mindsets towards carbon management. Their initiative will motivate businesses to not use lack of governmental climate finance or capex as an excuse for not reducing their carbon footprint. Onlygood’s cost-effective technology will help businesses across the globe retain their margins, expand their revenue base, monetize their carbon credits - and also leave a greener planet for the next generation.