How often does an entrepreneur's story begin like this? An avid trekker, chartered accountant and journalist, Dr Chandrashekhar Hariharan suddenly found himself stranded amidst death and debris when an earthquake suddenly hit Uttarakhand in 1991. A trip to Rishikesh that should have taken a day took five months - and in these months, Dr Hariharan's destiny as a 'green entrepreneur' was written. "It was during this calamity that I realized our ecosystem cannot be taken for granted; that resources like water, energy and power are scarce, and need to be harnessed and conserved," says Dr Hariharan, now the founder of Biodiversity Conservation India Limited (BCIL).

How was the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey?

Soon after the earthquake, I started the Academy of Mountain Avionics,
whose mission was to bring infrastructure like power and water to
mountainous regions. I traveled to the remotest villages ? from the eastern-most district of Gujarat to the interiors of Madhya Pradesh ? to study indigenous systems of resource conservation. When the Academy winded up in 1994, mainly triggered by a flawed funding model, it had achieved some of its goals: one among them the installation of 65KW mini hydroelectric systems that provided enough power to run a 60 Watt bulb for 12 hours.

How did BCIL come into being? Why did you start this business?

In 1995, I decided to consolidate my learning and form a for-profit enterprise targeting urban centres. I wanted the enterprise to integrate water and energy technologies to improve the quality of life. I didn't want to judge urban lifestyle. Instead I wanted to engineer processes that would be environment-sensitive. After three days of brainstorming with friends on what product a city would need, we zeroed in on the idea of self-sustainable buildings.

Thus came into existence BCIL, founded by a team of architects, geologists and geophysicists and based on the principles of the 4 Es ? Ecological compatibility, Eco-efficiency, Equity and Endogeneity (using local resources).

How did you go about funding your enterprise?

Some back-of-calendar economics led us to fund a 47 acre plot for building 58 residential units, through an agreement with the landowner. We repaid him from the money we received from our buyers.

Who are your customers?

Mainly, urban people who are not just looking to buy property but also inclined to conserve energy. Importantly, we don't see our buyers as clients; they are part of a community that is innovating to be self-sustainable. This requires patience to experiment and tolerance for failure.

However, it is not easy to sell the idea of self-sustainability directly - we cannot teach our buyers to go green and buy our buildings. Instead we highlight the benefits of being self-sustainable ? like 40% less expenditure on energy bills every month, lower maintenance costs, and lesser dependence on municipality services like water and power.

What difference has BCIL made in the industry in general, and your customers in particular?

Most buildings are energy guzzlers; we move from box to box, consuming far more energy than we require.

At BCIL, we meet urban needs in ways that don't harm the ecosystem. The buildings enjoy natural air-conditioning, with the use of energy-efficient pre-fabricated soil-stabilized blocks, made out of the earth that we excavate for our buildings. We don't use high-energy incandescent bulbs and tube lights. We use only CFLs and LEDs in all homes and external spaces. For our houses, only sustainable harvested wood (either from plantations or non-forest timber) are used. We don't use anything but water-conserving taps in our homes, which save our customers up to 35,000 litres of water every year in every house. All our waste water is treated fully and used for our flush tanks and gardens. We use only non-toxic paints - no chemical-based paints.

What were the challenges you faced while building BCIL?

The beginning wasn't easy. It was fraught with delivery delays. We initially worked like `corner-store entrepreneurs` not knowing systems and processes. Buyers wanted our efficiency to be at par with those using traditional building methods, and were not always patient with our experimentations with technology. We lost five years in the first project. But we worked at it, and five projects later, we believe that the worst is behind us. However, we are still learning, still innovating and proto-typing using new green technologies.

Where does BCIL stand today? What's in store for the future?

Till today, we have built 600 building units in Bangalore and Mysore, and projects are in progress in Goa and Coorg. The team has grown to over 100 and is expected to touch 200 this year. We also plan to build green shopping malls and office buildings in Bangalore and other locations in future.

What has been your learning as an entrepreneur?

First, that entrepreneurship can be dangerous. It comes with an obsession that can sometimes burn others working with you. It took me a long time to learn team management.

Second, your idea has to be mainstream if it has to sell. Though sustainability was our internal agenda, we had to package the same in product features and benefits for it to work.

Third, I now know whom to ask, what to ask and how to ask. I have realized that asking the right questions is the key to success.