SmartCompany Holiday Gift Guide 2023: Mrinaal Datt recommends Punar

The festive season is upon us with businesses around the country putting their best foot forward for what is the busiest retail period of the year. But as cost of living pressures rise, coupled with the ongoing climate crisis, individuals are becoming more mindful of every dollar they spend, and where they spend it. 

So if you’re looking to support an ethical and sustainable business this festive season, you’ve clicked on the correct article. 

Say namaste to Punar

Punar – a Sanskrit word – in very simple terms means once again. Founded by Priya Ravindra in 2022, this enterprise aims to divert used fabric from ending up in landfills by giving them a second life. Hence the name.

“I wanted to build a global village of sisterhood,” shares Ravindra. An engineer by education, Ravindra witnessed firsthand the inequalities affecting women around the globe, financially and otherwise. 

Hailing originally from India, Ravindra was one of the only four woman students in her university in Australia. The trend seemed to follow her into the workforce where she was the “only woman on the office floor who could code”.

“The lack of gender diversity, lack of equality … I have seen it everywhere.”

Ravindra has been associated with women-aligned initiatives since 2002, but she wanted to find a way to bring her passion for uplifting women and her relationship with India and Australia together. 

“In 2019, when I was talking to some of the startups in India … somebody suggested that ‘you’re always talking about women, go talk to these ladies who are doing some incredible handlooms’.”

“That’s all I wanted to know,” she says. The conversation propelled her towards some social enterprises in the country where women weavers were creating slow fashion. 

“This is where the innovation comes in,” she explains. 

The process of finding the right recycled material is an arduous task. “It takes time, effort, sampling… try and fail, try and fail,” she says.  

From the colours running, or the fabric not being good enough, the process involved a lot of trials and errors, and learning along the way. 

It took Ravindra about five to six months to get even samples over to Australia in 2020, in light of the Covid pandemic and the resulting supply chain delays. 

“The very first batch of tea towels designed by the weavers instantly sold out in Australia … and that was a testament to the quality of the product. All the trial and errors, the failures, three to four months of iterations just to get the fabric variation right, it was worth it.” 

Today Punar’s offerings have expanded from tea towels to customised tote bags, wall art, kitchen linen and more. 

Why choose Punar for your holiday gifting

“The best thing about Punar is that it is zero-emissions fabric,” explains Ravindra about the sustainability of the product. 

“Because handlooms don’t use any electricity at all, it’s the women who do all the work. Punar is a purpose-driven company, and we want to disrupt the $242 billion gifting industry for the better.”

Ravindra says nearly 60% of all promotional items used for gifts end up in landfill, which shows the depth of the problem. 

She refers to a study that found $921 million worth of gifts in Australia are not even opened and instead chucked directly into the bin. 

“But if you source from a company like ours, we align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 5 on gender equality and women empowerment, SDG 1 on eradicating poverty and SDG 12 which promotes sustainable consumption and ethical production, and last but not the least, SDG 13 as well, because climate action.”

“Handloom is very sustainable. Every 100 metres of fabric we weave, we are stopping 92 kilograms of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere … with the recycled yarn, to date, we have cleared 135 kilograms of textile waste destined for landfills and turned it into 950 beautiful gifts and still growing especially this Christmas,” she continues.

“The majority of the women working in these enterprises are single mothers who’ve left bad marriages and disowned by their families because in India … So these single mothers and their children, what are they going to do? They’re not highly educated, the employment opportunities are also very limited,” Ravindra adds.  

L-R: Weavers Kasturi and Leela with the fabric. Source: Supplied

At Punar, 70% of the workforce comprises women from such backgrounds and are they paid fair wages. Punar initially started with two weavers and a tailor and the team has now grown to six weavers and three tailors. 

“Happy people make great things,” says Ravindra, as she explains the stringent process involved when selecting suppliers and enterprises to work with. “It’s important to get the foundation right. And that took me a while.”

A new design at Punar takes about eight weeks to design and weave.

“We don’t want to release a new product each month; we are not cutting corners,” she shares, stressing the importance of conscious production.

“People come back to me even after a year saying how much they love the product.” 

The business has grown from strength to strength since its launch last year, expanding from 10 clients to over 50 at the time of writing. This includes wellness chain Endota Spa. Punar products are also stocked across four businesses in Australia. 

“Interestingly, all my business clients are women!” reveals Ravindra.

In fact, it was a client from Western Australia who asked Ravindra to design sustainable corporate gifts. The initial plan for Punar was to retail as an e-commerce business. 

“The idea is to do good, be good and be the light,” she says. 

If that doesn’t speak to the festive spirit and bringing the holiday cheer to others, what does?

Find out more about Punar here.