Graviky Labs: Turning air pollution into everyday use products

Anirudh Sharma (left), CTO, and Nikhil Kaushik, who is CEO

Multiple startups are applying innovation to address various aspects of sustainability and pollution, and creating new-age products with multiple use cases. Read about some key companies here.

The team at Graviky Labs is turning air pollution into materials of everyday use, starting with Air-Ink, a certified safe ink. It involves removing heavy metals and carcinogens from soot generated by burning fossil fuels, and then treating the purified carbon with chemicals to turn it into black ink.

Air-Ink has been rated as one of the best inventions of 2019 by Time, won the Lions Innovation Gold at Cannes in 2017, and the Shell Make the Future accelerator programme.

In 2021, Graviky introduced the world’s first apparel printed with air pollution in collaboration with Pangaia, a sustainable fashion brand. It has also launched applications for helping partners such as Dell and MasterCard to make printing more sustainable. Recently, Graviky collaborated with Rise and designer Nitin Bal Chauhan for a capsule at Lakme Fashion Week, which was displayed at the Fashion For Good Museum in Amsterdam, in May. The team is working on a pilot to make a more sustainable fabric dyeing solution in collaboration with Kering Group (Gucci) and PVH Corp (Calvin Klein etc).

During the pandemic, it took up an ambitious goal, Air Synth, which converts carbon dioxide into materials such as plastics, fuels and fabrics. “It is impossible to address climate change without making everyday consumption more sustainable,” says Nikhil Kaushik, CEO. “This is going to be one of the defining challenges in climate action.”

“We are developing our new tech in open-source mode with the goal of making it accessible across the globe to all types of communities and enterprises,” says Anirudh Sharma, CTO.