How Tamanna Sharma is revolutionising waste management with Earthling First

Tamanna Sharma’s journey as a climate activist began in 2011, when she started contemplating the philosophy and reality of environmental conservation.

She initially began her career as a journalist and a radio presenter covering environmental issues, raising awareness through her reporting. However, over time, she realised that communication alone was not enough to bring about tangible change.

Startup India initiative, which was launched in 2016, came as a catalyst for her move from journalism to entrepreneurship. In the same year, she launched Earthling First, a sustainability consultancy focused on creating waste management models for businesses and organisations.

“Earthling First is kind of a philosophy. It means putting yourself as an earthling first and making all decisions accordingly,” she explains.

Starting as a one-person company, Sharma faced several challenges in securing her first clients, as sustainability was still an emerging market in India.

However, she remained steadfast in her belief that waste is a resource and that sustainability should be part of a company’s operational budget rather than just a CSR activity. Her breakthrough came when Earthling First managed waste for Maruti Suzuki’s Devil Circuit, Asia’s biggest obstacle race. By 2018, she worked on various projects across 22 cities in India.

Large events like weddings and music festivals generate enormous amounts of waste, often ending up in landfills due to poor management.

Earthling First set out to change this by incorporating sustainable intervention, careful planning, and efficient disposal mechanisms. The company ensures that waste is sorted at the source, making recycling easier and reducing its overall environmental impact.

“Real change happens when sustainability is quietly built into everyday operations,” Sharma believes.

Tapping into sustainability

One of Sharma's most ambitious projects, The Jalori Project, was launched in 2020 to combat the growing plastic pollution in Jalori Pass, a popular trekking destination in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh.

The initiative focused on waste segregation at collection sites before disposal at a Material Recovery Facility. Without external funding, Sharma financed the project using Earthling First’s profits that she earned from the company’s sustainability consultancy projects.

“The first year was tough—money was a big problem, and being physically present at such a remote location was challenging. Crowdfunding helped with planning, and by the third year, we had government support,” she shares while talking about the Jalori Pass project.

Her main aim from this project was to make a change that the locals would follow even in her absence. And it happened with villagers managing their own waste, switching to eco-friendly alternatives, and using LPG instead of cutting wood for fuel.

By March 2022, with government intervention, the district commissioner sanctioned permission for waste shed and waste transportation to the forest department. This led to a fully functional waste management system that eliminated waste hotspots in the area.

Building on Earthling First’s philosophy, Sharma also initiated Sustained Labs, focusing on sustainability innovations in low-resource settings. This platform fosters social and botanical experiments, aiming to test and implement sustainable models in real-world conditions. The idea is to put this model information out for free. These labs provide accommodation to volunteers who want to work for environment change.

A major project under this initiative is the Sustainable Tourism Program, modelled after the Jalori Project which is still under development.

As a part of this programme Sharma has started conducting offline workshops with local children, travel and tourism students from the government colleges of Himachal Pradesh.

She received a grant for this programme from an American Organisation called Re-Earth Initiative in 2023.

Another initiative of Earthling, the Seed Bank, will establish an offline centre in Manali, Himachal Pradesh, providing a paid experience for volunteers to experiment with permaculture and sustainable food practices.

Participants can also speak to local traditional practitioners and do their own research to come up with ways to grow food in an efficient way and food can be grown in times of climate crises and own food can be grown. “The idea is to test low-resource models and create open-source knowledge for others to replicate,” she says.

A core value of Earthling First is empowering women. Sharma has kept 50% of her workforce as women and created a safe working environment for women with children, a concept initially met with resistance However, this initiative was later recognised as a case study by the Indian School of Business.

Currently, Sharma is focusing on education and communication to spread sustainability knowledge. She conducts online workshops, writes articles, and has even authored a book during the El Niño-induced floods. She also releases safety guides and teaches young people how to create waste management models in their communities.

She hopes to build a future where environmental responsibility is seamlessly integrated into daily life and business operations.

“I want to meet people who are genuinely interested in the environment and help them turn their ideas into impactful actions,” she says. With the current ongoing projects, she hopes to develop an understanding for the people where they can understand the system of livelihood generation while keeping climate action in mind.