At Brilliant Read Media, it is our constant endeavour to identify and share some of the unique and compelling stories from the startup ecosystem. As part of this, we invited Rashmi Birla for an interview with Brilliant Read Media. To say it further, Rashmi is an Entrepreneur, Sustainable Finance Leader and Founder and CEO at Enggauge Solutions. Let’s learn more about her background, inspiring journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Rashmi:
What triggered your shift from viewing ESG as compliance to building it as a “Sustainability Operating System” for organizations?
My shift happened after years of seeing ESG being treated primarily as a reporting requirement, while the real opportunity was much larger. ESG is not just about disclosures, ratings, or policies.
It is about how an organization makes decisions every day how it uses resources, manages people, selects vendors, responds to risk, builds trust, and creates long-term value.
I have always believed that ESG starts much before the annual report. It begins in everyday choices: when a team decides not to print unnecessarily, when procurement asks one sustainability question before selecting a vendor, when facilities track energy leaks, or when HR looks at inclusion as a lived experience.
That realization led me to think of ESG as a Sustainability Operating System a practical layer that connects strategy, data, people, processes, culture, and measurable outcomes. The goal is to make sustainability part of how the organization functions, not something it remembers only during reporting season.
What gap did you see in the ESG ecosystem that led to the creation of Enggauge Solutions?
The biggest gap I noticed was between ESG intention and ESG execution. Many organizations genuinely want to do the right thing, but they often struggle with where to begin, how to prioritize, and how to convert ESG goals into actionable initiatives across departments.
At one end, ESG can feel overly technical and compliance-heavy. At the other, sustainability is sometimes reduced to awareness campaigns without measurable business outcomes. Enggauge Solutions was created to bridge this gap.
Our approach is simple: ESG should be intuitive, cost-effective, creative, and implementable. It should not always require a massive transformation budget. Many meaningful changes can begin with better systems, sharper questions, mindful choices, and practical interventions.
We help organizations move from asking, “What should we report?” to asking, “What should we change, measure, and improve?” That is where real sustainability begins.
You emphasize implementation over reports. Why do most ESG strategies fail at execution?
Most ESG strategies fail because they remain disconnected from day-to-day business realities. A well-written ESG report or policy does not automatically change how people behave, how teams make decisions, or how resources are used.
Execution typically breaks down for three reasons. First, ESG is often owned by a single department rather than being embedded across functions. Second, data is fragmented and difficult to track. Third, employees are not always engaged in ways that connect ESG to their everyday responsibilities.
For ESG to succeed, it must move from the boardroom to the shop floor, office, branch, facility, vendor ecosystem, and employee mindset. Sustainability must show up in purchase orders, travel choices, waste segregation, maintenance schedules, energy consumption, customer communication, and leadership behavior.
Implementation succeeds when ESG becomes everyone’s responsibility rather than one team’s burden.
How can companies convert ESG from a cost center into a measurable value driver?
Organizations can achieve this by identifying where sustainability intersects with efficiency, risk reduction, employee engagement, brand trust, and future readiness.
For example, energy efficiency initiatives can reduce operating costs. Better water and waste management can improve resource productivity. Employee wellbeing and inclusion programs can strengthen retention and engagement. Responsible supply chains help reduce reputational and compliance risks. Strong ESG performance can improve investor confidence, customer trust, and access to capital.
The key is to stop viewing ESG as an expense and start treating it as a performance lens. Every ESG initiative should be linked to measurable business outcomes whether that is cost savings, risk mitigation, productivity gains, revenue protection, or enhanced stakeholder trust.
Often, the most impactful ESG interventions are not the most expensive ones. They are the ones that are thoughtfully designed, easy to adopt, and consistently practiced.
Enggauge Solutions has created unique ESG and sustainability awareness workshops. What makes them different?
Most sustainability training programs are information-heavy. They explain what ESG is but do not always help people connect it to their own roles, decisions, and behaviors.
At Enggauge Solutions, our workshops are experiential, memorable, and action-oriented. We use formats such as comedy, improv, games, real-life scenarios, and reflective exercises to help participants experience ESG rather than simply learn about it.
People remember what they participate in. When employees engage in simulated situations, make decisions, reflect on outcomes, and see the consequences of their actions, learning becomes significantly more powerful.
Our workshops are built around one core belief: ESG starts with the small choices people make every day. We help teams recognize that sustainability is not abstract it is present in how they communicate, consume, collaborate, purchase, travel, include, save, reuse, and decide.
How do these workshops create actual behaviour change rather than just awareness?
Awareness is only the first step. Real behaviour change occurs when people understand the relevance of ESG in their own context and feel empowered to make better choices.
Our workshops focus on everyday decisions involving energy use, waste reduction, inclusion, ethical conduct, resource management, and workplace wellbeing. Participants are not passive listeners; they actively engage through role-plays, decision-making games, group discussions, and practical commitments.
A traditional training session may tell people what sustainability means. An experiential workshop helps them feel it, remember it, and apply it. That is where meaningful and lasting impact begins.
How critical is organizational culture in driving ESG success?
Culture is absolutely fundamental. No ESG strategy can succeed if people do not understand it, believe in it, or know how to act on it.
Sustainability is not only about large investments or regulatory disclosures. It is also about hundreds of small decisions made every day by employees, leaders, vendors, and teams. What we print, how we consume energy, how we manage waste, how inclusive our meetings are, how responsibly we purchase, and how we treat one another are all ESG behaviors.
This is why I often say that ESG is hiding in plain sight. It already exists inside organizations through habits, decisions, and micro-actions. Our role at Enggauge is to surface it, structure it, measure it, and scale it.
When culture changes, ESG stops being a policy and becomes a habit.
What simple behavioural shifts can create disproportionate ESG impact?
Some of the most impactful changes are remarkably simple.
Switching off unused equipment reduces energy wastage. Reducing unnecessary printing lowers paper and stationery costs. Proper waste segregation improves recycling outcomes. Shared transportation options can reduce emissions. Inclusive meetings improve participation and workplace culture. Thoughtful procurement decisions strengthen responsible supply chains.
Even asking one ESG-related question during vendor evaluations, tracking resource leaks, reducing single-use materials, or discussing the ESG impact of projects can shift organizational thinking.
One small action may seem insignificant, but when repeated consistently across teams and locations, it creates measurable organizational impact.
Enggauge also collaborates with climate innovators. How does this strengthen your approach?
We strongly believe ESG cannot remain advisory-only. Organizations need access to practical solutions that can be implemented on the ground.
Enggauge Solutions collaborates with climate innovators and solution providers across energy efficiency, water management, air quality, waste management, clean technology, resource optimization, and sustainable infrastructure.
This enables us to help clients not only identify ESG gaps but also explore relevant technologies, products, and services to address them. We act as a bridge between business requirements and climate innovation.
Many organizations want to become more sustainable but lack the time or expertise to evaluate emerging solutions. We help them identify what is practical, relevant, measurable, and cost-effective for their specific context.
You have built a first-of-its-kind gamified sustainability app. What problem does it solve?
The app is based on a simple belief: sustainability becomes powerful when everyone participates.
Many ESG programs are top-down. Policies are introduced, reports are published, and goals are announced. However, employees often do not understand how their daily actions contribute to those goals.
Our gamified sustainability app addresses this challenge by encouraging users to take simple, trackable sustainability and wellbeing actions through challenges, points, team activities, nudges, and recognition.
These actions can relate to energy conservation, waste reduction, responsible consumption, commuting choices, wellbeing, inclusion, and workplace responsibility.
The platform supports cost reduction through better habits, improves employee engagement, creates a shared sustainability mission, and generates meaningful ESG-related behavioural data. In many ways, it transforms ESG from a leadership agenda into a collective movement.
What has been your biggest challenge in building trust with clients?
The biggest challenge has been helping clients see ESG beyond compliance and jargon. Many organizations either view ESG as too complex or assume it is relevant only for large listed companies. Others worry that sustainability initiatives will be expensive and difficult to implement.
Building trust requires simplifying the conversation. I focus on demonstrating how ESG connects directly to existing business priorities such as operational efficiency, employee engagement, risk management, customer trust, cost optimization, and future readiness.
Equally important is being practical and transparent. We do not encourage organizations to do everything at once. Instead, we help them focus on what matters most, what can be measured, and what can realistically be implemented.
Our philosophy is simple: budget is not always the biggest constraint. Often, the bigger challenge is thoughtful design.
What does the future of ESG look like in India, particularly for MSMEs?
The next three to five years will be transformational for ESG in India. The conversation will expand beyond large corporations and investors to include MSMEs, exporters, service providers, and supply-chain partners.
MSMEs will increasingly face ESG expectations from large corporate clients, financial institutions, investors, regulators, and global buyers. These expectations may not always come through regulation; they may emerge through procurement requirements, vendor assessments, financing criteria, and customer demands.
For MSMEs, this presents a tremendous opportunity. Early adopters can become preferred vendors, reduce costs, improve credibility, gain access to better opportunities, and build greater resilience.
I believe the future of ESG in India will be practical, data-driven, and implementation-led. The winners will not be the organizations with the thickest ESG reports. They will be the organizations that can demonstrate real action, measurable improvement, and lasting value creation.
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