The Vegan Journey of Harshil Vora | VBI #007

With an intense passion for learning, at 24, Harshil Vora is an innovator, social entrepreneur, educator, environmentalist, consultant, designer, chef, mentor, writer, dancer and artist! He believes in creating mindfully and founded Proinnovate in 2016, to realise his vision for a world empowered by sustainable innovation. His journey began with a vision to redesign the education system, and now has brands across healthcare, sustainable fashion, waste management and consultancy too.Share your journey towards veganism and how you turned vegan.

Share your journey towards veganism and how you turned vegan.

Around 7 years back, while I was in my 11th standard, my health used to be very bad and I used to fall sick every week. I had very bad immunity. At that time, my father went for a seminar where they talked about just eating raw plant based food and it being the healthiest choice. He started doing that and he lost a lot of weight, became a lot healthier and positive in general. I tried the same thing and it really changed my health too. Ever since then, I always put my health as priority. At that time, I didn't know that it was a raw vegan diet. I wasn't aware of no dairy, no animal products and other things back then. Unknowingly, 90-95% of my diet was a raw vegan diet for a few years.

While researching climate change, I came across a documentary called Cowspiracy and I watched it. It instantly hit me that there is so much that I'm not aware of regarding animal agriculture and its impact, how and where milk is coming from. I come from a Gujarati family, so I used to be vegetarian, but sometimes I consumed eggs too. When I watched that documentary, my instant reaction was to quit dairy and egg soon. It took me around a year to completely switch, and since 2018 I've been vegan. Mainly, I follow a raw vegan diet but  sometimes I do eat cooked food too.

Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey.

I just turned 24 years old. My background is in Engineering but I am not pursuing it anymore. In my first year of engineering, I realised that instead of a job, I want to start something of my own. I had always really wanted to change the education system in our country. So, I started my own firm called Proinnovate to develop & conduct training programs in various real world life skills like innovation, creativity, complex problem solving, metalearning, emotional intelligence and others. That started going really well - but I realised that I want to do a lot more things along with education.

During college, I started another non-profit called 'Kabaad ka Jugaad' aiming to create a Global Upcycling Industry.  We organised an all India competition where anyone can participate and create products out of waste materials. We held 'Kabaad Mela', which was India's first upcycling festival in Mumbai in 2016 and 17. It was an incredible experience. I learnt a lot of things in this process about myself, who I am and what kind of value I want to create. That's how my firm called Proinnovate evolved, from being just about Education to being a Sustainable Innovation Consultancy. Everything I do is under this firm, be it training programs, upcycled products, even the causewear brand ‘Hoomanwear’, which I launched last year.

How did Hoomanwear start?

By the end of 2018, I realised that I want to contribute to the Vegan Movement in a much bigger way than just being vegan. I already had a non profit but I realised that it's difficult to manage it without funds. So, I decided to start my causewear brand, Hoomanwear. There are multiple reasons behind it. First, I wanted to raise funds for non-profits. Second, I know how much the fashion industry is polluting the environment. There are several things which are not vegan and nor sustainable. Third, I wanted to learn how to set up a global business with minimum resources, and sustainably. I also wanted to make it easy for people to spread the message about veganism and other social causes.

Thus, the idea of a fashion brand started which is sustainable, uses vegan products, especially vegan inks, is eco friendly, uses biodegradable packaging and at the same time creates awareness and raises funds for various causes, not just veganism. I have set up almost all of the aspects of this brand on my own including design, website, packaging, logistics, customer support and also accounting. I want to show people that even one person can create a sustainable brand. Of course, it takes time and effort. But good planning helps a lot. I launched this in 2019, and it's been a little more than a year. Now, I'm planning to recruit and make a good team in order to scale up!

How do you manage all the things you've been doing?

My family and friends have been an incredible support in everything. Initially, it used to be difficult and I used to rely on them for help in a lot of different ways. For example, for the Kabaad Ka Jugaad festival, we had a volunteer team of 450 people. A lot of volunteers used to come home and my mom used to ensure their hospitality. My dad funded that risky project of mine. My sister also helped a lot. All this was 3 years back and ever since then the help was always there. I'm really grateful to have such a supportive family. My dad has been a mentor to me in a lot of ways.

I follow the methodology: “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. It has helped me keep everything organised and structured. I also keep myself really healthy. I haven't fallen sick in five years, touch wood! I spend a lot of time at work doing all of these things and I still don’t get tired or exhausted.

Tell us about raw vegan diet. Is everyone in your family following a raw vegan diet?

My dad's major diet is raw plant-based but he isn't vegan yet. He hadn't switched out regular tea till recently. Now he has switched to a vegan diet. During the day, most of it is a raw vegan diet. My mom is transitioning slowly and steadily. Same for my sister, she is also transitioning. She is studying in the USA.

In the morning I'll have some smoothie and some fruits. Then in the afternoon, I'll have green juice like spinach, and a heavy salad. Then late in the afternoon, I'll probably have some fruits again and nuts or dates. At night again, either it's a very light cooked meal or heavy salad. There are also many delicious raw vegan dishes I make for dessert.

How did your social life change after turning vegan?

For the first 2 years, I had to listen to a lot of remarks from my extended family like my relatives and cousins. I also lost a little weight because of my raw vegan diet as it didn't eat a lot of fats or carbohydrates. But now things are different. Many of my relatives have reduced dairy products too! Some of my cousins, friends and their families have also turned vegan. In my earlier days, it was a little difficult. Whenever I used to go to parties or hangouts, people used to force me and ask why I don't eat this or that. I was okay not eating anything if a party or place had nothing vegan. It wasn't necessary for me to eat every time I went out. But people used to get offended. After a while, I reduced attending such parties.

Slowly, some of my friends and family members started changing their habits and now in Mumbai, there are a lot of good vegan restaurants. I constantly keep buying from them and keep sending them to my family and friends so that they know what's good and accessible. I also make them watch relevant documentaries so that they become more aware. I think for older people, it's difficult to change overnight. My grandparents also realised that milk is bad for them and how much cruelty it is causing. They have been reducing their consumption of dairy products.

All in all, it's good because if I would not have taken my stand then, they would have continued with their initial mindset. But now that I have changed, my parents and family have changed quite a bit and many other friends too.

When you say a t-shirt of Hoomanwear is vegan or PETA certified, what does it mean?

Firstly, the inks which are used to print designs on the t-shirt usually contain animal bone powder to get the black colour. Also, there are a lot of products, chemicals or additives which are not eco-friendly and the majority of the industry manufactures these products in bulk. For example, a cotton t-shirt uses a huge amount of water to be made. So, for every single cotton t-shirt that you make that is not sold, wasted or thrown away, there is a huge amount of resources wasted. Most of the brands manufacture 5 to 10 thousand t-shirts in bulk because it is cheaper to make in bulk and they have to throw away the ones which aren't sold.

We don't even use any plastic for our packaging. Any plastic thrown away either enters waterbodies or will be leftover on the land. In both cases, it can be consumed by animals and they will choke and die. There is also microplastic pollution in case of synthetic fabrics. Every time they are washed, they release a lot of microplastic fibres in the water and those get consumed by all of us, including marine animals. It can severely damage their body, especially their digestive system.

Thus, we are trying to avoid any material which is not biodegradable. We're using eco-friendly inks, manufacturing t-shirts only on on-demand, and taking care in packaging as well.

Does manufacturing in bulk use less resources compared to on-demand manufacturing?

Well, while manufacturing in bulk does use less money and time, the amount of fabric, the ink and the energy usage is the same. That's why we manufacture only when we get an order and don't keep any stock. It is a little more expensive in terms of time and money, but environmentally it is a huge impact. The idea is that either the environment pays for the product or the human being pays the money for it. Nowadays, you can see a flood of cheap garments because they are made in bulk and not made with eco-friendly materials. In those cases, we're paying less money but the environment is paying a big cost.

In the fashion industry, everyday millions and millions of garments are thrown away. In addition to wasted inventory, there is a huge amount of wastage because of samples.  We rarely make any samples. We also support a lot of causes through our brand and are trying to set a different benchmark in terms of how a sustainable fashion brand operates.

After turning vegan, what surprising things did you get to know?

I got to know many things. I was shocked to know how many products are plant based, but indirectly they have a huge impact on the environment. For example, palm oil. The amount of palm oil present in processed food comes from plantations which are created by destroying huge rain forests. Another surprising thing was honey. I never thought earlier about honey the way I do now. I got to know how bees are exploited and domesticated for getting honey. Also, a lot of products have milk or some other form of it, which we don't realise.

I have become a lot more aware about such things. Earlier, I used to use deodorant once in a while. I've stopped using that as well. I think after following a healthy diet, I don't even need deodorant. Then comes other lifestyle products like shoes, jackets etc. I realised that in the fashion industry, the first options are all animal products like silk, wool and leather. Obviously, I don't buy them. I look for alternatives.

Is there anything else you want to share?

A lot of people ask me how I could avoid animal products so easily. I have realised that instead of thinking about how difficult it is to find alternatives and  how difficult it is to avoid eating at a party, if you just focus on how an animal must be feeling, for you to be able to eat this, then it becomes very easy. If I focus on the fact that regardless of whether it is convenient or inconvenient for me, an animal is going to die if I eat this thing, say cheese, then it becomes very easy to avoid because I believe that by default nobody wants to kill someone consciously. If they focus more on WHY and then focus on the alternatives, then they can go vegan overnight.