{"id":23390,"date":"2020-03-11T14:43:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T14:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hnews.hult.edu\/?p=23390"},"modified":"2026-05-08T14:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T13:30:39","slug":"hult-alumni-magazine-2020-jacob-cherian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hult.edu\/blog\/hult-alumni-magazine-2020-jacob-cherian\/","title":{"rendered":"Hult Alumni Magazine 2020: Jacob Cherian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob features in (and is a cover star) of Hult Alumni Magazine 2020: read the full publication online now<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Life Less Linear<\/h3>\n

Jacob Cherian didn\u2019t expect to find his calling in a forest. Having started a business in social media, managing creative campaigns with a charitable edge, his work revolved around tweets, reach, and hashtags. A move to the remote wilderness of Kodaikanal, in the south of India, unexpectedly opened his eyes to the war against plastic, kickstarting a new career combining smart product development and environmental activism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jacob<\/p>\n

Jacob Cherian \/ Director \/ MBA, Class of 2012 \/ Bengaluru, India \/\u00a0@jacobcherianis<\/a>,\u00a0@terregeneration<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The prompt<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis story started up on the mountain,\u201d says Jacob, who still resides in Kodaikanal, a 90-minute trek from the nearest road. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty wild, but we have internet and electricity, so I\u2019d been working up there. One day I found a pile of trash in the forest. I started cleaning it up, continued to clean it up. Last March, as a joke, I threw a party around picking up the trash. 35 people joined on day one, and it\u2019s been 4000+ since.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Jacob\u2019s actions had unknowingly tapped into was the concept of \u201cplogging\u201d, a term conceived in Sweden for communities coming together to tackle the planet\u2019s ongoing waste problem. He has gone on to mobilize over 40 cleanup parties\u00a0across ten cities in the last year, building a template that engages local business sponsors and volunteers alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always transparent, inclusive, accountable, and quantifiable,\u201d says Jacob. \u201cOur business sponsors are typically aspirant environmentalists\u2014take restaurants, for example. They can\u2019t be puritans, working at zero waste just yet, because the ecosystem doesn\u2019t allow it. But we can give them fun, simple ways to participate so that they become active businesses. We can offer trade-offs to offset the damage they are doing. Just understanding the damage is important. I believe our sponsors are coming to terms with their trade-off by sponsoring these events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amplifying the message to both businesses and volunteers has put Jacob\u2019s previous experience in social media marketing to task, too. \u201cPlogging was very trendy, we hijacked that as a marketing idea\u2014hijack is a cruel word, but when you look at people\u2019s free time then really weekends are all they have, and that\u2019s where we need them. Now that it [sustainability] has become social, the sense of community is the driver. The #trashtag challenge has been great, as has plogging, and before-and-after formats. We\u2019ll continue to make use of fads, ride the trends so we stay relevant, so that people always have something new and bitesize to tell each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The product<\/strong><\/p>\n

Employing the root cause analysis taught as part of his business degree, Jacob has translated the data gathered from cleanups to inform his next venture, TerreGeneration<\/a>. The company is currently developing reusable products to replace the most used plastics across 12 \u201cbuckets\u201d of life: from bathroom to kitchen, commute to office, laddering up to large-scale industrial change. \u201cWhen you look at plastic as a whole, it\u2019s a big intimidating problem,\u201d says Jacob. \u201cBut it\u2019s really not, when you break it down into little problems.\u201d His first product, MyDr0p (seen in development in the image below)\u00a0combines water bottle, coffee mug, cutlery, straw, and tote in one neat, 400g package.\u00a0Combining expert knowledge from the worlds of science and design, it aims to\u00a0eliminate what Jacob\u00a0calls the \u201cbig five\u201d plastics of the daily commute.<\/p>\n

\"Jacob's
The MyDr0p product in development<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The goal? More products,\u00a0to fulfill each of the \u201cbuckets\u201d, and ever greater amplification. Jacob\u2019s social media savvy has been key in turning out tactical campaigns at a time of increased activism\u2014both armchair and traditional. He has also been buoyed by the passion and intent of Generation Z.\u00a0\u201cEvery generation has its responsibilities, and ours is to regenerate our planet. It\u2019s too late just to be sustainable. We can do this through business, through activism, with product, but it all needs to work together. Through activities like plogging we can distribute the load, act with empathy, and spread the word.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jacob's
Render of the finessed MyDr0p, designed to tackle the “big five” plastics of the daily commute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more from Jacob and the alumni community in Hult Alumni Magazine 2020<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
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Jacob features in (and is a cover star) of Hult Alumni Magazine 2020: read the full publication online now. 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