Civil Engineer Quits Her US Job To Build Eco-friendly Homes and Hospitals from Stubbles

29-year-old Shriti Pandey left her well- paid job and established a successful business of crafting houses from agricultural scraps.  Engineer by profession Shriti has built homes, government community kitchen, labourers’ colony, classrooms for a 70- year old school and most importantly two COVID- 19 facility centres out of agricultural waste.    

Her company Strawcture Eco, which is registered in Gorakhpur and works from its office in Delhi in June 2018, constructs eco-friendly resident units. It aims to build affordable and sustainable houses in rural India with agri- waste and also an effective remedy to reduce air pollution by preventing stubble burning. 

The civil engineer made fiber panels by using agricultural waste and steel, where the straw panels can sustain up to 100 years. It was good to provide the farmers a profit of Rs. 25,000 for an acre worth of remnants by making use of stubbles, without leaving it for burning. 

Every 10×4 feet panel was made with 100 kilos of straw and around 15,000 kilos of agricultural materials was utilized for 100 square feet building. It is acoustic, thermal, termite and moisture resistant.  

She has interest in physical labour activities that actually brought her to machines, architecture, and constructions. Two years back Shriti was named as a climate fellow by the New York-based non- profit Echoing Green, which bestowed her $90,000 in seed funding. In 2021, she was selected among the 30 under 30 achievers, Asia, in ‘Industry, Manufacturing & Energy’ category. 

The founder of Strawcture Eco, intended to contrive carbon negative products, has currently employed more than 10 full time workers and decided to hire more women in future venture. Besides straw, she is planning to work with other agri wastes like coconut fiber and mycelium to set up green building products.