Oorjan CEO bats for sustainable living, feels that Covid-19 has taught us to respect nature

Gautam Das shares his work and workout-from-home schedule.

By Maleeva Rebello, ET Bureau | Jul 25, 2020, 06.02 PM IST

Nature is going to haunt us and the spread of coronavirus as a global pandemic has been just a warning, feels Das.

Gautam Das, Co-Founder and CEO of Oorjan, still tries to spend 60-90 minutes dedicated to his health every day.

He told ET Panache, "My routine includes a mix of running, stair climbing, yoga and meditation. I am blessed to have a more than one km jogging track inside our society in Mumbai, and I walk or run anything between 3-21 km inside the compound itself. At the early stage of lockdown when walking or running was not allowed, I used to climb stairs ranging between 30-300 floors (27 storied buildings and multiple times in a go). For six days in a week I did that and rotation between running, yoga, walk, stair climbing etc."

Working from home is the new normal and many people are realising that this is the way forward.

"Even though in-person meeting isn’t possible nowadays due to the social distancing norms, virtual connections are established by remote working apps, credits to modern technology. Some apps that come handy to me during this time are Oorjan DIY apps, Google meet etc," he shared.

The company has their proprietary remote monitoring tools (IoT) installed at every project and tracks the projects real-time, getting proactive maintenance alerts if there is any issue.

"Our engineers are remotely helping customers as far as possible. There are few engineers (electricals) who are moving to the sites in case there is an issue which can't be fixed remotely. One of the positives of working from home is that I am spending more time with family including my aged parents. I hope lives and business come to normalcy soon. We all have to find a balance between work from home and office. The world will be much happier and greener if fewer people travel to offices, and spend less time travelling to and from the office," he said.

The Covid period has taught us that it is essential that we respect nature and adopt sustainable living in our daily lives. Otherwise, nature is going to haunt us and the spread of coronavirus as a global pandemic has been just a warning, feels Das.

One of the realisations by working from home for Das has been that many people can manage a significant amount of their work from home and may go to the office less frequently.

"It would save productive time, fuel and reduce carbon footprint. Work from home in India was not well perceived by many but more and more people are accepting it as a feasible option," he ended.

Office Interiors To Change Post-Lockdown: Here's What The Future Will Look Like

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“For office culture to revive and survive, office spaces are looking at a pretty drastic alteration of layouts and design,” says Pankaj Poddar, the co-founder of Hipcouch, a Mumbai based Interior Design Company. He says the new normal will also see some reversal.

“We will see the reversing of very hot trends of open offices and shared desks.” While we wait for the official decrees, here’s what the rough framework is looking like so far according to Poddar.