On 16th September 2025, industry leaders, changemakers, and visionaries gathered at Hotel ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai, for the much-awaited Sustainability Convergence Summit & Awards, presented by PL Capital (Prabhudas Lilladher) and organized by Eternal Corporate Media Pvt. Ltd.
The event served as a platform to reimagine strategies, exchange pioneering practices, and accelerate the transition toward a sustainable and inclusive future.
Among the distinguished guests were Chief Guest Jayant Sinha, Former Union Minister & President, Eversource Capital, and Guests of Honour Nadir Godrej, Chairman & MD, Godrej Industries Group, and Pradip Shah, Co-Founder of Grow-Trees.com & Non-Executive Chairman, Independent Director on multiple boards.
The Sustainability Convergence Awards recognized exemplary contributions toward environmental preservation, social impact, and corporate responsibility. Awardees included Nadir Godrej (Godrej Industries Group), Motilal Oswal (Motilal Oswal Group), Radha Goenka (RPG Foundation), Mayank Gandhi (Global Vikas Trust), and Pradip Shah (Grow-Trees.com).
Pradip Shah’s Speech
It all began with a gift, 100 trees planted in my name by an Israeli credit rating agency. They had sought technical assistance from CRISIL, India’s first credit rating agency, which I had founded in 1987. As a gesture of appreciation, they planted a garden of trees in my honour.
When my son Karan returned from Haverford after his undergraduate degree in late 2009, we thought of helping India restore some of its lost tree cover. We saw the desire of individuals to act against climate change and envisaged Grow-Trees.com as a social enterprise with a simple goal: to make tree planting accessible, meaningful, and impactful for individuals and organisations. This vision led to the creation of the Greet with Trees® model, whereby individuals and companies can plant trees in thematic projects and greet employees, welcome customers, honor friends, and family for birthdays, anniversaries, and milestones through eTreeCertificates®. We are the only organization that gets its Indian plantings audited by an independent auditor after about a year of planting.
We have now planted 20.9+ million saplings, creating 1.7+ million workdays of jobs; the trees will absorb 417+ million kgs of carbon each year. Alongside 155 thematic projects across 25 states and union territories in India and 3 countries overseas, we have been able to support people, wildlife, and ecosystems in many ways.
We distributed 64,000 food meal kits to COVID-returning migrant workers and provided succour to Irula tribal families affected by floods. We have created 65 water ponds across the states of Jharkhand, Rajasthan, UP, and Uttarakhand. This includes 57 khaals built on the slopes of Uttarakhand hills to recharge groundwater, in addition to supporting local wildlife and our plantings of Himalayan oak instead of the non-native pine. We supported seaweed cultivation in Tamil Nadu by providing equipment and training to 178 families, helping them earn steady incomes. We trained farmers in Uttarakhand in climate-resilient agriculture, distributed seeds, and are also supporting high school education for 4 years of some underprivileged girls, covering tuition fees, uniforms, and essentials.
We extended support to RESQINK Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) in Mumbai to strengthen their wildlife rescue and conflict-mitigation efforts through the procurement of bird and animal transport cages, rehabilitation tanks for turtles, snake rescue kits, anti-bite gloves, repairs of wildlife enclosures, etc. We created 10 Crocodile Exclusion Enclosures (CCEs) benefitting 20 villages, reducing human–crocodile conflict in Gujarat. Additionally, we facilitated four awareness and capacity-building workshops to engage and educate local communities on coexistence with wildlife.
Our plantations have been designed to aid groundwater recharge, support ecotourism, benefit gurudwaras, monasteries and temples, mitigate pollution and carbon emissions of cities, provide livelihoods to villagers and urban communities, and protect both marquee and lesser-known species including tigers, elephants, hanguls, red pandas, Sunda pangolins, Indian giant flying squirrels, sloth bears, sun bears and colobus monkeys. Our tree plantation work in northern Uganda supports South Sudan refugees, providing shade, food, firewood, and building materials, and our Trees for Sunda Pangolins will additionally be of help against forest fires in Indonesia and the neighbourhood.
We have strengthened mangrove belts to shield coastal communities and augment their income from fisheries, improved migratory bird and hornbill habitats by planting nesting trees in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, and planted Trees for Ecotourism in Sikkim, a state dependent on tourism.
We have suffered from flooding in our Trees for the Ganga project, from landslides at our Trees for the Himalayas project, and from trampling in our Trees for Elephants project. But we are also pleased to see elephant poop in our Trees for Wildlife Corridor in Odisha-Jharkhand. Tiger ST-10 included our Trees for Tigers planting area in its territory; we lost access to our Trees for Tigers nursery in Maharashtra because of new tiger movement; red pandas have been seen in the area of our plantings. And we have many videos of villagers thanking Grow-Trees.com for providing current income and future security.
None of this would have been possible without our team, our partners on the ground, and our supporters. Their dedication has turned a simple idea into a growing movement.
To everyone who has planted a tree, supported our projects, or believed in our cause, thank you.
The recognition at the Sustainability Convergence Summit & Awards 2025 is more than just an award for Grow-Trees.com. It is a reminder of what collective action can achieve. What began as a small idea has grown into a movement that empowers communities, protects wildlife, and restores ecosystems. As we continue planting trees across India and beyond, our commitment stays the same: to build a greener and healthier planet for future generations.