Noted English astrophysicist Martin Rees said, “We do not fully understand the consequences of increasing energy consumption on the interwoven fabric of atmosphere, water, land and life.”

In the modern day, energy efficiency is critical in the fight to preserve our planet. SEE-Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. shows that this can be done with the right expertise and in a way that increases profits. Their promise to help with implementation differentiates them in a segment that is largely operating within the consultancy model.

The SEE in SEE-Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. stands for ‘safety’, ‘energy’ and ‘environment’ The Nagpur-based company founded by Milind Chittawar in 1993 operates in these fields. Today, SEE-Tech Solutions helps the hospitality industry among others with reducing their carbon footprint and saving energy.

In conversation with GlobalLinker (GL), Milind Chittawar (MC) explains the nuances of his business. Watch this video to know more about Milind’s entrepreneurial journey.

GL: Tell us about your business.

MC: Initially SEE-Tech was established to provide energy consulting services, but now we also design and implement end-to-end solutions.The energy cost in the hospitality industry is as high as 16% of the overall operating cost. With our solutions, we are able to reduce energy costs by 20%. Our job is not to just implement the project but to provide sustainable savings. This improves the profitability of our clients.

I became an entrepreneur because that was my dream and I decided to pursue it. Entrepreneurship is the only option when you have a certain vision for what you want to do. Having completed my technical education, I was well equipped to start an enterprise in the field of safety, energy and environment & SEE-Tech is a crystallisation of that.

GL: What are the challenges you have faced in establishing your business?

MC: Though I was well qualified in the fields we are operating in, these are still not mainstream in India. Even though more companies are taking an interest in energy saving, the interest is not concerted. When I started the company in 1993 there was little interest from businesses and to generate interest was a challenge.

Also, there was no ecosystem to support a practice like mine. Today there is a lot of help you can get from various schemes at the time of starting up, but in my time it was a challenge. However, I believe that entrepreneurs are meant to be problem-solvers and they don’t shy away from a challenge.

GL: What is the USP of your business?

MC: Our field primarily belongs to consultants. Consultants are hired who come up with energy conservation measures. What we found was that even when we provided them with proposals and a roadmap the clients did not implement it. This was for a variety of reasons - budget, technical clearance and the readiness of the management to accept change. We decided to make our services end-to-end and are now a preeminent company in our field.

Taj Group of Hotels and MTNL and several other companies are our clients. We work like doctors to establish our diagnosis about where energy is consumed and how its use can be reduced.

GL: What are some of the milestones of your business?

MC: A lot of projects on carbon credit came up. We decided to benefit our clients with these mecha-nisms. We registered four of our clients in UNFCC and several projects under CCX - Chicago Climate Exchange. We went to the US and obtained membership.

After that, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency being formed at the national level. We were among the five companies who got the most work out of the start of this new initiative. It was a significant achievement for a Nagpur-based firm to be competing with Ernst and Young and PwC.

We ended up deciding to provide end-to-end solutions. We got a good break with Taj Group of Hotels. Our team size is 90+ now.

We have launched two startups. Finefi Energy Solutions and Skill-e trainings. Finefi Energy Solutions is coming up with an application where clients can upload technical information regarding their energy issues. The customer will then see solutions which they can buy and then we will help implement the solution.

The Skill-E startup focuses on Tier-3 and Tier-4 cities on Engineering students who may not have received the best quality education. If we incorporate more audio-visual training, engineering students without fundamental skills see their learning improve.

Using 25 years of knowledge, we have established these two startups to take our business and the industry forward. We received awards for almost three years from the Association of Energy Engineers that is recognised worldwide. The Ministry of MSME awarded us a prize for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ in 2009.

In the fields of industry safety, we have IOC and GAIL. We are serving 25% on the oil market.

GL: What role do you feel GlobalLinker plays in connecting and assisting SMEs

MC: Look at any MSME. If they have survived they will have some quality. However, we have trouble with networking. We have a lot of potential to do good when it comes to helping buildings attain energy efficiency. GlobalLinker can help give us the help that we need to deliver our services to a larger clientele.

GL: What is your big business dream?

MC: Though we are growing organically everywhere, that growth is limited. My goal is to make this company an INR 100 Crore company by 2020 and an INR 500 Crore company by 2025. In India there is a lot of scope since we have over 12,000 large commercial buildings. Even if we can serve a portion of that number, we will attain this dream.

GL: What is your message to aspiring entrepreneurs?

MC: Today’s startups are more motivated and they have bigger dreams than we did. Life is short - we have to live our life for the purpose which we feel we have been put on this earth for. We shouldn’t hesitate in pursuit of a cause you believe in spite of failure. Do not change your goal. You will achieve success. Keep going. Opportunities are plenty and you will find your way.

Conserve our essential companions, energy and environment. We need them to survive. In order to do that, you need good ideas. Good ideas lead to better results.

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