From Software to Sustainability: The Man Building Sri Lanka's Biggest Green Army

Q1. You started your career in technology and built successful businesses. What made you shift from building businesses to building a movement around one of Sri Lanka's most pressing environmental challenges?

To be honest, I did not really shift my profession. I am still a technology person at heart. What changed was my mindset ― I shifted my interest, not my career. This happened soon after COVID-19. I started looking at my own home and realised how much plastic we use every day. Sri Lanka’s natural resources are finite , yet we keep buying and using plastic products without thinking twice. That thought stayed with me.

I spent almost six months building a small platform and speaking to people who wanted to volunteer. I noticed something important ― people genuinely wanted to help the environment, but there was no proper platform for them to do it in an organised way. That gap is what led me to start the ZeroPlastic Movement.

Q2. ZeroPlastic has grown beyond an environmental campaign into a movement involving volunteers, universities, businesses and communities. What does it take to turn a good idea into a movement that people genuinely want to be part of?

If you ask ten people, almost all of them will have a good idea. Having an idea is common. Executing it is a completely different level. Sri Lanka already has many nonprofits working on different causes, so we knew from day one that we were entering a space where we had to build something bigger, together with the community. We needed a proper plan to bring in corporates, volunteers, and everyone else who wanted to help.

The real challenge was: how do you attract people, and more importantly, how do you keep them? We had to think carefully about who our movement was really for. You cannot involve school children without permission from parents and school authorities. Working professionals had the passion, but not the time. We found university students were particularly well positioned for sustained volunteering because they had the energy, flexibility and opportunity to take on leadership roles.

So we built the ZeroPlastic platform, where anyone could find their own place. If you like content, you could create YouTube videos on plastic pollution. If you are good with numbers, you could manage a budget. If you want to lead, you could lead a club. We simply built the space and let people find their own path.

If I had to explain it in one line ― we never chase butterflies. When you chase a butterfly, it flies away. Instead, we built our own garden. And when you build a good garden, the butterflies come to you on their own. That garden is the ZeroPlastic platform ― the opportunities, the network, and the people. That is what we focused on for the last five years, and that is why the movement grew the way it did.

Q3. Sustainability often struggles when it is positioned only as a social responsibility issue. How can businesses make reducing plastic and adopting sustainable alternatives part of their business strategy rather than simply a CSR initiative?

We need to understand one basic thing ― we only have one planet. Businesses depend on natural resources to operate and grow, so protecting those resources has to become part of long-term business strategy. Sustainability should not only become important when regulation, public pressure or financial risk forces action. The strongest companies will integrate it into their vision, operations and decision-making from the beginning.

Right now, most organisations only think about sustainability when it affects their bottom line, or when there is public pressure. We are already experiencing increasing environmental and climate pressures, including extreme heat, flooding and other climate-related risks. These are not distant problems anymore.

Sustainability cannot be a once-a-year event where companies showcase their best practices. We need stronger regulation, including targeted restrictions on unnecessary single-use plastics, together with consistent enforcement.

Q4. You have built a large youth and university volunteer network around ZeroPlastic. What have you learned about engaging young people and turning their enthusiasm into long-term leadership and action?

This is an interesting one. Think about a young person after their A/Levels. They are looking for direction, building their skills, hoping for a good job or opportunity in the future. When they volunteer with us, we make sure they walk away having built new abilities ― whether that is leadership, communication, or project management. That is what they carry forward into their careers.

We learned three things that keep volunteers engaged. First, give them enough opportunities. If you have a thousand volunteers but only one project running, most of them will have nothing to do, and they will eventually leave. So we always keep multiple ongoing projects running, so volunteers can choose what they want to work on.

Second, appreciation. We built a ZeroPlastic mobile app that tracks their activities, with leadership levels and points. People need to feel that their contribution is recognised and valued.

Third, connections. We make sure volunteers can meet new people and build relationships with others who share the same passion. When you bring like-minded people together, they naturally support and inspire each other.

As for how the university network itself grew ― it was not something we planned out perfectly from day one. Initially, we simply built one platform, and volunteers organised themselves into small clusters. Each cluster started working independently, growing on its own within its university, almost like how Facebook grew in its early days ― starting as a simple platform, and only later did people begin to see the bigger opportunities within it. We never expected it; we just kept building, and it kept growing.

Q5. Sri Lanka has many entrepreneurs producing environmentally friendly alternatives, but creating demand for these products remains challenging. How can businesses, consumers and policymakers work together to build a stronger market for sustainable local products?

Let me explain this clearly. This is about an ecosystem ― supply and demand ― and right now, that ecosystem is broken. We do not have proper policy in place. Businesses keep using plastic because it is cheap and reliable, and it is genuinely very difficult for sustainable alternatives to compete on price. Suppliers look for cheaper products to make higher profits, and consumers also naturally look for the cheaper option. That is why plastic still wins.

So how do we build demand? We need proper regulation ― bans on plastic ― and just as importantly, we need enforcement. Right now in Sri Lanka, regulations exist on paper, but enforcement is very weak. If you go to almost any shop, you will still find polythene in use, because there is no real consequence for it.

If you look at countries in Europe, for example, two things happen together ― there is a regulation, and that regulation is properly enforced. Once that happens, demand for alternatives naturally grows, because businesses no longer have the option to fall back on plastic. That is exactly what ZeroPlastic is pushing for through our advocacy work ― stronger policy, and stronger enforcement of that policy. Without that, we will keep talking about alternatives without ever building a real market for them.

Q6. Looking ahead, what does the next phase of ZeroPlastic look like, and what would success look like for you ― not just in terms of reducing plastic, but in creating lasting behavioural and economic change in Sri Lanka?

The next phase of ZeroPlastic will be much more technology and AI driven. We want to bring AI into our operations to engage even more people through our club network, and to support our volunteers with better data and insights ― even AI-based coaching for our club leaders. That is one part of our next chapter, alongside growing this into a more regional and global movement.

The other important goal is self-sustainability. We want to reduce our dependency on corporate funding and donor support, and instead generate our own income through our own social enterprise initiatives. That is something we are actively working towards.

As for how I define success ― it is simple. I want to see every person, and every corporate, put sustainability first, not as an afterthought. I want to see reduced plastic consumption across the country, and I want Sri Lanka to become one of the cleanest countries in Asia. But more than any single action or achievement, real success is when sustainability becomes second nature to people ― not something we do because we are told to, but something we do because it has become part of who we are.