We’re thrilled to announce our next FUTURE OF WOMEN Podcast series, a four-part series all about sustainable design, curated and hosted by Azora Zoe Paknad of Goldune. On this new FUTURE OF WOMEN Podcast series, Azora speaks with designers, journalists, and agroforestry entrepreneurs about sourcing products and developing supply chains in a way that respects the environment and communities that create them. 

Today, Azora is speaking with Esha Chhabra and Smita Satiani. In 2019, Esha and Smita founded Alaya Tea. Alaya Tea sources organic and biodynamic teas directly from people and planet-friendly Indian farms at the base of the Himalayas. After growing up drinking chai and traversing this mountainous area in India’s Northeast, visiting small farmers and tea estates, Esha and Smita were keen to build a company that respects these communities and addresses environmental challenges we face through agriculture. Alaya’s packaging is fully compostable, including the label.

Esha Chhabra is a writer who covers the environment, business, and agriculture. She has contributed to The Guardian, New York Times, Economist, and Forbes. She has been awarded multiple grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting as well as two reporting fellowships from the UN Foundation. For the past three years, she developed a book which looks at 30+ businesses around the world making a social and environmental impact with Patagonia. In 2019 she founded Alaya Tea with Smita Satiani.

Smita Satiani is an Indian-Pakistani American entrepreneur. Over the last 10 years, she has worked in the social impact and climate change spaces across philanthropy, government and private industry. In 2019, she co-founded Alaya Tea to bring the Indian tea time she grew up with to a broader American audience, in a more people and planet-friendly way. Her work has been featured at the MIT Media Lab, and in Forbes, Washington Post & The Wall Street Journal. She is currently an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz Policy School.