Creating sustainable water and energy solutions

The door was always open for Preeyam Budhia to join the family business, but, like many young people, she was determined to prove herself first. Growing up in Kolkata, she was in line to join Patton Group, an export house for engineering, manufacturing conduit and EMT fittings as well as plastic tanks, crates and PVC pipes. It was founded by her grandfather more than four decades ago and is a household name in India, employing about 3,000 people. While the draw to work there was strong, Preeyam instead moved to Britain to pursue a career in finance.

It was a rollercoaster ride. Preeyam completed a degree in management and, after further studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), went straight into a job at Lehman Brothers. The year? 2008. A week later the bank collapsed. After months of job hunting – and poised to book a flight back home, much to the enthusiasm of her parents – she secured a job at Barclays Capital. Two years later her parents renewed their pitch. “They said, ‘Come back. Here you can be your own boss, explore new markets, transform the business’.” Eager to put her entrepreneurial energy to the test, she agreed.

A decade later, Preeyam is president at Patton Group. During this journey, she has opened up new territories for business across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, invigorated the organisation’s online presence and developed new products, too. Her experience of corporate culture in Britain has shaped how she approaches leadership. She has encouraged a proactive approach to unity and team building, and introduced policies to support women in the business from the boardroom to the factory. Crucially, she has spearheaded the company’s environmental innovation, establishing a new ‘green division’ to create sustainable products and solutions related to water conservation and energy. 

It was, in the end, a connection of the heart that led her to create this new vertical. Upon returning to India, she visited her childhood nanny, who lived in a village outside Kolkata. As they sat, catching up, her nanny’s daughter-in-law turned up carrying jerry cans and buckets ready to “fetch some water”. Preeyam was shocked. Even more so to learn that fetching water often meant walking up to 10km a day. The time-consuming task was primarily undertaken by women and children, creating a further obstacle to pursuing studies, hobbies or business activities. 

Preeyam returned to Patton Group where she addressed the issue with her team. A subset of the plastics division, the sustainability vertical comprises of about eight people and combines younger talent from outside the company with existing expertise. It designed a 90-litre roller tank – five times the size of an average bucket – called Water-on-Wheels, which has handles attached, meaning it can be rolled along the ground like a wheelbarrow. By increasing the capacity and reducing the physical toll of carrying water, the product has been able to improve the lives of rural Indian women. Patton Group partners with state governments who sponsor the product, as well as with companies that are looking to achieve their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) targets. Water-on-Wheels has now been distributed across more than 3,000 villages in India, affecting the lives of up to 2 million people. 

Another project Preeyam spearheaded was an affordable product for rainwater harvesting. Again, a simple design that can be applied across residential or agricultural settings, it is a system of piping and tanks that makes it possible to collect, filter and reuse rainwater. The system has now been installed in about 200 locations in India, helping more than 100,000 people. One of the company’s other products – a contactless hand washing station that uses a foot pedal to release water and soap – was designed as a hygiene solution during the Covid-19 pandemic. Preeyam did not expect it to last beyond the pandemic, but Patton Group continues to receive orders for it from a variety of organisations, including Unicef and Oxfam.

While Preeyam has enjoyed her leadership role at Patton Group, it has not been without challenges. It has been difficult at times, she says, to encourage a mindset change from those around her, both inside and outside of the company. “There can be resistance to change,” she says. “You need to be able to lead, to bring people to consensus and convince people that these are small disagreements, but what we are doing is going to be good and create impact.” Externally, the challenge with a product like Water-on-Wheels was persuading state governments and corporates to believe in it – and, of course, persuading the end user that it is worth adopting. “Rural people were happy fetching water in jerry cans,” says Preeyam. “So, why change? Why do something different? It’s all about the human mind – that’s the biggest challenge.”