Interview with Bahwna Sehra, CEO and founder of Palm Lights, a company based in Dubai creating environmentally-friendly candles.

1. Palm Lights founder
shares herthoughts
on business integrity
Bhawna Sehra’s search for an eco-friendly candle lasted a long time. Every candle
she ever encountered falsely claimed to be 100% organic or natural. To end her
doubts and address the issue herself, she created her own Dubai-based business,
PalmLights,producingunique,eco-friendlycandlesmadefrompalmwax.Bhawna
shared her thoughts with us on business integrity.
Bhawna
Sehra
““
Bhawna Sehra
After months of research, Bhawna Sehra
successfully produced her first batch of hand-
poured candles made from palm wax, bringing
her company Palm Lights to life. The candles are
produced in small batches, and all candles are
unique due to a special crystalline surface finish.
Individually, the candles take about 10-12 hours to
make and a couple of days to cure. Handmade to
perfection!
Addressing a
loophole
Although paraffin candles are the
most widely produced candles in the
world, I searched for a truly eco-
friendly alternative.
www.ziwira.com www.ziwira.com
Business 32 november Issue 11
2015

2. Bhawna’s business goal was to establish a company that not
only catered to her customer’s needs, but also to their health
and environment. The brand is quite specialized, and she points
out that it is difficult to convince people to spend their money
on something ‘eco’ against a cheaper option from a department
store. But Bhawna assured us it’s not really the price factor that
she has issues with.
“It’s actually the lack of awareness among the masses about
truly eco-friendly choices,” she says. “Many people don’t know
the perils of toxic and unsustainable ingredients used in regular
candles.”
These ingredients she mentions, can be found in both expensive
candles purchased from reputed home stores, as well as in the
cheaper options from department stores. Bhawna implores
the need to read labels carefully today, providing examples of
particularly nasty ingredients to watch out for.
“Paraffin wax is a byproduct of petroleum, and is unhealthy
for your lungs,” she explaines. “Soy wax is produced from
soybean oil, but uses hexane, chlorine, and boric acid in the
manufacturing process.”
She further explained that 95 percent of the chemicals used in
synthetic fragrances, are derived from petroleum and include
benzene derivatives, aldehydes, and many other known toxins
and synthesizers capable of causing cancer, birth defects,
central nervous system disorders, and allergic reactions.
Bhawna is fully aware that honesty is the best policy when it
comes to ingredients.
“Once the buyer is educated of the responsibly sourced
ingredients of my candles, they don’t mind paying a bit more
for quality and health,” she says. “All said and done, it’s the
functional performance of the candles and its powerful mood
altering properties which speak volumes.”
There are of course a number of advantages associated with
using natural products, whether it’s health, price, or environment.
What exactly can Palm Lights customers expect? First and
foremost, Bhawna’s products provide excellent value for money
as they last twice as long as regular paraffin candles. Palm wax
is a hard, smooth wax with a high melting temperature, therefore
the candles retain their shape even during harsh summers of
Dubai.
“Other features of the candles like the natural crystalline finish,
aromatherapy health benefits, strong fragrance, bright and
soot-free flame, toxic-free, 100% bio-degradable vegan wax,
and unique scents personalized to customers’ wishes, make
up for an all-round pleasant buying experience,” says Bhawna,
also mentioning the fact that Palm Lights is the sole producer
of certified sustainable crystalline palm wax in the GCC region,
which adds to the products’ exclusivity and charm.
Bhawna and her naturalist beliefs have been a strong selling
point for her company, by deciding not to use any petroleum-
based products in the candles, or fragrance oils. While speaking
about these issues, she mentioned a favorite quote of hers:
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it
from our children.”
This quote is her guiding light. Bhawna consciously created
a product with no nasties after months of research and
experiments. Only ethical, sustainable, planet-friendly
ingredients were chosen to create a pleasurable, healthy and
safe product for her customers.
“I decided not to use paraffin wax because it’s a petroleum-
based product that has been bleached then texturized with
acrolyn, which is a known carcinogenic,” she says. “Although
paraffin candles are the most widely produced candles in the
world, I searched for a truly eco-friendly alternative.”
Bhawna similarly avoids the use of fragrance oils, which are
synthetically produced from the concoctions of chemicals,
designed to mimic natural fragrances. They release microscopic
particles, many of which are carcinogenic. People are also
unaware that coconut, strawberry, melon, mango, cantaloupe,
and pomegranate for example, are synthetic fragrances,
containing phthalates, making them potentially harmful to health
and environment.
“At Palm Lights, I fragrance my candles with 100% pure
essential oils,” says Bhawna. “Essential oils are extracted from
the aromatic essences of certain plants, trees, fruits, flowers,
herbs, and spices, traditionally used in aromatherapy. Though
pure essential oils are rare and expensive, they blend well in
palm wax and thus the aroma lasts till the very end.”
Not so controversial?
The looming argument that had to be brought up, was the
controversial use of palm oil, which has caught a lot of slack
because of deforestation issues. Organizations such as the Union
of Concerned Scientists call upon companies that use palm oil to
adopt strong deforestation-free sourcing policies, because palm
oil is used in thousands of products, and is supposedly a driver of
deforestation, because palm oil companies clear rainforest areas to
establish their plantations.
But Bhawna makes a strong case against the argument, and justifies
her reasons for using the product. Palm oil uses very little water,
is GMO-free, and pest resistant. She informed us that with an
average yield of 4.02 tons of oil per hectare, palm oil is ten times
more productive than soybean, eight times more productive than
sunflower, and six times more productive than rapeseed. In other
words, you can grow enormous volumes of it with relatively little land.
The palm oil industry accounts for 5-6 percent of Malaysia’s total
GDP, and is an essential livelihood for millions of people in the
tropical countries of the world. 50 percent of packages or processed
foodstuffs contain palm oil or its derivatives. Evidently a lot of people
rely on the industry for their livelihood, therefore Bhawna puts up an
extremist view of boycotting palm oil as a “bizarre notion”.
“I believe I can make a change by supporting these regulating
organizations in my own little way,” she says. “These organizations
issue moratorium on the clearing of new forests, encourage
sustainable plantations, certify existing areas of cultivation, formulate
ways to increase the yield, protect orangutans, and follow fair trade
practices.” For example, RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm
Oil), ISPO (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil), and MOPI (Malaysian
Oil Palm Industry). This convinced Bahwna to use RSPO certified
palm wax for her candles.
While she doesn’t deny that non-regulated plantations have
contributed to deforestation in the past, Bhawna believes that the
positive aspect surrounding the issue today is that consumer
awareness is putting pressure on growers to support sustainability.
“There’s a bright and sustainable future ahead,” she says. “Nestle,
IKEA, Unilever, and Carrefour are among the many giants who have
announced a total conversion to sustainable palm oil in their products
by the end of 2015.”
Lack of infrastructure due to ongoing war and
conflict has compelled Yemen to switch to solar-
powered products imported from Dubai. Yemen is
becoming a big market for a company in Dubai that
sells solar-powered products, accounting for more
than half of California Land General Trading’s sales.
California Land sells lamps and fans powered by
solar energy which are cost effective and easy to
use.
Ishrat Ali, owner of California Land set up the
business four years ago after his wife told him that
solar lamps were being used in India. “I went to see
her cousin’s lamp and it hit me,” he said. The first
item to be carried in the store was a solar lamp,
which also included an electrical outlet to charge
devices such as mobile phones. Four years ago the
price was Dh350, but as costs for solar technology
have declined, the price of the lamp has fallen to
Dh210 today.
However, the most popular item among Yemeni
customers is the solar-powered fan. California Land
orders about 1,800 fans a year in two shipments.
Like the solar lamp, the price of a solar fan has
fallen from US$45 to $35. If the fan is charged for
between eight and 10 hours, it can run for at least
6 - 7 hours.
While California Land registered a spike in Yemeni
customers amid increased conflict in the country,
others are using renewable energy to help refugees.
There were about 20 million refugees globally at the
end of last year, and data from the United Nations’
refugee agency shows that 1 million Syrians can be
added to that count since January.
As Dubai is growing as a champion for renewable
energy in the Middle East, war-stricken countries
like Yemen see Dubai as a great support to meet
their energy requirements amid the political and
economic turmoil.
Dubai’s solar-
powered products
comforting
conflict-stricken
Yemen
www.ziwira.com www.ziwira.com
Business 34 november Issue 11
2015