Noufal Mahboob | Rooted in the Future

Long before there was a space called Local Sustainable Living, before the festivals, workshops, and community gatherings, there was simply an idea. For over a decade and a half, Noufal and his cousin Mujeeb carried it with them.

It wasn't written down in business plans or investor decks. It existed as a mental blueprint shaped by years of observation, travel, experimentation, and conversations with ordinary people. Noufal didn't know exactly what form it would take, but he knew one thing: he wanted to create something rooted in the local. "I was always curious about the different lifestyles adopted by people," he says.

Growing up in Kochi, Noufal was not what most would describe as an academic achiever. After studying at Ernakulam North, he pursued a degree in tourism, largely because he loved exploring places and meeting people. Yet some of his most important lessons happened outside of classrooms.

His father had founded an advertising agency, Broadway Communications, more than 40 years ago. As a teenager, Noufal spent his afternoons at the office after school, gradually absorbing the rhythms of business, design, communication and entrepreneurship.

By the time he completed higher secondary education, he had developed a fascination not only with business but also with culture, lifestyles and human stories. It is this curiosity that would eventually become the foundation of Local Sustainable Living.

Beyond Charity

Like many people searching for meaningful ways to contribute to society, Noufal first experimented with charity. He remembers noticing people sleeping on shop verandahs and wondering about the circumstances that brought them there. He and his friends distributed clothes and tried various forms of direct assistance.

But something about the model troubled him. A meal could solve hunger for a day. A donated shirt could meet an immediate need. Yet neither addressed the larger question of sustainability.

"I realised that one-time help wasn't a long-term solution," he says. The experience shifted his thinking. Instead of asking how to help people temporarily, he began asking how people could support themselves sustainably.

This question became the seed of Local Sustainable Living. The idea was simple yet ambitious: create a platform where people could pursue what they love, generate income from it, and become self-reliant without money acting as the primary barrier.

Finding the Right Home

For nearly a year and a half, Noufal and Mujeeb searched for a physical space that matched their vision. They wandered through neighbourhoods, spoke to strangers, explored forgotten properties and followed recommendations from people they met along the way. 

And then they found it! The location was a 200-year-old tharavadu, an ancestral home, surrounded by a pond, trees, and a traditional sacred grove. It wasn't polished or commercial. Parts of the property were overgrown. The rear area resembled a small forest. 

There were snakes. There were monitor lizards. For Noufal and Mujeeb, this wasn't a problem. Coexistence was part of their philosophy. Talking to Noufal, I was reminded of the legendary writer Vaikom Muhammad Basheer’s short story titled “Bhoomiyude Avakaashikal”, which translates to “The Rightful Inheritors of the Earth”. 

Today, the space serves as both a community hub and a living experiment. The old house hosts workshops, performances, exhibitions, discussions and gatherings. Children run freely through the property. Artists test new ideas. Researchers visit to understand the model.

The atmosphere is intentionally informal. If it rains, visitors get wet.If the ground turns muddy, they walk through mud. The environment, Noufal believes, is part of the experience.

A Novel Business Model

One of the most interesting aspects of Local Sustainable Living is that it is not a charity, NGO or trust. It is a business. Or more accurately, a social enterprise. The distinction matters.

Noufal wanted to demonstrate that community-centered initiatives could sustain themselves financially without depending entirely on grants or donations. His advertising agency continues to operate from the same premises, helping support the broader ecosystem.

The model is guided by a principle he calls "fair value for all." This philosophy extends to everything from product pricing to venue rentals. Unlike conventional event spaces that charge fixed rates, Local Sustainable Living often asks organisers to contribute based on their capacity and budget. Some pay immediately. Others contribute later. Occasionally, people are supported even when they cannot pay at all.

The approach relies heavily on trust. "It's based on ethics and integrity," Noufal explains. The goal is not to maximise revenue but to create opportunities.

Sustainable and Reasonable

Walk into the permanent store at Local Sustainable Living and you'll find products sourced from small makers across India. Many are items that rarely make it into supermarkets or mainstream retail chains. Some are handmade. Some are upcycled. Many come from producers who lack the resources to market themselves widely.

But Noufal is careful about how sustainability is presented. Too often, he says, sustainable products are marketed as premium lifestyle choices available only to affluent consumers. He wants to challenge that perception.

The initiative's guiding phrase is "Sustainable and Reasonable." The idea is that sustainability should not be exclusive. Products should be fairly priced, accessible and capable of generating consistent income for the people who make them.

Rather than relying on high margins and low volume, the model focuses on affordability and wider participation. In doing so, it attempts to make sustainability part of everyday life rather than a niche trend.

The Local Fest 

Perhaps the clearest expression of Noufal's vision is the Local Sustainable Fest. What began as a modest Onam market evolved into Kerala's first large-scale sustainable fest, attracting makers, artists, entrepreneurs and community groups from diverse backgrounds.

The event itself reflects the values of the space. Visitors purchase an entry ticket but receive much of that value back through shopping coupons and reusable tote bags. The system encourages spending within the festival, ensuring money circulates directly among vendors.

It is a practical example of circular economy principles in action. The goal is simple: everyone should benefit. Visitors leave with products. Vendors make sales. Connections are formed. The community grows stronger.

Local Sustainability Living also partnered with Kochi Metro to encourage public transport use, rewarding visitors who arrived by metro with additional coupons. Small interventions like these demonstrate how sustainability can be integrated into everyday decisions.

Building Quietly

In an era obsessed with visibility, Local Sustainable Living has taken a different path. There are no aggressive marketing campaigns. No constant pursuit of viral attention. Growth happens largely through conversations and word of mouth. Noufal describes their practice  as "doing first and telling the story later."

Even the organisation's digital presence remains secondary. While social media updates exist, the initiative was deliberately built offline before moving online, a reversal of how many modern ventures operate. “We started from reality and moved to the virtual”, as Noufal puts it. 

The long-term dream is to create an open-source platform connecting local vendors and initiatives across India, functioning almost like a contemporary version of the old Yellow Pages. But for now, the focus remains on action.

Ask Noufal what success looks like, and his answer is surprisingly modest. He doesn't dream of franchises or massive expansion. Instead, he hopes more spaces like this emerge elsewhere. Spaces where people can experiment. Spaces where collaboration matters more than competition. Spaces where sustainability includes livelihoods, relationships, creativity and community, not just the environment.

At its heart, Local Sustainable Living is less about a business model than a belief. A belief that meaningful change begins locally. A belief that people flourish when given trust and opportunity. And a belief that sometimes, the most powerful ideas are not built with large investments or grand announcements.