Bengaluru Sustainability Forum Events Start March 1

The Bengaluru Sustainability Forum (BSF) was launched in 2018 as a collaboration between corporate and scientific institutions, including Wipro and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), to move sustainability discussions beyond activism into science-driven dialogue. The forum convenes researchers, civil society, and policymakers through focused, retreat-style dialogues on urban challenges like water, biodiversity, and climate change. While not exclusively a tech forum, BSF operates within a Bangalore ecosystem where sustainability challenges are increasingly being framed as opportunities for technology startups. The city is a hub for cleantech and circular economy ventures, with 115 startups in the circular economy sector alone having collectively raised $124M. This landscape provides a commercial and venture-backed context for the issues discussed at the forum. Local founders are tackling these problems with deep tech. Startups like FluxGen Sustainable Technologies use AI and IoT to help industrial clients like Microsoft optimize water usage. Rezlytix Technologies applies deep learning to make oil and gas exploration cleaner, while Exponent Energy, with $44.4M in funding, is developing rapid charging technology for EVs. An ecosystem of support is emerging for founders in this space. The Circular Economy ClimAccelerator, backed by the IKEA Foundation, provides equity-free funding to startups solving waste challenges. Meanwhile, BSF partner NCBS is home to C-CAMP, an incubator for deep-tech startups in life sciences and greentech. The forum's institutional partners bridge the gap between research and industry. Co-founder Wipro drives corporate sustainability initiatives and has set science-based targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. Partner Science Gallery Bengaluru frequently hosts exhibitions at the intersection of technology, science, and culture, creating a space for interdisciplinary innovation. For aspiring founders, the forum's events offer a different lens on market-making. They provide a space to understand the problem-space from a policy and research perspective, revealing friction points and opportunities that could become the wedge for a new developer-focused tool or B2B SaaS product in the burgeoning climate-tech and sustainability sector.