Manas Chatterjee has over twenty years of business leadership experience in business management, strategy, marketing and sales across a diverse range of corporate, start-up and turn around environments. He has an exceptional track record of identifying core issues and setting strategic direction based upon competencies and market opportunities. A builder of world-class teams, he has exceptional skills in developing, empowering, and motivating individuals and teams to meet and exceed goals.

Prior to GXT Green, Manas has held senior management and executive positions for a notable list of public and private companies such as President & CEO of a Financial Services company, Managing Partner of a Business & Executive coaching firm, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Operations of a Global Information Technology company and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales of an International electronics manufacturing company.

Manas volunteers his time at several worthy social and community organizations including Sree Vijaya Kali Ashram, Burlington, Satsang Center Hindu Temple, Woburn, and NGO’s in India. Manas served several years as Treasurer of Sri Lakshmi Temple, Ashland. Manas has a bachelor’s degree from Delhi University.

Manas spoke to Lokvani about his work. 

GXT Green develops and manufactures sustainable, low carbon, low cost, replacement for plastics resin and foam packaging. GXT products reduce the environmental impact of a range of plastic products including plastic bags, foam packaging, automotive plastics, engineering plastics, food service, agriculture and toys. GXT Green has won over 14 US and international awards for product innovation and business success. 

One of my previous start-ups was engaged in developing and trading carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. In the course of our business we experienced strong demand for “sustainable/green” products. The second motivation was my wife, Piya – she would often buy the greenest option at the store and after few buys she would be frustrated as they never worked as well as the products it replaced and they were often very expensive. These two drivers led to authoring of my core business strategy:

“Economics meeting Ecology”. Which essentially translates to – “everyone wants to save the world by using sustainable products unless it cost too much and then it is not such a priority”. This led to the four principals of our product strategy: 

       a.) Our products must to be sustainable, 

       b.) Solve a critical problem, 

       c.) Perform as well or better than the products they replace

       d.) Should be competitively priced (vs. products they replace)

Our customers buy GXT products because they are cost effective and perform as well - the green attributes are a bonus i.e. “Economics meeting Ecology”, we use economics to change behavior instead of depending on legislation.

Almost everything that we use today uses plastic in some form or the other. It takes over 400 years for plastic to breakdown. Americans use over 100 billion plastic bags a year and only 1% is returned for recycling.

Properties of plastic (durable, easy to manufacture, cost effective etc.) is what makes plastic the wonder material of our times and the durability and raw material (oil/gas) is what makes it unsustainable product. GXT makes the resin that replaces plastic resin used to make all kinds of products. GXT resin made products perform as well if not better than plastic, are sustainable and cost effective – “a win-win solution”. GXT today has factories and facilities in USA, Taiwan, Japan, China, India. We are setting up an additional factory in the Midwest.

We don’t make “plastic” bags, we make the resin that is used to manufacture non-plastics carry bags and many other products that we commonly call plastic products except when they are made from GXT resin, they are no more plastic. Our bags are in use in grocery stores such as Roche bros. and many products that you use today may already be made from GXT resin.

What other major products are you targeting with the material you have developed? 

Every time you receive an online delivery, you receive a great amount of filler packing material along with the outer box. Imagine a packaging solution that does not require fillers, foam forms/protectors and the inner packaging can be turned into a flat envelope with the click of a tab and returned to the shipper for reuse – “Zero Waste”, and yet it cost less and uses less space and time to pack. This is the GXT ECO-R3SP packaging system. We have 23 patents and registration for this product. 

A future where all plastic will be replaced with GXT resin made products and why not, it works, it is sustainable and cost effective.

Sustainability is no more another feel good option, it is the only real option for survival.