Disposables, Disparities, and Disruption
A South Asian Woman’s Path to Redesigning Impact
Pallavi Pande, Dtocs
Kim Allchurch Flick, Mighty Impacts Continuum
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Pallavi Pande, founder of Dtocs, shares her journey of disrupting both the disposables industry and the dominant narratives around DEI in business. Using eco-friendly palm leaf tableware as a launch point, she explores how product innovation can reflect cultural heritage, environmental urgency, and economic empowerment—especially when led by women of color navigating the biases of mainstream entrepreneurship.
Session Description
What happens when a South Asian woman challenges not only the waste in our supply chains, but also the waste in how we think about inclusion, equity, and leadership? In this candid and compelling session, Pallavi Pande, founder of Dtocs, shares her journey of disrupting both the disposables industry and the dominant narratives around DEI in business. Using eco-friendly palm leaf tableware as a launch point, she explores how product innovation can reflect cultural heritage, environmental urgency, and economic empowerment—especially when led by women of color navigating the biases of mainstream entrepreneurship.
But this is not just a story of success—it’s a call to reframe how we define progress. Pallavi will share the tensions she’s faced between DEI and true power-sharing, and between sustainability rhetoric and real accountability to people and planet. Participants will walk away with insights on how social enterprise can move from intention to transformation, and why representation without redistribution is not enough. This is a space for strategy, solidarity, and rethinking the systems we’re told we must work within.
Presenter Bio
Pallavi Pande is a Portland-based entrepreneur and the founder of Dtocs, a sustainable tableware brand inspired by her Indian heritage. Drawing from childhood memories of dining on banana leaves in India, she created Dtocs to offer eco-friendly, single-use tableware made from naturally fallen Areca palm leaves. These products are chemical-free, compostable within four to six weeks, and designed to replace conventional disposable options like plastic and paper plates.
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