Alex Wu – The Journey Of A Young Business Developer Who Puts Sustainability Front And Center

Written by: James Carnell

These days, “sustainability” is such a hot and trending word, greenwashing businesses and products across almost every industry. It can be challenging to decipher which companies are actually working towards the greatest good for both people and the planet. However, when a business makes sustainability their core mission, trust is easily established.

Kanda Industries is an industrial natural fiber composite supplier, with the overall goal of driving the global shift to dependence on sustainable and renewable resources. Founder Alex Wu is only 24 years old, but has incredible life experience that has made him wise beyond his years. With an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for business development and environmentalism, he is a true leader in a time when the world needs it most.

A childhood of challenge and change

Born as the second child during one-child China, Alex’s mother fought to bring him into this world. His early years were quite transient, as he moved between home, boarding schools and a variety of camps – everything from memory camps, to calligraphy camps, to military academy camps. One of the most impactful of these experiences was his time at the Shaolin Monastery, where he studied to be a martial art monk as an eight year old boy. It was a dramatic change in lifestyle and the degree of discipline challenged him, but his greatest takeaway was a profound relationship with nature.

He recalls, “There was a connection and balance between us and nature that I felt at [that] time... The hardships and simplicities fortified my mentality; and given enough solitude with yourself and nature, the feelings of peace and clarity that [follow are] pure. That experience really forged my tenacity and connection with nature.”

His adolescent years took him even further away from his family – first to the UK and then to the US. He developed strong independence, opened his mind to diverse perspectives, and made international friends. However, he also faced the ugliness of racism, the pain of rejection and the sorrow of loneliness. With every single experience, he grew stronger.

Business came naturally

Back in China, when he was only 10 years old, Wu started his first business and discovered his natural talent. He launched a comic book rental store at school, to sell comics to his peers. The business was so successful that he hired five friends to expand the services beyond his own class. The experience was hugely impactful for him.

He explains, “Seeing the excitement of kids getting the latest comic series for cheap, hearing the sound of silver coins rolling in, and splitting the 'war spoils' among my ‘tribe’ – these were some of my favorite childhood memories. That was when I knew I wanted to keep building my own ventures that provide value and yield rewards to a community.”

The school shut down his lucrative business, which is when his mother decided to send him off to study abroad, in hopes of giving him greater opportunity. Wu continued to build businesses everywhere that he went. First, an ‘underground’ grocery store that provided his British boarding school peers with otherwise inaccessible food and drinks. Then, in the US, a chartered for-profit business club that taught entrepreneurship by selling services that would benefit the community and local businesses, with a portion of the profits donated to Planet Startup – a dedicated charity with a mission of empowering youth in Africa with entrepreneurship mentality.

Finding his green niche

At Babson College, he pursued a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration, with a concentration in Babson’s well known entrepreneurship programs. He knew that he wanted to build a business that could bring meaningful value to society and contribute towards helping the climate crisis. During his time in college, the state of Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuna and also passed the 2018 Farm Bill, which officially recognized hemp as an agricultural commodity and removed it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act.

Alex was incredibly curious to learn about cannabis – a plant that is considered so dangerous and taboo in China, but widely accepted in the US. He was then amazed to discover how versatile and regenerable hemp is, as well as its carbon sequestration ability, which makes it the perfect raw industrial material. As it can be made into more than 28,000 products, Wu saw the immense potential of natural fibers as part of the solution for the climate crisis.

He had briefly considered the idea of a marijuana growing operation, but after understanding the massive environmental benefits that hemp could provide, he had no doubts that this was his path. Not wasting any time, he found the phone number for a hemp composite startup online and, after contacting the company, the next thing he knew, he was working in the hemp industry.

Over the next three years of college, he traveled with the company and pushed himself to learn as much about the industry and the people involved as possible. At one point, he attempted to launch a CBD product which, although unsuccessful, taught him a lot and helped him to narrow his vision down more specifically. Finally, after learning about the lack of industry infrastructures and raw materials, Wu founded Kanda Industries with the intention of fulfilling the needs of US hemp farmers and processors. Only when raw material needs are met and innovations are taking place all along the supply chain, can the industry grow consistently and bring out the innate sustainable benefits of hemp.

The future is green and bright with Kanda Industries

Wu launched Kanda Industries in 2021, with a mission to shift material dependency to sustainable alternatives, contributing to the overall reduction of industrial GHG emissions. The name Kanda means “rhino” in the Hausa language, and Wu chose this to represent the goal of creating materials that are both environmental and strong. The company is developing high-performance woven and non-woven composites that are made from natural fibers. The results are lightweight materials that can enhance performance and also minimize weight and fuel use. Furthermore, these green plant-based composites help to sequester CO2 during their product life cycle.

The reality is that the materials currently being used for industrial purposes, such as sand, wood and metals, are depleting at an astonishing rate. In addition, the process of extracting, processing and manufacturing these resources into industrial goods is producing dangerous levels of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, according to the EPA, the industrial sector, which includes manufacturing and raw materials extraction, is responsible for 21% of all greenhouse gasses. For the future of our species and our planet, it is imperative that this sector pivots immediately towards more sustainable options.

Kanda Industries’ natural fiber-reinforced composite (NFRC) material can be used by product manufacturers across a huge range of industries – from plastics, to sporting goods, to construction materials and even wind energy systems. The company recently signed a sponsorship with North Carolina State University to develop natural fiber-reinforced composites for high-performance applications, like racing. By modifying processing and polymer technologies, and optimizing agricultural and manufacturing system designs, the NFRC is strong, scalable and sustainable. Kanda works with each client and product manufacturer who utilizes composites, to develop the best solution for their unique products and problems. The vision of Kanda Industries is to “Make everything possible from plants.”

Wu believes that it is absolutely essential to utilize both agriculture and engineering in order to produce the right materials to shift global usage. Kanda takes a holistic approach to their hemp composite. By utilizing proprietary processing technologies and resin chemistry, the plant fiber’s mechanical strength is more suitable for high-performance applications. With lean manufacturing, precision farming and efficient crop rotation, there is profit scalability for both farmers and manufacturers. Finally, by selecting the most ideal plants and exceptional genes, they can achieve carbon sequestration throughout the life cycle of both the plant and the product.

By providing sustainable alternatives for a myriad of composite-based product manufacturers, Kanda is working to revolutionize the $86B global woven composite market, which currently depends largely on fiberglass and carbon fiber composites – both of which create significant CO2 footprints. Thankfully Alex Wu is not intimidated by his chosen mission, and is stepping up to improve the industrial sector. In closing, he shares: “I hope to continue learning, evolving and creating value [in] this industry with the goal of contributing as much as I can to better the world by shifting our material dependencies.”

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.