Mission Shunya

What are the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifications all about? Is a planned, managed forest area really sustainable? Can the status quo be changed?  On this podcast episode Amar Deshpande (aka Amar Vyas), Country Manager for FSC in India joins Girish Shivakumar to discuss sustainable forestry and FSC's role in it.  Amar is also a passionate storyteller and founder of Gaatha Story ( https:...

Discussing the global transition to net zero emissions is one of the themes of Mission Shunya (Shunya =Zero). Recently, ClimateWorks Australia, published the Decarbonisation Futures study that outlined the trajectory for Australia to get to net zero by 2050. Climateworks Australia’s primary goal through the study is to enable Australia reach its net zero emissions by 2050.   Tom Yankos who led the...

Carbon Initiative Forum (CIF) aims to create climate change awareness at grassroots level. Why is it important? How do they go about doing it? How can you get involved? On this episode Sandeep Roy Choudhury joins Girish Shivakumar to share his journey of building VNV advisory services and working on projects of impact and having a positive impact on communities.   The action item for this episode...

In the last few years we have come across commitments from a range of global corporations committing to going 100% RE, reducing their emissions to net zero or in fact turning to net positive. What are the targets based on, how realistic are these targets from the timeline perspective. We will discuss more of this on this episode.  Thaddeus Anim-Somuah who has done a lot of work in the sustainabili...

How can behavioural economics and nudge be used to create awareness on environmental issues among children? Amishi Parasrampuria from Upcycler’s lab joins Girish Shivakumar to share the story of how products and games are designed with intent to make play based learning more impactful.  Link to connect with Upcycler’s Lab: https://upcyclerslab.com/   Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts: https:/...

Olubunmi Olajide, the host of The Energy Talk podcast joins Girish Shivakumar to share his interest and work around telling stories from the global energy transition. Olubunmi featured the work of Mission Shunya earlier on The Energy Talk podcast.  Links to connect with Olubunmi: https://bit.ly/3fcHUWc | The Energy Talk Podcast: https://theenergytalk.disha.page/   Subscribe and listen on Apple Pod...

1 in 10 people in the world don’t have access to clean water. The UN declared access to clean water and sanitation as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) in 2015. WaterScope has developed an inexpensive, rapid water testing microscope capable of identifying bacterial presence in water. Alexander Patto, CEO & CO-Founder of WaterScope joins Girish Shivakumar in a conversation to share the sto...

Renewable Energy (RE) procurement has moved on from being a corporate goal driven procurement for industries to cost-economics driven decision. How are the RE developers evolving to provide value  to this category of consumers?  How can Commercial & Industrial spaces avail Renewable Energy as a Service? Siddarth Krishna Kumar from Renew Power joins Girish Shivakumar to share his views on the n...

The most common definition of Sustainability is to have low / zero impact which is simply not enough for civilization to course correct. Regenerative, on the other hand means to be of positive impact through our actions.  How can you be regenerative? Jacob Cherian joins Girish Shivakumar to share the mantra of making contribution through Time, Premium & Network on this episode.  Subscribe and...

When UK announced its intent to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, it became the first major country to make the net zero commitment. On this episode, we will listen to the work done by UK Fires, a research group sponsored by the UK government to support it in its transition towards the net zero goal. Dr André Cabrera Serrenho (University of Cambridge & UK Fires) joins Girish Shivakumar to ta...

So, during the COVID-19 lockdown, did you breathe some fresh air? If you live close to a river, maybe you saw a cleaner version of it. Or you may have also spotted some distant object, maybe even a mountain. India was no different. The air quality improved during the lockdown but how can India sustain this clean-air movement post COVID-19. Tanushree Ganguly a researcher from CEEW joins Girish Shiv...

The growth story of the global cleantech movement over the last few years has been phenomenal. But, COVID-19 has definitely thrown in a lot of uncertainties. Will it push the development back by a few years? Will this outbreak make companies, cities and countries think again on their sustainability targets, Paris Climate agreements and so on? What are the other lessons companies need to take to be...

In recent months COVID-19 has definitely had an impact on the global economy. This is the first episode of the series where the discussions will be around how COVID-19 will impact the global transition to the zero carbon economy.  On this episode, entrepreneurs Harsha Kuntur from EcoSoch Solar and Sishir Garemella from Sunvest Capital join Girish Shivakumar to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the...

The theme of this episode is water conservation. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is one of the focus areas as we transition to a zero carbon economy & access to clean water is a key SDG. Water purification as a service is the vision of OCEO water. How does technology enable this company reach its goal? Vikram Gulecha joins Girish Shivakumar on a conversation to share the story where i...

What made a software engineer get so passionate about planting trees on weekends? How did he then scale it up to create urban forests and more such projects? Listen to Kapil Sharma, founder of Say Trees share his story on this episode with Girish Shivakumar.  About Say Trees SayTrees is a professionally run group of ordinary people extraordinarily determined to protect the environment not just by...

Lalbagh is a botanical garden in the Indian city of Bengaluru. The two flower shows during the year see a footfall of around 600k each. In the last year the waste generation during the event was reduced to half. How it did happen? On this episode Girish Shivakumar interviews Rajalakshmi from Saahas, the group that is behind this success story. Subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcas...

Dr Rahul Walawalkar is an industry veteran and has been at the forefront of the energy technology transition and has a particular affinity towards energy storage. On this 25th episode of Mission Shunya podcast he joins Girish Shivakumar to share his story. Girish and Rahul collaborated to launch India’s first energy and clean-tech podcast, Emerging Tech Radio in 2017.  For more information check w...

Episode 24 is a tribute to the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant and all the people like him, heroes who inspire us every day. On this episode Girish Shivakumar brings to you guest stories from the podcast whose work was featured in the previous episodes. Listen in as they share the reason on why they started their work or their intrinsic motivations.  Liked the episode? Give it a rating and revi...

Did you know manufacturing a cotton t-shirt consumes around 2700L of water in the process?  On this episode, Kathir, co-founder of ecohike, a sustainable clothing company from India joins Girish Shivakumar to share his story of creating a new range of fabric that is made of recycled plastic.  To know more contact about ecohike www.ecohike.in   Mission Shunya covers all stories related to the trans...

On this week's episode Padmashree Balaram joins Girish Shivakumar to share the success story of building a waste to energy plant right in the heart of Bengaluru city in India. You can contact Padmashree at wastemaya@gmail.com  Follow Mission Shunya on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/mission-shunya/id1460138702 and other platforms  https://audioboom.com/channel/mission-shunya S...

The first episode of the new year and the new decade is here! Girish Shivakumar reviews the decade gone by and predicts the stories and trends that will shape the decade ahead. The transition to a zero carbon economy (Mission Shunya) is underway and this decade will accelerate the transition. Subscribe now to Mission Shunya on podcast platforms and social media channels to keep track of this trans...

On this episode Tony Juniper, a campaigner, writer, sustainability advisor and leading British environmentalist joins Girish Shivakumar to talk about the importance of tropical rainforests and the impact of amazon rainforest wildfires.   To know more about Tony’s work you can check his website www.tonyjuniper.com You can also follow him on Twitter @TonyJuniper .  You can send your feedback at miss...

Pay-As-You-Go Solar has revolutionised the way people get access to electricity in Africa. The emergence of new technology coupled with declining system costs has enabled the low income families in the developing world get access to electricity. On this episode Nikhil Nair shares his international experience in developing the business for M-Kopa with Girish Shivakumar.  More info at www.missionshu...

Neel Mathews shares his passionate story of building a house that is water and energy positive and also how he helps others achieve the same on this episode with Girish Shivakumar. More about Neel’s work and contact details at www.lifeislab.com   Links to subscribe to Mission Shunya podcast, give a feedback etc. available at www.missionshunya.com  

The Indian capital of Delhi and most of the regions in North India continue to choke post the monsoon season and it has peaked after Diwali. The pollutants are at dangerous levels outdoors but indoor air is also susceptible to a significant pollution. How do you combat indoor air pollution? Aayush Jha founder of Clairco, a startup that offers clean air as a service joins Girish Shivakumar to discu...