Ashoka-Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Blogs
Stitching Sustainability Into Strategy: My Fellowship Journey with Climate Corps
Sustainability has always been a thread in my journey, whether it was experimenting with natural dyeing techniques during my fashion design degree at NIFT Chennai or diving into sustainable business strategy at IIM Mumbai. But I wanted to push further, beyond classroom learning and hands-on design, to see how large-scale sustainability systems actually work in practice.
That’s what drew me to the Ashoka-Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellowship. It felt like the perfect next step, a bridge between my creative roots and the analytical rigor needed to solve real-world climate challenges. Being placed with ReNew gave me a front-row seat to see climate action unfold across emissions, water, and culture. I joined eager to connect purpose with practice—and I leave with a deeper sense of both.
Building the Backbone of Climate Action
At ReNew, my work spanned three interconnected projects, each showing me a different side of sustainability in action.
- Emissions: I developed a company-wide GHG Emissions Management Manual aligned with frameworks like the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. The challenge was to make it both technically robust and easy enough for different teams to actually use—turning policy into practice.
- Water: Using WRI Aqueduct tools, I assessed water risk and consumption across 10 business units. The findings were stark—67% of sites were in extremely high water-stressed regions, including key manufacturing hubs. This insight highlighted operational vulnerabilities and the urgent need for localized resilience strategies.
- People: I co-structured ReNew’s Climate Champions program, which channels employee enthusiasm into climate action by aligning passions with ESG goals. Alongside this, I helped design the company’s World Environment Day campaign—multi-site activities and themed competitions that reminded me that culture change is as vital as carbon reduction.
Across all three projects, the biggest learning was clear: sustainability cannot succeed in silos. Strategy, data, and people must work together.
Beyond Reporting: Turning Data and Culture Into Action
This fellowship expanded both my technical toolkit and my personal clarity. I now know what it takes to build the backbone of corporate climate action—from emissions tracking systems to internal engagement models.
But more importantly, I realised sustainability is not just about reporting. It is about translating data into decisions, culture into action, and strategy into accountability.
Carrying It Forward
As I look ahead, I feel even more motivated to pursue a career at the intersection of creativity, climate, and strategy. Whether it’s helping companies decarbonize or embedding sustainability deep within fashion and supply chains, I now carry the confidence, tools, and community to take on that challenge.
The Climate Corps Fellowship was not just a project. It was a step into the kind of future I want to help create, one where creativity and strategy come together to power climate action at scale.
Article by Poornaashri Indirabala (Climate Corps Fellow 2025, ReNew)
