Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
Rajneesh Sareen is an experienced professional in environmental management and sustainable operations, currently serving as Programme Director for the Sustainable Habitat Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi since October 2016. Prior roles include Deputy Head of Sustainability at the British High Commission in New Delhi, Resource Conservation Specialist at the US Embassy, and Regional Greening Manager at the British High Commission, among others. Rajneesh has a strong background in carbon footprint assessment, energy and water efficiency, green buildings, and waste management. Previous experience also includes coordinating climate change impacts on freshwater ecosystems at WWF-India and working on waste management and environmental assessments at IRG Systems South Asia Pvt. Ltd. Rajneesh holds a Master’s degree in Environment from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Guru Nanak Dev University.
Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable. The scenario today demands using knowledge to bring about change. In other words, working India’s democracy. This is what we aim to do.The challenge, we see, is two-pronged. On the one hand, millions live within a biomass based subsistence economy, at the margins of survival. The environment is their only natural asset. But a degraded environment means stress on land, water and forest resources for survival. It means increasing destitution and poverty. Here, opportunity to bring about change is enormous.But it will need a commitment to reform – structural reform- in the way we do business with local communities. On the other hand, rapid industrialization is throwing up new problems: growing toxification and a costly disease burden. The answers will be in reinventing the growth model of the Western world for ourselves, so that we can leapfrog technology choices and find new ways of building wealth that will not cost us the earth. Our aim is to raise these concerns, participate in seeking answers and in pushing for answers, transforming these into policy and so practice. We do this through our research and by communicating our understanding through our publications. We call this knowledge-based activism. We hope we will make a difference.