Dhruti Patel

With over 8 years of experience as a strategic sustainability professional, Dhruti Patel’s expertise is in sustainable operations, climate risk mitigation, and long-term decarbonization. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and her master’s degree in Energy Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2015, Dhruti was recognized as Chicago Scholar’s 35 Under 35 Young Professionals Making an Impact for her work in green education within Chicago Public Schools, and, in 2017, she was recognized as Midwest Energy News 40 Under 40 for her work on strategic decarbonization in operations. Now, Dhruti is a founding partner at Sustainafy, a guest lecturer at her Alma Mater, and writes blogs for Present Iteration.   

Rushva Parihar

Rushva Parihar is a Sustainability Coach with extensive experience working with individuals, corporates, institutions and governments designing planet-friendly programs. His work has spanned various sectors (fashion, health, wellness, petrochemicals, sanitation) and geographies (India, the United States, Ireland and the Netherlands), with a focus on championing environmental wellness from a multi-dimensional lens. Rushva is the founder of YWater, a queer-led, impact foundation that aims to catalyze young people to take action towards achieving the SDGs. He has also worked with the United Nations to develop frameworks for multinational enterprises to invest in the Global Development Challenges in Emerging Markets, and with the Department of Science and Technology on designing village-level policy for the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Campaign in India. Currently, Rushva serves as advisor to various impact-focuses initiatives including BioRiidll where he mentors startups working on the SDGs, and the Professional Development Program at Brunel University. He is a two-time TedX speaker and the curator of the Global Shaper Mumbai hub with the World Economic Forum.