Teacher Profile: Pooja Chawda
Pooja Chawda is currently working at Meta as Sustainability Program Manager for Information Technology Procurement. Previously, she worked at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), analyzing the regulatory environment to support the development of policies and strategies under the Climate and Community Protection Act, and driving engagement in emerging efficiency, electrification, and carbon assessments policy.
Before joining NYSERDA, she worked for the United Nations for nearly 10 years and briefly served at the World Bank. At the United Nations, she was able to gain an in-depth understanding of global sustainability policy, supported various projects around climate and sustainable supply chains, and interacted with numerous industry groups, governments and multinational corporations.She is alum Columbia University’s Master of Sustainability Management (SUMA) program.
Chawda, now an adjunct faculty member, will teach one of the most popular courses in the SUMA program: Theoretical and Practical Life Cycle Assessment.
What initially motivated you to pursue the field of sustainability?
Since my former career at the United Nations and what first led me to join the organization, I have strongly believed in helping disadvantaged communities gain basic livelihoods and the means to live in dignity. I work with war-torn communities to support sustainable development by helping former warring parties become law-abiding citizens. I’ve always been drawn to environmental stewardship. Starting in 2013, with the grim news surrounding the IPCC and other global warnings, I realized the urgent need to set ambitious emissions reduction targets.
After working in this field for ten years, I realize that the main way to achieve emissions reductions is to address scope 3 emissions in a company’s value chain. To address Scope 3 emissions reductions, companies should be able to set and achieve emissions reduction targets across their value chain to reduce their carbon footprint by using levers such as switching to renewable energy, using more sustainable materials and identifying emissions hotspots. This will allow us to lower our carbon footprint and move towards the 2030 global goals set by the United Nations.
So, for me, it’s all really connected, and that’s what brought me into the sustainability space and continues to be present in all the work I do — because I realize now that we can’t just be “Neutral” here. Ensuring global suppliers and value chains understand our goals is critical. I am honored to contribute to sustainable sourcing in challenging and complex times.
What attracted you to the Sustainability Management Program?
After nearly a decade of working in foreign policy and diplomacy, I figured out the governance aspects of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) relationship. Likewise, having a BA in Communication and spending most of my life outside of my country of origin has deepened my understanding of the social aspects of how humans function and our responsibilities to each other. When I applied to the Sustainability Management program, I had extensive global experience in ‘Social and Governance’ in ESG relations, but I lacked the environmental/scientific perspective from a sustainability perspective, which for me was complete relationship. The course combined with intensive STEM classes from leading practitioners created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to hone these skills.
What courses will you teach and what interests you most?
I will teach theoretical and practical Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a method of assessing the environmental impact of products, services and industrial processes, an increasingly important tool for companies to address their Scope 3 emissions. This course teaches the theoretical framework and step-by-step practical guide to performing LCA in any organization. The course also covers the application of LCA metrics to corporate management and discusses methodological flaws that make such application difficult, including how to overcome them. I am excited to help students gain insight into life cycle assessment and its connection to corporate sustainability, as well as gain insight into scope 3 emissions in the life cycle of products and services. Students will explore LCA technologies, industrial ecology and innovation in the following industries critical to the climate economy: semiconductors, solar energy, energy storage, vehicle electrification, circularity. By the end of this course, students will be able to independently complete an ISO-compliant life cycle assessment.
What changes do you hope to see in the future of sustainability?
We face many headwinds – including supply chain shortages, infrastructure needs and resource allocation, and having reliable data to make decisions. I would like to be able to improve the quality of data related to vendor specific emissions. There are also tensions between supply chain constraints and the decoupling of emissions from business growth. It is my hope that supply chains can become more flexible due to process efficiencies and collective industry collaboration. It all comes down to building strong foundational relationships to ensure that we maintain momentum and that our stakeholders push us to achieve the greatest emissions reductions that translate into action plans. Hopefully all of these aspects will add to the reductions that really matter.
What advice do you have for students?
From my first day at Columbia, I found it useful to think about sustainability in two ways: keeping up with the industry and honing my technical skills. Keeping up with industry-leading practices is important to truly understand what can be done to reduce carbon emissions, energy efficiency, water, and more. This can be very helpful in laying the groundwork for your own sustainability journey. Honing your technical skills and relying on data that has tremendous power to drive your decisions can complement your analytical thinking well and bring you from a truly strategic place. We need every voice and idea to see us keep temperatures well below 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2030.
