Chhaya Bhanti

Artist, Brainstormer, Change Agent, Designer, Environmentalist, Filmmaker, Idea generator, Photographer, Social entrepreneur, Startup

Chhaya grew up in Udaipur, Rajasthan then landed in New York City to work as a brand strategist, art director, designer, filmmaker and clean technology consultant. It was while working as Executive Vice President at Assouline, the luxury publishing and creative agency in Europe and the US, that Chhaya developed a strong interest in connecting brand strategy and the visual arts with environmental action. Leaving her job to pursue an MBA in Sustainability, Chhaya became actively involved in sustainability ventures—she helped create the concept for a 60,000 square foot sustainability center in New York City, developed the brand and marketing strategy for a solar/wind Hybrid street light startup, developed a green printing division for a graphics company, created brand strategy for a GHG gas reclamation and destruction company, performed a life cycle assessment for Williams Sonoma and worked as VP Development for a third-generation PhotoVoltaic manufacturing startup in Silicon Valley. In 2011, Chhaya founded The Environmental Collective, a multi-disciplinary advisory agency that works both in India and the U.S. Chhaya also co-founded Sanjhi, an NGO in Rajasthan, that works with rural and urban youth on environmental advocacy through creative tools of photography and film. Sanjhi conducted the first ever National Geographic photo camp for rural youth in india in January '09.

Low carbon technologies, affordable design that improves lives, rural innovation, conservation rituals and spiritual practices, brand communication,

Develop a virtual map of all environmental issues in India then apply Dana Meadows' Points of Intervention in a system to visualize all "leverage points" where technologies, business models, behavior change and other interventions can catalyze significant change. Make the map available publicly and embed disparate efforts being conducted at a single point so as to let people assess where to apply their efforts in the complex sustainability value chain....

brand strategy, clean technology product development, Storytelling

making rural children feel empowered with communication tools and creating business strategies that catalyze positive environmental action from within an organization