Sustainability is a Personal Journey – Vishal Mehta

Sustainability is a many-splendored thing

There are many ways to act locally on climate and protect our planet. I split my time living in Davis, in Bangalore, and yes, even a small orchard in rural southern India – where I hope to work on understanding and promoting organic agriculture. Sustainability to me is not much more than doing the right thing for our planet and its inhabitants, no matter what sector, field, or job you’re in.

Early Influences

I have worked on conservation and environmental protection for a long time. I guess this essay is mostly me asking myself: why? The answer does not follow a straight

path. But it did begin in my childhood. I grew up in a big city, Bangalore/Bengaluru in southern India. My holidays were spent camping and hiking in the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot that remains my favorite place in the world. I encountered, and later sought, wild elephants on the banks of the Kaveri River. This formed my lifelong passion for conservation. But who guided me— knowingly or not— to that path? That would be my brother, who is 6 years older. As a pre-teen, I pestered him to let me hang out with his friends. I look back now, and realize there was no turning back from those first steps.

Make it count where you live

As an undergraduate, I worked on off-grid energy solutions in the Western Ghats for small communities. Meanwhile, my own city was growing out of control. Back then, it was a ‘small city’ at 4.7 million (now the Bangalore metropolitan area is 12 million). That’s when I started intentionally working locally too – I could not ignore the problems where I lived. Since then, I’ve worked on micro hydropower, hydrology and water resources planning, groundwater sustainability, and climate adaptation and planning in several countries, including some 15+ years of work in California.

Mentorship

I’ve been fortunate to have many mentors along the way – from my brother, to my undergraduate professor in appropriate technology in India, to my graduate advisors at Cornell University, and colleagues in my professional career. I’m fortunate to also have played a mentorship role. But you know what? There will always be mentors, new and old, in my continuing journey. And I will play my most important mentorship role for my daughter Maya, now 12, who with her peers will face a changed planet in their lifetimes.

And so to Cool Davis…

When I left the non-profit I had been working with after 15 years, I wanted to reconnect at a very local level. Much of my work had been at county or larger scale. I also wanted to go back to my interest in energy, and to learn how I could reduce my own home energy footprint. That’s how I came to Cool Davis. Cool Davis has given me the opportunity to learn and engage with a diverse group of people where I make my US home. It has also taught me about how I might help this local community-based organization achieve its goals. In parallel, I think about how such organizations would be invaluable back in Bangalore, India.

I’d like to ask you to think about your own sustainability journey. I hope these prompts will help:

• There are people who influenced me throughout my journey trying to appreciate this beautiful planet of ours. While I was influenced as a child, you can be influenced at any time in your life. Who has influenced you, how did it come about?
• I was a city slicker, working on sustainability ‘in other places’, like rural environments. I made a conscious choice in my 20’s to also work locally on climate and environmental action in every place I lived. That has now brought me to volunteer with Cool Davis.
  • What local actions do you aspire to?

• • Would you like to be a mentor too?

• • We can work on many aspects of sustainability. Can you think of at least three different areas you would like to tackle? 

I’d like to end by sharing some ways in which you can help our very own local Cool Davis Foundation. We have a need for volunteers in the following areas:

• Board Leadership: help guide Cool Davis’ mission by serving as a board member, and working with governance, operations, community relations, or programs committees.
• Administration: provide support with data analytics, communications, fundraising, and other administrative tasks.
• Home Energy or Transportation Champion: if you’re passionate about home energy efficiency or sustainable transportation, become a Champion and help educate and advocate for solutions to your friends and neighbors!
• General Outreach: make an appearance at the Davis Farmers Market or a local Cool Davis pop-up to spread the word about sustainable Home Energy, Transportation, Climate Ready Neighborhoods, and Community Engagement.

  

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If you liked Vishal’s Sustainability Story, be sure to check out fellow board members Jason and Kristin’s stories about connection and climate action!