The pace at which we are causing climate change will require an army of climate change warriors who are passionate about addressing environmental problems !
Dhruv Jhaveri, our next pathbreaker, Analyst – Client Solutions at Coho, an ERM Group company, helps organizations reduce enterprise-wide emissions, switch to clean energy, and improve water resiliency.
Dhruv talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about realizing the significance of energy justice early on in his career, which led him to a career in addressing energy access challenges in a sustainable manner .
For students, you should evaluate your career choices based on the societal impact of your work, rather than what the market wants !
Dhruv, what were your initial years like?
I grew up in a lower middle-class family in Mumbai, India. None of my grandparents and parents were educated beyond class 12. While some would say that it is easier to start a career with a blank slate, I sure as hell did not find that easy. I was always good at studies, and was always taught that studies would unshackle me (and my family) from all financial burdens. But you need finances to get educated – so, how do you break the vicious loop? I relied on part-time jobs, scholarships, and loans from close family members to fund most of my education. I liked chemistry, so I thought the closest alternative after class 12 was chemical engineering (which, I was way wrong, by the way!).
Chemistry =! Chemical engineering
Either way, I did cherish the four years of undergraduate education in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Here, I met the best professors, made the best friends, and learned the best life lessons. I wanted to study more, perhaps a Master’s abroad, but realized two things – (A) I did not have the money (the same vicious loop again) and (B) I wasn’t sure what I wanted to study further. Hence, I set myself up with a 3-year target to achieve both A and B. I took the first job I was offered, Supply Chain Engineer at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Mumbai. This job, in addition to being one of the harshest field job (with multiple shifts, spanning 12 to 16 hrs round the clock), helped me with three things: (i) Helped me save and fund my future education (government job = well-paying job), (ii) being in a refinery and overlooking the entire supply chain, made me fall in love with energy as a subject, (ii) helped me gain the most valuable, unique and inside out perspective of the following 5 words (which you might be seeing in the news quite a lot recently) – “just and equitable energy transition”.
This, altogether, gave me the sense and purpose (and the $$) to pursue my master’s degree in environmental management from Duke University, USA.
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Now, I know there are a lot of words on this page, with several more to follow. And there is a high chance you are skimming this interview. I know I have only a few seconds to catch your attention. Hence, while you read through this, I’ll try to create little snapshots to keep you up to speed with my life, which by the way, isn’t any different than an ordinary person’s life. But by doing this, I want to show you how you can connect the dots in your life. And if you are someone who’s in the process of applying for higher education, applying for scholarships, switching careers, or just someone who accidentally opened this page – this will help you carve out a story for yourself, which is as unique as I’ll make my life sound.
So, here’s the snapshot:
Lower middle-class family 🡪 no money, but liked education 🡪 liked chemistry, did chemical engineering (lol!) 🡪 first job at BPCL
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Oh, and if you are not skimming and reading this in its entirety – I genuinely thank you (I really do!) for allowing me to share my life journey with you. In case you like (or dislike) anything here, or have a question I could answer, or just want to say hi, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhruvjhaveri/.
I promise to give you the attention you are giving me today!
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What did you do for graduation/post graduation?
In India, if you are good at studies, you are left with 2 common choices – engineering or medicine (sorry, law, arts, and architecture – but believe me, you people rock!). With such a complicated decision at hand, I chose to again listen to the second most common phrase – “Do engineering now; if you don’t like it, you can always switch” (oh hell, switch did I, but more on that later). So I picked chemical engineering, because, you guessed it right – I was good at chemistry. Bringing all the lawyers, artists, and architects back to the table – I sincerely wished I had some elements of social/political sciences in my coursework. Now that I work in the sustainability space, I do a lot of work analyzing policies, social development, and smart infrastructure. So again, lawyers, artists, and architects – you people rock!
However, I still do not regret my chemical engineering coursework. It gave me exposure to how fundamental energy and environmental systems work – for example, hydrogen energy, biofuels, atmospheric/climate systems, etc. Working at BPCL later exposed me to the intricacies of global supply chains, environmental regulations, and nuanced concepts such as energy justice. All these together prompted me to learn more about this field of climate and sustainability. It ultimately contributed to getting me to Duke to study for my master’s degree in environmental management.
For all you skimmers, here’s a snapshot:
Lower middle-class family 🡪 no money, but liked education 🡪 liked chemistry, did chemical engineering 🡪 first job at BPCL 🡪 started liking energy and environmental sustainability
Tell us, how did you end up in such an offbeat, unconventional and unusual career?
Looking at where I am today, I have one regret – “I wish I knew about sustainability (as a career definitely, but more so, as a topic).”
I’m sure all of us have studied environmental studies (aka “EVS”) as a topic in school/colleges. However, I never realized the wider financial, economic, and political implications of the topic. The biggest drivers for me to get introduced to these aspects were:
- My job at BPCL – where I saw first-hand the plight of the workers and how their livelihood completely depended on the refinery. That’s when I realized the horrible truth – “the people who are most affected by climate change, depend on climate change for their livelihood”. This is also when I came across the word – energy justice, which basically means equitable, affordable, and accessible energy for all. The fact that more than 50% of the world’s energy is being used by the richest, 10% of the people should justify the fact that this needs attention.
- My realization that the problem of energy justice is harder to imagine and even harder to solve. It demands a solution that encompasses ethical and social considerations. The debate is about economic growth vs. ecological growth, along with rich vs. the poor, and also the Global North vs. the Global South. The social pyramid on which our world functions is going to make this problem even more obstinate. As poor people become richer, they burn more carbon, which in turn, affects a new set of poor people. The rich are less vulnerable to climate change than the poor. And the loop somewhat looks like this –
(This is the second type of vicious circle that I hate, by the way)
Again, my job at BPCL – gave me a good high-level overview of energy and environmental regulations, and global supply chains. This became my Pandora’s box. The more I read about it, the more I liked it, and the more I wanted to read about it (now, this is the kind of vicious circle that I like!)
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted?
Right after my undergraduate degree and during my first job, I realized one thing – “I wanted to be an expert in something”. I hadn’t figured out anything yet, but my mindset was clear. I wanted to learn something that I love and love something that I’m learning. Sustainability emerged as that “something” for me.
Ofcourse, I didn’t want to dive into it head-first before testing the waters. I came across a conference at Harvard University called the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) that had a track on energy and the environment. I applied for it and got selected. This was a pivotal moment as I came across several experts, professionals, and thought leaders in the sustainability space. Hearing from them about their careers and life story was an inspiration for me to pursue that “something”.
Now, just to dismiss the rhetoric of “the grass being greener on the side”, I had to actually get to the other side and test the grass myself. That required something radical, and that for me was quitting my full-time job (which, remember, helped me with A, B, and C above). I took up an internship with the Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), and started working on a hydrogen energy project. Back then, we were looking at supporting the National Hydrogen Energy Mission of the Govt. of India. My work entailed looking at the global supply chains and developing a hydrogen cost model that could inform future hydrogen policies. As such, the work perfectly combined my previous academic and professional background, along with exposing me to the nuances of renewable energy consulting. This was the final nail – I enjoyed each and every moment of my work, knowing that I’m working towards a better world. I was sure of my “something” now, but realized that I did not know anything about it.
That’s when I decided to pursue my masters and learn everything and anything that is possible within the sustainability umbrella. I started looking for scholarships and universities that offer scholarships. I was fortunate enough to land at Duke University, with a merit scholarship based on my application. It seems that having some work experience before your masters really helps you carve a story better. For instance, my family background, plus working in a petroleum refinery, plus having knowledge of global energy supply chains really adds up when you are applying for a masters program in environmental management (my specialization at Duke was in energy, by the way).
In addition, I also received for the JN Tata Foundation scholarship. Again, I think my story helped me here. Here’s the critical thing – I believe, everyone reading this has a unique story. Maybe you have figured it out, or maybe you haven’t. It’s a retrospective exercise where you need to look back and connect all the dots in your life and tie it up to the future goal you seek. Do not write an objective application – one that has facts, one after the other. Rather, contextualize all those facts about your life into a story, giving it meaning and purpose. That should make your application stand out.
While at Duke, I tried taking as many courses to learn as many things as possible in two years. I took up several projects, as well as, teaching and research assistantships. For one such research project, we were looking at impacts of solar mini-grids and smart irrigation systems on agricultural production in rural Ethiopia. That required looking at ground-level community engagement, developing surveys, and analyzing large datasets. In another consulting project, we were helping a hydrogen storage and distribution company expand its footprint across the value chain, and also geographically. Using an M&A framework, we developed a market expansion strategy for our client.
After my first year at Duke, I was awarded the Environmental Defense Funds’ Climate Corps Fellowship, through which I got an opportunity to work at Amazon.com. I did two things here – (i) completed an energy audit of two of their facilities, and (ii) developed an emissions reduction and decarbonization strategy. For my masters project at Duke, we were working with a consulting firm, where we evaluated the the relationship between public charging station deployment and electric vehicles (EV) adoption. While at Duke, I also got the opportunity to be part of the Duke University delegation to COPs (these are the United Nations Conference of Parties; COP26 was held in Glasgow, Scotland, and COP27 was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt). These international conferences further expanded my horizon in the world of climate change.
In case you are skimming this, here’s a snapshot of where I am:
Lower middle-class family 🡪 no money, but liked education 🡪 liked chemistry, did chemical engineering 🡪 first job at BPCL 🡪 started liking energy and environmental sustainability 🡪 quit job, did internships 🡪 got scholarships, did masters 🡪 deliberately tried to work on several diverse topics (energy access, hydrogen energy, decarbonization, electric vehicles, international climate policy)
How did you get your first break?
I started liking everything that I was learning in the sustainability space at Duke University – carbon markets, GHG accounting, climate/energy technologies, electric vehicles, and international climate policy. I soon realized that fitting everything into one job would be difficult. Hence, I started looking at sustainability consulting companies where I can further learn as many things as possible, as quickly as possible. That landed me at Coho Climate Advisors (now an ERM Group Company), which essentially enables me to work across a breadth of topics.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1:
As mentioned above, I came from a lower middle class background. In addition to being a primary earner in the house, I had to work in continuous rotational shifts, while also simultaneously saving enough money to fund my future education. This trifecta of challenges took a heavy toll on me, physically and mentally. But the greater goal of being the best in the field that I wanted to work in kept me going.
Challenge 2:
Moving to the US wasn’t easy – switching careers, a new country, and away from family can again take a heavy toll, both physically and mentally. I was fortunate to have close friends already in the US to guide me and support me.
Challenge 3
Every field has its own challenges. But when you are switching a field, there is always a steep learning curve. Plus, the challenge of networking and finding a job is taxing. Hence, I’ll reiterate by rephrasing something I mentioned above – “learn something you love, and love something you learn”.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
At Coho Climate Advisors (an ERM Group Company), I support data analysis, research, and solution development throughout client engagements. We help organizations reduce enterprise-wide emissions, switch to clean energy, and improve water resiliency. I heavily use my subject matter expertise in the field of sustainability, which I gained over the years, to solve challenging problems for our clients. My typical day involves a lot of market research and then converting all of that into actionable insights for our clients. These days, many corporations want to lower their carbon footprint and switch to renewable energy sources, but very few know how to do. That’s where we come in, advising and hand-holding our clients to develop a strategy and then implement it, the best way possible. I love the fact that we are creating greater societal impact, by being a catalyst for organizations unaware/unfamiliar with the sustainability world.
So, in case you are still skimming, here is where I am, as of Dec 2023, figuring out the next “something” in my life:
Lower middle-class family 🡪 no money, but liked education 🡪 liked chemistry, did chemical engineering 🡪 first job at BPCL 🡪 started liking energy and environmental sustainability 🡪 quit job, did internships 🡪 got scholarship, did masters 🡪 deliberately tried to work on several diverse topics (energy access, hydrogen energy, decarbonization, electric vehicles, international climate policy) 🡪 working at Coho Climate Advisors 🡪 next something?
How does your work benefit society?
I feel motivated by the work I do – every passing day, every passing night – knowing that we are helping our clients achieve meaningful, real-life impact on climate change and water sustainability.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
Not there yet, and I wouldn’t want one work to triumph over the other. Everything we do, every little thing, adds up to the greater cause of fighting climate change.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
Two things:
- Climate change is no longer a distant reality. It is right here, and it is here to stay (atleast for a while). The pace at which we are causing climate change will require an army of climate change warriors. If you are passionate about doing something about this – don’t worry about your job, grades, etc. There is a job for you. There are plenty of jobs out there.
- If you love something, go deep and try learning more about it. Be a specialist in something you love. The world has enough generalists; we need more specialists!
Future Plans?
I want to learn as many things as possible as quickly as possible. And then find that one thing within sustainability that I can become an expert in! That will be my second layer of “something”!