Alba’s
Sustainable Encounters
DECONSTRUCTING
the Architecture
of Impact.
www.planetalba.biz
JULY ISSUE 2025
The Systemic
Shift
ALBERT SCHILLER
The relentless pursuit of a sustainable future demands solutions and requires
clarity. Welcome to this July edition of Alba’s Sustainable Encounters, where we
continue our mission to unearth the unvarnished truths and insights from those
actively shaping our planetary destiny.
This issue introduces you to a group of experts and leaders, each with a unique
perspective on sustainability. You will meet Abhishek Khapre, the bioengineer
transforming waste into resources, demonstrating the circular economy’s prag
matism at scale. Srishti Chhatwal, the architect of inclusion, challenges conven
tional wisdom by designing with humanity at the core to enable empathetic
engagement. Mehak Singla illuminates this path, translating intuitive connec
tions to nature into quantifiable blueprints for India’s national green economy.
We delve deeper with Lipi Gandhi, whose human-centric approach to sustain
able design redefines individual realities. Arghya Chakrabarty emerges as the
philosophical ecologist who is bridging complex scientific insights with cultural
nuance and firm policy.
Our Cover Story, Bijan Mishra, a veteran orchestrating practical sustainable
transformation, showcases how decades of experience prove that responsible
industrial output and environmental stewardship are compatible and reinforce
the fundamental principle of livelihood.
Every narrative within these pages confirms a critical insight: progress is forged
where intellect meets courage, where strategic thought is anchored in authentic
purpose, and where the most complex challenges yield to the relentless pursuit
of meaningful solutions. Lean into these encounters. That is where enduring
transformation resides.
– Albert Schiller, CEO & Founder, Planet Alba BiZ
An Architecture
for Understanding
Information is ubiquitous. Genuine understanding is rare. Most media is
designed for passive consumption, a frictionless flow of content that is easily
absorbed and just as easily forgotten. This is not our purpose. True insight is not
absorbed; it is constructed. It requires a deliberate engagement between the
material and the mind.
At Alba’s Sustainable Encounters, we have built an architecture to facilitate this
process. We do not just provide information but provide the tools to build it into
lasting knowledge.
This architecture has two layers:
1. The Framework for Self-Assessment
At the conclusion of each article, you will find a set of questions. They are a
structured tool designed for a single purpose: to allow you to deconstruct the
core arguments, verify your own comprehension, and synthesize the essential
concepts. This is a private, rigorous exercise for your own intellectual benefit.
2. The Application of Knowledge: The ASE Monthly Challenge
Separate from the individual article questions is the ASE Monthly Challenge.
This is the application of your synthesized knowledge. The Challenge consists
of a selection of multiple-choice questions drawn from all the encounters in this
issue. It is a crucible for your integrated understanding, testing your ability to
retain and connect complex ideas from diverse fields.
Here, the incentive is aligned with our mission. The top three ranked partici
pants will have trees planted in their name. This is our commited direct trans
lation of intellectual effort into tangible, ecological action. (1st Place: 10 trees;
2nd Place: 6 trees; 3rd Place: 3 trees, certified and free for you to share with
your community).
Our Uncompromised Commitment
This entire architecture including the in-depth articles, the analytical tools, the
ad-free experience, the deep dive complementary blog ecosystem, is built on a
foundation of absolute integrity. This focused environment is possible for one
reason: it is funded by you, our readers.
We are not beholden to advertisers, sponsors, or any external agenda. Our com
mitment is exclusively to the reader and to the clarity of the ideas we present.
We provide this unburdened space so your thought process can be the only
thing that matters.
We invite you to engage fully. The value is not just in the reading, but in the
thinking that follows.
Table of Content
The Grand Aligner. Orchestrating
The Practical Sustainable
Transformation.
p.10
p.26
p.46
p.62
p.80
p.96
The Human Equation.
Designing for a Living Planet.
The Meltingpod of Science,
Culture, and Governance.
The Integrity of our Choices.
The Entrepreneur's Green Horizon.
The Relativity of Waste.
An Unconventional Path
to National Transformation.
The Purpose-Driven Path. From
Observation to Conviction.
Bijan Mishra
Srishti Chhatwal
Arghya Chakrabarty
Dr. Abhishek Khapre
Mehak Singla
Lipi Gandhi
10
The Grand Aligner.
MY SUSTAINABLE ENCOUNTER WITH BIJAN MISHRA
By Albert Schiller
Orchestrating the Practical Sustainable
Transformation.
What timeless principle underpins a 35-year career, proving that sustainability
is an enduring blueprint for profit? Bijan Mishra’s illustrious journey has been
instrumental in shaping India’s evolving sustainability landscape. His path began
not with a predefined mission, but through immersion within diverse industri
al segments, including mining, thermal power stations, renewables, and steel
plants. During this tenure, he first realized sustainability would become “more
than just work”, evolving into a core identity. He observed that in a country like
India, where “opportunities and learnings come every day”, one could directly
“correlate the output or the productivity with the sustainability”. This correla
tion became fundamental, as he understood that sustainability “has to go in the
long run”.
From India’s unique perspective, he recognized that “everything... is related to
livelihood”. This insight was pivotal: “When you are taking care of the livelihood
of the things, then you have to take care of the nature as well”. This established
the linkage between “resource, productivity, livelihood, and the damage”. His
career initially involved researching the “health aspects of livestock” impacted
by pollution from thermal power stations and various industrial activities. This
early work, investigating emissions and their impact on the “life cycle impacting
the bovines and comes to the human life chain”, triggered a crucial thought. He
questioned “whether these learnings could be transferred into understanding
and implementing the different management techniques, plans, and technolog
ical innovations” within industries that significantly contributed to environmen
tal degradation. This foundational research ultimately facilitated his shift from a
specialized project to large-scale industry engagement.
The Genesis of a Sustainable Calling
“Sustainability has to go in the long run.”
11
12
Navigating Global Standards:
Aligning Local Practices with International Mandates
Modern industry operates within an increasingly intricate web of environmen
tal and social guidelines, spanning regional, national, and global levels. Bijan
Mishra’s expertise lies precisely in helping companies navigate this complexity.
He observes that international multilateral lending agencies provide compre
hensive guidelines that are “more or less a better refinement of the existing
regulatory requirements” of host countries. The fundamental challenge, then,
becomes understanding how the “host country regulatory requirement” can ef
fectively relate to these international agencies’ demands. This necessitates a
nuanced interpretation and strategic foresight, moving beyond compliance to
genuine alignment with global best practices and evolving sustainability imper
atives.
13
Bijan’s core methodology involves creating a “comparative matrix between
the local and international requirements” to “align them”. He understands that
achieving “100% alignment” is often impossible. In such scenarios, his team im
plements a tailored “management plan” structured with “key performance in
dex as a key per result. Area here is with a budgetary provision”. Companies
adopt this plan with a “clear-cut vision” to implement local activities in a practice
that ensures they “come up to par with the global need or requirement, or the
guidelines”. This systematic approach rigorously translates aspirational global
standards into actionable, locally tailored practices, fostering live adoption and
measurable progress.
This process, however, is “challenging”, particularly due to the “budgetary provi
sion which is getting affected by the production lines as well, and the business
revenues”. Bijan notes a common disconnect: “finance people” often prioritize
short-term gains over long-term strategic value. Furthermore, anchoring sus
tainable structures against managerial shifts is difficult, as new leadership fre
quently questions established plans, asking “why do we need to spend?” or “Can
we postpone it?”. Yet, Bijan emphasizes that “everything is related to business
perspective”. Sustainable business practices necessitate addressing environ
mental, health, safety, social, and governance issues “at one go”, with proactive
leadership’s unwavering commitment being paramount, as “governance comes
from the top management”.
Anchoring Resilience: Sustaining Change
Amidst Managerial Shifts and Digital Transformation
Anchoring sustainable structures within organizations requires profound resil
ience, especially when confronted with inevitable managerial shifts. Bijan notes
that it is “a very typical thing” for the thought process to change when “the man
agement changes or the key position changes”. New leadership frequently ques
tions established plans, asking pertinent questions such as “Why do we need to
spend?” or “Can we postpone it?”. Bijan emphasizes the necessity of anticipating
and addressing these concerns beforehand. This proactive approach ensures
that environmental and social management plans, including those developed to
stringent international standards, maintain their strategic priority amidst shifting
organizational landscapes. Success hinges on a clear-cut vision that aligns with
the new management’s priorities from the outset.
14
15
16
“Everything is related to the business perspective.”
Beyond managerial dynamics, modern sustainability also demands a robust ap
proach to digital transformation. Bijan points out a common misunderstanding:
many operations personnel believe “digitization is nothing but an Excel sheet”.
This misperception, he admits, “pains” him, as he has witnessed the profound
transition from manual “drawing board” calculations to sophisticated software
systems. He highlights the “painful” reality of conveying the speed and effi
ciency of digital tools. Even if a “windows diagram” can be generated in “2 min”
by software, the underlying calculations and “prevalent wind direction” remain
opaque to those focused purely on output. This gap in understanding hinders
effective adoption.
Bijan’s approach is to demonstrate digitalization’s long-term strategic value
beyond mere reporting. He shows companies how digitalizing sustainability
practices contributes directly to their “long-term impact on Earth” and opera
tional excellence. It enables benchmarking against peers, monitoring “energy
17
Orchestrating Stakeholder Engagement: Trust in Conflict Zones
In the complex theatre of large-scale projects, particularly in “conflict zones
like fragile Himalayas,” effective stakeholder engagement demands a mastery
of intricate negotiation. Bijan Mishra recounts an intense hydropower project
that initially stalled, revealing “the intensity or the gravity” of its challenges. The
project involved many stakeholders, from “local villagers to the government au
thorities, the policy makers, the permit license authority, and IFC,” along with
designers and the Judiciary Court. Villagers held “biased opinion[s] by their po
litically motivated thought process of losing livelihood,” while policymakers de
bated project types and investors worried about their committed capital. It was
“a chaos for almost one and a half years”, even leading to a “legal battle in the
court”.
Bijan’s approach to such profound discord is a testament to his unique capacity
for orchestration. He navigated this multi-faceted conflict through persistent
stakeholder engagement, tirelessly “fight[ing] a legal battle in the court” and
convincing the judicial system of the project’s necessity. The project, deemed
“a requirement” to “support the grid system with a stable power of 200 mega
watt,” eventually gained judicial approval. The ultimate validation of his method
arrived when the villagers, initially “stunned with the project”, stated in the judi
cial system: “Yes, we want this project to happen, and this is going to enhance
our livelihood and support the systems”. This outcome, turning initial opposition
into active support, embodies a core philosophical principle: genuine resolu
tion emerges not from imposing solutions but from patient interpretation and
alignment of seemingly irreconcilable interests, demonstrating how practical di
alogue can bridge deep divides.
Building and maintaining trust with local communities over long project time
frames, particularly with villagers who may “think week to week or day to day,”
is a perpetual challenge. Bijan acknowledges the extreme volatility: “you never
know what is going to happen tomorrow morning. It is very dicey.” Agreements
consumption” patterns, and understanding real-time performance against de
sign criteria. He stresses: “Do not consider it a recording in progress. You take
it in the sense that I also want to excel in my business scenario.” For Bijan, the
essence of digitization in sustainability is its capacity to “enhance the business
operational prospect”, moving beyond PR. His experience indicates that once
people comprehend how sustainability practices, enabled by digital tools, “make
money for us,” 99% of them agree with me.
18
19
“You never know what is going to happen tomorrow
morning. It is very dicey.”
can shift overnight, with “someone else comes in or jumps into the scene and
starts telling you or advising you.” His method requires “a lot of patience to un
derstand the exact need, and to stand on your feet that whatever you have told
yesterday, it’s still down now.” This necessitates a dual approach: sometimes
having “an iron face,” at other times needing to “wear a soft heart with people.”
This intricate balance of firmness and empathy, adapted to site-specific reali
ties, underpins his ability to sustain trust through protracted and unpredictable
engagements, proving that consistent presence and patient interpretation are
paramount for achieving long-term project viability and community buy-in.
Finally, Bijan’s decades-long conviction is forged in the fires of these successes.
He maintains the drive to persist where others might give up by drawing on four
key insights: re-listening to the situation and recalling past successes; conduct
ing global research on similar issues; understanding the limits of one’s own op
erational framework; and maintaining an unwavering personal belief that “yes,
this can be done”. This blend of empirical learning, strategic self-awareness,
and sheer conviction (“God is great, gives us courage”) is what enables him to
continually “do it again” despite the immense experienced difficulties.
Industry Priorities & Universal Contribution:
More than ESG Qualification
Drawing on his extensive experience in power, mining, and other industrial sec
tors Bijan offers sharp insights into India’s private sector priorities for sustaina
ble transformation. He highlights the imperative to optimize “mining machinery
equipment” for maximum energy efficiency and to ensure that mineral extrac
tion is both “technically as well as commercially... feasible without disturbing the
strata surrounding”. He firmly advises: “You should not do mining for the sake
of mining.” He emphasizes the critical importance of selecting machinery that
offers “minimum energy consumption and maximum extraction of the things
without disturbing the strata surrounding”. This pragmatic approach extends
to cost-benefit analysis, where a “surface miner” utilizing renewable energy
demonstrates clear advantages over more environmentally hazardous methods
like explosives, ultimately convincing operational teams that sustainable prac
tices “also make money for us”.
20
21