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“qualitative data alone will do no good.”
of trends and social circles, where people “love to follow trends” or are swayed
if a personal friend or family member “talk to you about it”. Thirdly, a conscious,
personal decision to adopt a sustainable “lifestyle choice.” Her work aims to
elevate sustainability from an alarming necessity to a deliberate choice, under
standing that human comfort often resists effort.
Making sustainable choices accessible demands foundational infrastructure.
Mehak illustrates this with a pragmatic example: an individual might want to
buy an “EV car” but will not if there are “insufficient EV stations to charge the
car”. The choice “won’t even be in the arena of my choices” if the supporting
system is absent. Therefore, “the government needs first to realize how impor
tant it is” to build this infrastructure. She argues that leadership, specifically
the government, sets the direction and communicates what is essential, guiding
citizens towards “greener alternatives”. This top-down infrastructural push is
crucial for enabling bottom-up adoption.
Mehak’s current project at CEEW directly addresses this need by “recommend
ing to the government how to do it”. A significant outcome of this “whole green
economy project” will be creating “more green jobs”. This tackles India’s high
population and limited job opportunities and builds awareness for a field many
citizens “don’t know about”. For the government to act, “we want to show them
both qualitative and quantitative data”. Mehak asserts that “qualitative data
alone will do no good” in convincing them to build the necessary infrastructure.
She stresses that robust numbers are indispensable for supporting qualitative
arguments and driving policy decisions.
Additionally, Mehak highlights industries that present easier entry points for
sustainable transformation. She points out that “renewable energy is cheaper”
than conventional power and “green buildings... also cost less than a conven
tional building”. These economic advantages make them “easier to get into”. In
agriculture, practices like converting “wasteland in India itself, which can be
converted into cultivable land” and leveraging “carbon sequestration potential
in our soil” offer immense opportunities to reduce emissions and improve farm
er livelihoods. While nature-based solutions like bioplastics are “more costly”
now due to a lack of infrastructure, industries with clear economic benefits
present immediate pathways for widespread adoption.
“You are never ready, and always ready.”