26
The Human
Equation.
MY SUSTAINABLE ENCOUNTER WITH SRISHTI CHHATWAL
By Albert Schiller
Designing for a Living Planet.
Can designing with people, not just for them, become the most potent blue
print for sustainable impact? Srishti Chhatwal’s professional journey is marked
by remarkable fluidity, moving seamlessly between diverse domains in startups,
education, consulting, and incubation. This unconventional path has yielded a
singular, unifying insight: sustainability, she realized, “isn’t just vertical” in its
application. Instead, it demands “a systemic lens,” a perspective through which
one must “see and believe in it on all horizons.”
This holistic understanding underpins her approach. Across every setting,
whether working with “children with special needs on their emotional learn
ing, or with farmers on precision agriculture,” Srishti has consistently prioritized
“long-term resilience and inclusion and participation.” This central tenet led her
to a pivotal realization. While professionals often “aim to design for people”, the
most crucial aspect is “to design with people.” Every experience has reinforced
this imperative, providing her the opportunity “to design with people, not just
for them.” This participatory engagement ensures an understanding of “what
the community wants,” fundamentally transforming passive beneficiaries into
active co-creators of sustainable solutions.
The Systemic Lens of Inclusion
The Farm Level: Co-designing for Impact
“Sustainability isn’t just vertical... It’s a systemic lens.”
The digital revolution promises efficiency at the farm gate, but can technology
truly transform agriculture without genuine collaboration? Srishti Chhatwal’s
work at a climate tech startup directly engages with this nuanced question. She
observes that ventures “often underestimate the friction and adoption” inher