Shipra Agarwal began to think about waste management as a serious problem while studying the MA in Development programme at our university, when she worked in a team on a waste reduction and segregation project in campus. Inspired by this experience, she began to think about how to make solutions for sustainable sanitation with long-term impact.

On graduating from the MA in Development programme, she went on to join ​‘Swacch Vidyalaya Abhiyan’ project that works to weave sustainability into school sanitation and menstruation programmes. She developed a curriculum and liaised with officials from public sector enterprises and state governments to take it forward. She later moved to ​‘Reap Benefit’, where she co-developed curriculum and facilitated sessions on solving problems of school sanitation and waste management. 

Skrap is an environmental sustainability firm that helps organisations, events and individuals adopt sustainability practices. Shipra’s work involves discovering and implementing solutions for reducing waste to the minimum, so that very little waste is sent to landfills. She facilitates workshops for large corporate offices who conduct various events that generate waste, working with them to think through their responsibility in waste collection and disposal. 

She also works on public conversations around topics of sustainability. Her work is about making environmental sustainability a positive, empathic experience that is easy to adopt.