Ruchir Sharma has worked on a range of projects, ranging from research at IIM-A, to unionising unpaid UN interns, to award-winning environmental campaigns.
This is an overview of Ruchir Sharma’s selected projects, across various themes and audiences.
After leading the team working on ProVeg International’s climate change advocacy efforts at the UN Climate Change Conference 2017 (COP23) in Bonn, brought ProVeg’s climate-friendly school meal project to the attention of the UN, as a Lighthouse Activity under their Momentum for Change initiative.
Thanks to these efforts, at COP24 in Katowice, ProVeg International won the 2018 Momentum for Change Award under the category “Planetary Health”, for efforts in reducing the environmental and human health impacts of school meals in Germany through plant-based food choices.
This campaign worked together with the food industry, health insurance providers, catering firms, and schools to revamp school kitchens with efficient equipment, train cooks on how to create healthy meals with a fraction of the climate footprint of traditional school meals, and provide health insurance discounts for the beneficiaries of such interventions, in light of their improved health outcomes.
The organisers of TEDxCarthage in Tunisia were curious if Ruchir’s message of a transition away from industrialised animal agriculture at the level of the UN and Global North could be applied to societies and economies in the Global South, particularly the Middle East and North Africa.
His talk, “The Public Policy Tool on Our Plates” touched upon ancient Greek mythology, the economic foundations of what we call “culture”, and the importance of postcolonial societies being proud of their food traditions and resisting the aspirational marketing messages and neo-colonial lobbying efforts of food and agri-business multinationals based in the Global North.
ProVeg is an international food awareness organisation active across fivecountries – Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K., growing out of the internationalisation of the 150-year-old German Vegetarian Union (VEBU).
ProVeg works with governments, private companies, public institutions, medical professionals, and the public, to help the world transition to a more plant-based society and economy that is sustainable for humans, animals, and our planet.
Met with French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Dr Harsh Vardhan, and Dutch MP Lammert van Raan. Handed over a petition with over 60,000 signatures demanding animal agriculture be placed on the UN climate change agenda and into national mitigation strategies. Ran an official event entitled “Reducing Livestock’s Long Shadow: Opportunities to keep warming well below 2⁰C”, with international experts on the climate impact of meat production and consumption.
The Veg-O-Mat, inspired by Germany’s famous Wahl-O-Mat election tool, is the first voter aid of its kind, designed to help the public understand the policy positions of the major German political parties on animal welfare, the environment, agriculture, and plant-based lifestyles.
The process involved interviewing 7 political parties (CDU/CSU, SPD, Die Linke, Alliance 90/The Greens, FDP, Animal Protection Party, and V-Party3) on their positions across 16 questions of interest to members of the Vegetarian Union of Germany.
Using the Veg-O-Mat’s question-and-answer tool, anyone can easily find out which parties are closest to their own positions.
The EichenGlobal Advisor app, available on iOS and Android marks a pioneering effort at demystifying the often complex world of real estate.
Designed from the bottom-up, using the latest in user innovation approaches, the app taps into big data, to accurately evaluate the current market price and fair rent for every single residential property in Germany, and uses this data to bring tailored reports for any residential address to one’s fingertips.
Anyone can use the EichenGlobal Advisor app to find out the market price and current rent for any residential address in Germany, with just the touch of a button. Plus, one can also access 10-year graphs tracking the price and rent trends for every city neighbourhood, town district, and rural village in Germany.
All app features are open to the public, as it aims to democratise and simplify the often-daunting world of the real estate market.
Appointed Head of Social Affairs at the Geneva Interns Association in its first year of operation, to improve conditions for the large number of interns working in international organisations and NGOs in Geneva.