Team earth&us

After receiving an MBA from the Manchester Business School, Minhaj Ameen worked in the UK for 10 years. He was a business and technology consultant with a number of bluechip companies in banking, insurance, pharmaceutical and energy sectors.

He moved to India 12 years ago to pursue his passion of promoting ‘sustainable living’. He has led numerous studies and projects with the government and private sectors. He has worked in the areas of solar, thermal, rainwater harvesting, sustainable mobility, sustainable menstrual hygiene, solid waste management and environmental education.

Being a social entrepreneur, Min has founded a number enterprises including earth&us, Auroville Library of Things, amrutDhara, Shared Transport Service and the Neem Tree Eatery. His latest enterprise, Impactwala, is developing Product Impact Information systems that will provide social, environment and health impact information to consumers in the most convenient way to affect their purchasing decisions enabling them to create impact.

Minhaj regularly conducts programmes and lectures on sustainability related issues. He also conducts workshops on happiness driven by a deep belief that happier beings live more sustainably.

Vijay tried the corporate life for 10 years including a stint as a management consultant before he felt the calling for something deeper and more meaningful. He has a Master’s Degree from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK and previously worked as a business consultant, helping companies realize growth strategies through vertical market and geographic expansion.

Vijay has always been passionate about social upliftment and environmental issues and worked with several NGOs as a volunteer while continuing his corporate career. Eventually, he decided to follow his passion and left his career behind to travel around India to explore opportunities in the social development sector. It was during these travels that he had the opportunity to visit Auroville. The work carried out at earth&us resonated with him deeply which resulted in him upending his life completely by moving to Auroville and becoming an integral part of the earth&us team.

His journey at earth&us has been a transformative experience echoing his ideas and concerns about environmental issues and sustainability. Currently Vijay leads several projects in the areas of rainwater harvesting, sanitation and hygiene, environmental awareness, rural education and electric mobility.

Helen is deeply passionate about exploring and sharing ideas to build a more sustainable, compassionate and happier future for our planet and all the people who live there. She has a Master’s Degree in Urban Regeneration and a certificate in Happiness and Positive Psychology. She is also a qualified trainer, yoga, meditation, and laughter yoga instructor and author of ‘The Blue Knickers of Happiness’

Helen has extensive international experience in both sustainability and happiness fields. In the UK she advised government on policies and programs to deliver sustainable communities. More recently she developed innovative local solutions to climate change with Australian communities.

Whilst in Australia Helen also established a charity committed to creating a happier and more compassionate society. She is fascinated by the potential of the science of happiness to create a better future for our planet and its inhabitants. She enjoys sharing these teachings with a wide range of audiences as she understands everyone has the ability to take an immediate step towards well-being.

Born and brought up in Pondicherry, Tushita has always had an affinity towards nature. She has worked in various professions like corporate banking, teaching and environment research before getting her masters in ecology and environmental sciences.

Her areas of expertise range from environmental sustainability to wildlife research and conservation. She strongly believes in creating environmental awareness and wildlife conservation which aligns with the core principles of
earth&us

Aromi Salot has a bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialization in Energy Water Environment Sustainability from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her projects address the nexus between energy and water ranging from creating a rainwater catchment system for schools in a Rwandan village to reducing the energy consumption of a desalination plant in California. Her interests lie in bringing about a systems change in terms of sustainable living through intensive research and organised action.

She is currently working on Impactwala as a researcher collating information together to form framework methodology for the information system.

Mohit is a content writer and brand strategist for earth&us. He is of the irrevocable belief that mass communication plays an important role in creating a significant societal shift towards a environmentally sustainable future. He has had a background in journalism, social media marketing and film making.

Allen Francis holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. He has been volunteering with organisations working in diverse fields like conflict resolution and non-violent action, feminism, tribal development, rural development, organic farming, and tourism. He volunteered at KURVE in Wustrow, Germany where he was engaged in coordinating training for peace workers for a period of one year. He developed a keen interest in sustainable development after a seminar at Ökodorf Sieben Linden, Germany which is a model village based on the idea of sustainability. He is pursuing his masters in Sustainable Development Practice at TERI University. During the course his masters programme, Allen did his internships in needs analysis in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh and on social movements in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Baptiste is the founder of eco-SAPIENS, a co-operative society promoting sustainable consumption. He is also the speaker for négaWatt which is an impactful french independent think-tank proposing a realistic scenario about energy. Baptiste’s blog on ecological solutions has a wide following in France.

Minh is a Project Officer at GRET, an international development NGO and has been a consultant for Prakti Design, a start-up that develops efficient and clean cooking stoves for the base of the pyramid. He has also been the chairman of Nexus Carbon4development and founder of the climate change unit of GERES in Cambodia. He is currently based out of Paris and vehemently works towards a sustainable planet.

Dagny leads the project in the U.S. and with 15 years experience in ethical, eco, social and environmental rating systems she ensures ECR’s best practices and stakeholder inclusion.
Using systems thinking, strategic innovation & design Dagny’s work pushes the boundaries of how individuals think about the impact of everyday decisions and builds the capacity in others to be changemakers addressing today’s pressing issues. She is the founder of Vessel, teaches at Parsons The New School for Design, was formerly the Managing Director of Strategic Global Affairs for New Hope Natural Media and Executive Director of the Peace Initiatives Institute. A Tishman Scholarship recipient for “outstanding achievement in sustainability,” she holds a doctorate in International Peace, Conflict and Development from Universitat Jaume I in Spain and an M.S. in Design in Urban Ecologies from Parsons the New School for Design.

Krishna was born and brought up in the Auroville Bio-region and studied B.Com at the Pondicherry University. He has been a state level basketball player and coaches youngsters in the sport. At earth&us, Krishna run the daily operations of Shared Transport Service and Auroville Library of Things.