Team

Dr. Shashi K

FOUNDER & CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIST
“True change begins when sustainability stops being an add-on and becomes the organising principle—the whole, not the side note.”
Email address
shashi@sagesustainability.in

Dr. Shashi Kad is the driving force behind SAGE Sustainability’s mission to become the most impact-oriented sustainability consulting firm in India and beyond. A systems thinker with a strategist’s mind and a reformer’s heart, she brings over two decades of experience across India, the UK, and Japan to reimagine how organisations engage with sustainability – not as a checkbox, but as a lever for transformation.

An alumna of Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences, Dr. Shashi’s work spans the breadth of sustainability from ESG and green buildings to water governance, climate resilience, and gender equity. Her unique approach blends policy depth with grassroots sensitivity, helping organisations connect high-level goals to on-ground realities.

She has guided the ESG journeys of Hero MotoCorp, Mu Sigma, Brigade Group, Living Farms, FSPL, and others – supporting everything from GRI-aligned reporting and stakeholder engagement to climate risk assessments and board-level integration. Her firm belief: sustainability should bring clarity, not confusion and should be embedded in culture as much as in compliance.

Dr. Shashi is a certified expert in leading global frameworks including GRI, SBTi, CDP, and Integrated Reporting. She also serves as the curriculum lead and principal trainer for the Green Skills Academy, a national initiative supported by NSDC, focused on climate literacy and resilience.

She wears many hats, including:

  • Guest Faculty at IMT Hyderabad and IIFM Bhopal

     

  • Lead educator for national climate literacy programmes

     

  • Award-winning science communicator and policy contributor

     

  • Mentor to women returnees in sustainability careers

Recognitions:

  •  Young Scientist Award (2004)

     

  • Most Influential Sustainability Leaders of India (2019)

     

  • GCU Puraskar for Science & Sustainability (2021)

     

  • 123 Power Women Award (2023)

Her voice has represented India in global forums, steering dialogues across corporate boards, value chains, and civil society platforms. She continues to challenge the status quo with one clear belief:

“You can’t transform the future by tweaking the margins. Sustainability must move from the periphery to the core—where the real decisions are made.”