For Prachi Shevgaonkar, a young media graduate from Pune who ended up anchoring a global sustainability movement, it began with a deeply personal experiment during her college years at Symbiosis. She challenged her own family to reduce their household carbon footprint by 10% within a single year. By trading short car trips for bicycle rides, installing domestic solar panels, and composting kitchen waste, she realized something profound: the moment personal environmental impact becomes visible and measurable, it ceases to feel overwhelming. Instead, it becomes an empowering blueprint for driving collective change.
Driven to understand how environmental degradation shapes ordinary lives, Prachi spent a year traveling across India to capture raw, human narratives. She documented the stories of small-scale farmers navigating erratic weather patterns in Maharashtra and shadowed informal waste-picking communities in Bengaluru. These deep grassroots insights convinced her that climate change is not just an abstract scientific statistic, it directly compromises everyday realities like our food, our incomes, and our homes.
Gamifying Personal Accountability Across 140+ Countries
Recognizing that most citizens want to help but lack the practical tools to do so, Prachi channeled her communication background into building “Cool The Globe.” The mobile app functions as an intuitive greenhouse gas tracker, breaking down ordinary lifestyle choices such as taking public transit, skipping an air conditioner for a few hours, or avoiding single-use plastics, into concrete, measurable data. It shows users exactly how many kilograms of carbon emissions they have avoided through their actions.
The results of this gamified approach have been monumental. To date, citizens across more than 147 countries have integrated the platform into their daily routines, collectively preventing over 5.5 million kilograms of global greenhouse gas emissions. By translating vague global targets into achievable personal goals, the platform successfully bridges the massive gap between personal intent and tangible global impact.
National Laurels and Strategic Global Policy
This disruptive, technology-driven approach to sustainability that she followed, has earned Prachi widespread acclaim. She was honored as the “Young Change-maker of the Year” by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, secured a business investment on Shark Tank India Season 3, and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list for social impact.
Her strategic expertise has also elevated her to prominent global policy circles. Prachi serves as the youngest and first Indian citizen on the advisory board of the Climate Leadership Coalition, working alongside the former Prime Minister of Finland. Additionally, she leads youth fellowships under the United Nations Foundation and CEEW, and acts as a Climate Change Advisor to corporate giants like Tata Power, ensuring that grassroots individual action remains a core pillar of institutional climate strategies.
The Logical Indian Perspective
For far too long, global climate discourse has suffered from a dangerous bystander effect. We have been conditioned to believe that saving the planet is the sole responsibility of multi-billion-dollar conglomerates or sweeping international laws. This top-down narrative frequently breeds immense climate anxiety, leaving individuals feeling utterly powerless.
Prachi Shevgaonkar’s work aggressively challenges this defeatist paradigm. By proving that millions of kilograms of carbon can be prevented purely through decentralized lifestyle shifts, her journey perfectly embodies what it means to be a “Pro Planet Person.” Systemic change does not simply trickle down from international summits; it rises up when ordinary citizens reclaim their agency, embrace conscious consumption, and recognize that every single choice matters.
If minor everyday shifts can collectively prevent millions of kilograms of carbon emissions, what is one conscious change you are making today to act as a true Pro Planet Person?
