I grew up in Fairplay, Colorado. From 2003-2007, I attended Colorado College majoring in Economics. My focus was water resources and environmental economics, my professors commented that I took the most classes related to the social science of the environment. This was not an accident; my whole focus then and now has been to communicate and work with people real ways to make a change.
Following graduation, I received a Fulbright Scholarship to return to Nepal and study the Economics of Urban Rainwater Harvesting. During this, I realized there was a lot of financial sense in rainwater harvesting and that business was the best way forward. After my Fulbright, I made an attempt to pursue this idea by getting embassies to start since they purchased water trucks. It was viable but didn’t work as intended.
After Fulbright I started working at the UN World Food Programme on monitoring and evaluation and environmental sustainability. During this time I was the focal point for their climate neutrality work and oversaw the implementation of the largest urban solar system in Kathmandu, along with waste management, energy efficiency, and rainwater harvesting/recharge. I learned three things:
1) efficiency was number 1, the office saved $2000 a year from efficiency and reduced their solar requirement by 50%;
2) working in a large organization was not my thing and not how I was made to create change;
3) if you want sustainability on scale within an organization and not just a side project, sustainability that will have financial returns and a real impact, then you need to engage the whole office from bottom to the top. Missing out any level will drastically challenge any goals set.
In 2010 a friend who I ran with during lunch breaks, Roger, asked me if I wanted to help work on the sustainability side of an upgrade of the Summit Hotel, which he managed. I said yes and together with a team of architects, we designed an expansion that included complete rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. It was during this that I decided to make the jump into business and started working on what would become SmartPaani.
In 2010, I also joined Toastmasters an international platform for public speaking, communication, and leadership. This changed the way I speak from someone who would finish a 20 minute presentation in 5 minutes, to a confident presenter who can speak to universities globally or a group of 700 plumbers in Nepali. It also introduced me to my current business partner, Suman Shakya who was the first adopter of SmartPaani.
SmartPaani started in September 2011, with a team of 5 co-founders. We have grown into a 30 person company with 700 systems in Kathmandu Valley, 2000+ household filters across the country, 180+ schools and 50,000+ students with clean water, and a presence in 30 of 70 districts in Nepal. Our systems collect 60 million liters of rainfall yearly, recharge another 200 million liters back into the groundwater, and treat or recycle 20,000 liters of wastewater daily (10 million yearly). The company is growing across and potentially outside of Nepal.
Recently I made the transition out of leadership within the company. The company has an amazing CEO and leadership team and is capable of growth beyond me. Now, I’m currently consulting within the US renewables and electrification sectors. Additionally, I speak to and discuss social enterprise and sustainability to colleges, corporates, and more. I am an avid endurance mountain biker having completed the Yak Attack 6-times, Breck Epic 2 times, and multiple other one-day and multi-day races.
This website is a platform to discuss sustainability, social enterprise, leadership, and fitness, while offering consulting and speaking services.