Vasundhara Saravade

EEPRN and Greening Growth Partnership Student Researcher, 2017-2023

Vasundhara is a Sustainability Management PhD student in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED) at University of Waterloo. Her current research is focused on the growth of climate finance markets like the green bond and incentives for behaviour change in these markets. Vasundhara completed her Master of Environmental Studies (MES) in Sustainability Management in 2019 from the University of Waterloo and a B.A. (Hons) in Environmental Studies and minor in Economics from Carleton University in 2016.

Over the past few years, Vasundhara has also consulted on policy-related topics focused on climate change governance and the low-carbon economy. This has included working with various private sector organizations, NGOs, think-tanks as well as government agencies spanning across India, Indonesia and Canada, including the UN Office for REDD+ Coordination in Indonesia (UNORCID) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). 

Apart from her academic career, she likes to write on various topics related to climate change and has been published on The Conversation CanadaHuffington Post IndiaFair Observer and the Times of India

She has previously worked with Smart Prosperity Institute on policy and research projects, including a policy brief on clean tech called Accelerating Clean Innovation in Canada, released in April 2017.

More recently, Vasundhara worked on two research projects with SPI– the results of both were published as Clean Economy Working Papers: “Insurance in a Changing Climate: Clarifying the Sector’s Role in Supporting Sustainable Behaviour Change”, with Jason Thistlethwaite in 2019 and "Strategies and Policies for Integrating the Canadian Financial Sector into Financing the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy”, with Olaf Weber and Truzaar Dordi in 2020.

Currently, Vasu is providing research support for a project entitled: "Behavioural Finance and Green Bonds: Drivers and Barriers for Investors to Invest in the Green Bond Market”, under the supervision of Olaf Weber. This project identifies climate data challenges within the financial sector’s low-carbon transition.