Madhumitha Ardhanari

Principal Sustainability Strategist

Background

I work as a Sustainability Advisor in Forum’s Asia Pacific team, focusing on participatory futures processes to envision and work towards more just and equitable futures.

I have over five years of experience advising businesses and organisations to adapt to long-term sustainability challenges, working in areas such as sustainable value chains and livelihoods, and radical decarbonisation. I particularly derive great meaning and joy from facilitating deep conversations between individuals who do not often see eye to eye, to see the dignity in one another and work towards common goals.

I spent a year completing my Masters in Inequalities, and as an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, where I researched the socio-ecological impacts of riverine and coastal sand dredging for land reclamation and how it produces inequalities in Southeast Asia.

What would you dream Forum project be?

I have two, one a collaborative project with regional civil society groups, traders, regulators and government officials involved in the Southeast Asian sand trade. Sand - traded under various names such as gravel, quartz and silica - is one of the world’s most used commodities while displacing communities and destroying ecosystems. Its demand poised to rise significantly over the next 30 years as we build more (in terms of concrete and glass) and consume more (in terms of silica that is found everywhere from a smartphone screen to toothpaste).

The other project is working with various communities in the region around envisioning and working towards community-led transformations, in areas such as re-understanding what growth and progress mean, energy transitions and food sustainability.

What floats your boat when you are away from work?

Deep conversations with like-minded souls, walking in nature, a good murder mystery book and lots of chocolate.

Links:
- https://afsee.atlanticfellows.org/madhumitha-ardhanari
- https://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/singapore-the-politics-of-taking-sand-to-make-land/

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Contact Madhumitha

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