Rushad Nanavatty leads RMI’s Urban Transformation program, focused on helping cities around the world simultaneously reduce emissions, enhance urban livability, increase resilience, and advance social equity. The Urban Transformation program offers cities targeted technical assistance, capacity building, analytical capabilities, and facilitation support to help them turn their climate and environmental justice commitments to action.
At RMI, Rushad also helped establish and lead the Global Cooling Prize, a global innovation competition to develop a climate-friendly residential cooling solution, and the Energy Web Foundation (EWF). The EWF, a partnership between RMI and Grid Singularity, develops promising applications for blockchain technology in the energy sector.
Prior to joining RMI, Rushad served as the founding COO of WeGen Energy, a startup developing off-grid energy solutions and virtual power plants in the Philippines and Vietnam, utilizing a mix of distributed solar and battery energy storage.
Before WeGen, Rushad spent six years at McKinsey & Company as a member of the firm’s sustainability, infrastructure, and private equity practices, working on projects across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
M.A., School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University
B.A., St. Stephens College at the University of Delhi
Washington, DC
A 2020 novel opens with a heat wave in Northern India that kills 20 million people. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson is described by reviewers as the “novel we need” and “the book of the year.” What makes the opening chapter so devastating…
The world’s cities are heating up at twice the global rate. This handbook lists sustainable urban cooling solutions and guides cities on how to use them.
RMI’s insight brief on state pre-emption of local clean energy and electrification policies: how communities are harmed & who is behind these laws.
In the summer of 2019, Ohio lawmakers passed House Bill 6, a multifaceted piece of legislation that could shape the regional energy landscape for a generation. It was quickly lambasted as “the worst energy bill of the 21st century.” Key provisions included: A bailout for two nuclear plants, which…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a hero. The obituaries have focused on her legacy as a feminist icon, her singular determination, her deep humanity, and her profound common sense. These traits were exemplified by her famous dissents—equal parts restrained and biting—against a series of regressive Supreme Court majority decisions. We don’t…
The report recommends five strategies that Congress could use to direct stimulus investment toward helping cities recover and build back better from the dual challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn.
In order to meet social distancing requirements brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, cities across the United States are moving permitting services, including solar, online. The International Code Council (ICC) recently surveyed its members and found that 65 percent of local code permitting officials have moved to remote work…