About Us

Skill Up for Earth exists to equip people around the world with the knowledge, skills and networks they need to tackle climate change and other sustainability problems.

Real change won’t come from a blueprint handed down from above. It emerges when engineers, youth leaders, financiers, farmers, storytellers, city managers and countless others apply their skills to reshape the systems around them.

Understanding solutions is one thing; implementing them in a world of complex, interlocking problems is another. Climate action is human work, carried out by people with relevant skills, supportive communities, and the courage to act.

Our role is to help people build those skills, find those networks, and step into that work.

We believe systems change is decentralized, plural, and locally rooted. Real solutions emerge when diverse people and groups push on their own leverage points and get the support they need from caring mentors and peers.

Our role is to make this possible by:

Training people in applied climate and sustainability skills that they can immediately utilize to drive change and educate others

Building and strengthening networks across regions

Expanding access through scholarships and accessible pricing

Partnering with universities to transform their climate and sustainability offerings

We operate through partnerships to augment our impact.

With Oxford, we’ve co-created the Certificate Program in Climate Solutions and Strategies.

With Arizona State University, we’re supporting the development of the Conservation Futures Academy.

Across all programs, we focus on practical, skills-based, globally-relevant, accessible and affordable education that enables learners to take immediate action and advance in sustainability careers.

Join us: We’re just starting to plant the seeds of great trees.

Meet our team

Climate educator, solar PV business developer, clean energy researcher + policy advocate, and sustainable development specialist with close to three decades of experience across India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, U.K. and U.S. Previously, I was co-founder and Chief Learning Officer of Terra.do, a climate education and careers company where I created the "Climate Change: Learning for Action" programme that graduated thousands of professionals. I hold a PhD from U.C. Berkeley and an MSc from the University of Oxford.

Skills: Systems Thinking | Climate & Development Policy | Clean Energy Entrepreneurship and Advocacy | Leadership & Communications

I am a sustainability adventurer with three decades of global experience across clean energy deployment, climate education, and sustainable development. My work focuses on helping people understand complex systems clearly and turn that understanding into meaningful climate action.

I began my career in the late 1990s building solar PV markets in places where the sun didn’t shine much (with Solarcentury in the UK) and where people couldn’t easily afford to pay (with SELCO building off-grid, rural solar PV markets in Sri Lanka and India).

That early work shaped my core belief: climate progress is driven by skilled people solving practical problems in the places they live, and not by abstract plans from above.

Most recently, I co-founded Terra.do and created the Climate Change: Learning for Action (LFA) program, which has trained 5000+ professionals from 80+ countries over 5 years.

I’ve taught on climate, clean energy, and sustainable development at Oxford and U.C. Berkeley, and developed sustainability programs for K–12 schools in Hawai‘i. I’ve also worked with the Blue Planet Foundation (Hawaii), the California Public Utilities Commission, and the World Bank.

I hold a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from U.C. Berkeley and an M.Sc. in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford. At Skill Up for Earth, I co-lead the Certificate in Climate Solutions and Strategies. I love helping learners understand complex systems clearly, find their leverage points, and drive change from any starting point.

Beyond work: I am always reading a novel. Though recently, I’m raving to anyone who will listen about a non-fiction book I just read called What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory by Bette Adriaanse and Brian Eno.

I've worked for almost fifteen years as a climate solutions and strategies practitioner across domestic and city-level climate policy, multilateral climate finance, large energy companies, research, startups, and education.

I was most recently the Director of Learning at Terra.do, where I designed, delivered, and managed Terra.do’s training programs for organizations as diverse as Google, B Lab, Al-Futtaim Group, Amazon, and Nagarro. I also served as Course Director of Terra.do’s Learning for Action Program and built out Terra.do career’s center for learners.

I began my career in the US Senate focused on Agriculture, Energy, and Environmental issues for both the Senate Agriculture Committee and for Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). I've been an associate for the World Bank’s Climate Investment Fund’s $500-million Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program (SREP) portfolio, a researcher at the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and Environment (co-authoring papers on stranded coal assets and data center decarbonization), and a contributor to two early stage start-ups focusing on demand response and ESG metrics. I've also consulted with utility companies and cities in the US and Asia on decarbonization strategies.

I hold an MBA and MSc in Environmental Change and Management from the University of Oxford. I've also spent time studying within numerous indigenous lineages, where I believe I've learned more about true sustainability than all my other experiences combined. I continue to pursue those studies with curiosity and great joy.

My focus lies in helping people find actionable solutions to climate change and the nature and biodiversity crisis. Most recently, I was Science Advisor for Terra.do. I received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University and since that time I have been researching and communicating about issues at the nexus of nature, science, and people. My writing can be found in various publications including my environmental history book, An Entirely Synthetic Fish.

Skills: Climate Science | Nature and Biodiversity Conservation | Systems Thinking | Science Communication and Education

My personal origin myth is centered around two things: I like to be outside; I like to understand how things work. At some point, after a few years travelling around the American West skiing, paddling, writing, I realized that I could combine my passions by becoming an ecologist.

I went back to school to get my Ph.D. While I was doing my research, I became increasingly fascinated/concerned by the human side of science and its role in society, especially with regards to environmental issues. And so, upon receiving my degree, I made a turn. With a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation I wrote an environmental history book called An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World. Nominally a biography of a fish, it is really about us.

I have held a number of roles over the intervening years: I have written articles about science and society for publications like The New Yorker; I have taught at Yale University, Colorado Mountain College, and the University of Colorado; I was the Science Advisor for Terra.do.

For the last few years I have been entirely focused on climate change and the biodiversity crisis. At Skill Up for Earth I co-lead the Certificate in Climate Solutions and Strategies. With everything I do, my goal is to help people achieve understanding in the name of action

I live in Colorado with my wife and dog and I have three adult children. My greatest joy still comes from being outside on the rivers or in the mountains with my family.

I am a climate action educator, engineer, and strategist working at the intersection of equitable innovation, entrepreneurship, and wellbeing in India, Kenya, and the U.S. I design products, programs, and learning experiences that advance climate resilience and poverty alleviation. I am a stubborn optimist and serial tinkerer with a lifelong habit of climbing trees. I facilitate workshops on environmental justice and social innovation, and I am always seeking to infuse education with critical analysis, care, and joyful defiance.
I have a Masters from UC Berkeley + B.S.(Engineering) from Stanford.

Skills: Climate equity and innovation | Engineering for social impact | Product and program strategy | Human-centered design | Organizational and systems strategy | Mechanical engineering

My past experience runs the gamut from spearheading technology development and building out R&D operations for social impact, to facilitating capacity building and design thinking workshops with global, interdisciplinary teams.

Currently, I teach graduate courses on technology innovation for climate action and poverty alleviation at the University of California, Berkeley. I'm an Engineering Consultant at Kheyti, an Indian ag-tech social enterprise and Earthshot Prize-winner, deploying climate adaptation and resilience technologies for smallholder farmers. Previously, I was the Head of Product at Riffle Ventures, a global climate tech venture studio, developing equity-focused climate innovation ecosystems. I was also a Strategy Consultant for Engineering for Change and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, developing and deploying strategies to strengthen social entrepreneurship ecosystems in Asia, Africa, and The Americas. I serve on the Board of Terreform ONE, a sustainable architecture and ecological urban design nonprofit founded out of MIT Media Lab.

I have a Master's degree in Development Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor's degree in Engineering: Product Design from Stanford University. I've been a National Science Foundation Digital Transformation for Development Fellow, and Milken Innovation Center Global Fellow, and a MovingWorlds Global Social Impact Fellow.

Beyond work, I am a ceramicist, woodworker, visual artist, and novice guitarist. I love gardening, and work with various mutual aid and food sovereignty organizations in the U.S. and India. When I'm not at the pottery studio, I can be found adventuring in nature - hiking, biking, and climbing trees.

Our Purpose

Our Approach
—Radical Pragmatism

Our Theory of Change

What We Do

Meet our team

Kamal Kapadia

Seth Collins

Anders Halverson

Ashdeep Seth

Our Purpose

Our Approach—Radical Pragmatism

Our Theory of Change

What We Do

Meet our team

Kamal Kapadia

Seth Collins

Anders Halverson

Ashdeep Seth

Our Approach
—Radical Pragmatism