Portrait of Petite # 14 - Karishma Wanvari

 

My name is Karishma, I'm 30 years old, I'm Indian and I've been living in France for four and a half years. I work in the environmental field and, alongside my job, I'm passionate about sustainable fashion and psychology. I read a lot of books on these subjects. And I also love cooking and eating, of course!

 

 Can you tell us about your background?

I began my studies in India. I have a degree in management and strategy. Then I worked for the French Embassy in India for three years. I helped French companies to set up in India. I then went on to do a Master 1 and a Master 2 in environmental economics (specializing in sustainable development and CSR) in France. Today, I work for a distributor of energy products in the climate department. I help them with the energy transition of their business model, in particular to reduce emissions.

 

Yes, it was a long-standing project. Petite I had the opportunity to travel to France with my parents. And I immediately fell in love with the country: the language, the food. It was love at first sight! At the age of 14, I started taking French courses in India. And by the age of 21, I was taking what I'd call "serious" courses.

France is a country where I've always felt very comfortable, even better than in my own country. I've been in France for 4 years now, and I don't think I'll ever go back to India. France is a fair country: we all have the same opportunities. Which is not the case in my country. And above all, we're free.

There are several things:

• At school, when I was very young, we started talking about the United Nations and the Kyoto Protocol. I was immediately intrigued by these subjects and needed to find out more.
• In 2014, I came to France as part of a month-long exEDIT organized by the Lions Club association. The theme of the exEDIT was the environment. I visited the Grande Est, with this thread running through it: sites producing new energies, sites protecting biodiversity, nuclear power plants, etc. These subjects fascinated me.
• Back in India, I watched the documentary "The True Cost". And that was the trigger. It was then that I decided to move into the environmental field.

For me, the emergency is climate EDIT. Climate disruption and its effects are the problem: heat, floods, famine and so on. I'm convinced that if we don't EDIT our consumption patterns quickly, we won't be able to fight climate EDIT. 

 

Europe has introduced measures to reduce emissions in Europe. But this is not the case in other countries around the world. So we're polluting elsewhere, and pollution is being relocated. If we don't put measures in place all over the world, we won't get anything out of our local efforts.

There's a lot of communication on the issue of waste management. 0 waste is an important point, but it's not the key to climate EDIT. What has the greatest influence is the way we consume: what we eat, what we wear and how we travel.

 

Above all, we need to think about reducing our overall consumption.

 

Power supply :

You'd have to be a vegetarian. Because the emissions linked to the production and transport of meat are just enormous. Eating fish isn't necessarily any better. We're destroying the oceans through overfishing (they're carbon sinks) and we're also destroying the oceans' ecosystems.

Organic, local and seasonal food is ideal.

 

Travel :

On a day-to-day basis, the ideal solution would be to use bicycThe and encourage car-sharing (no self-propulsion).

Then you have to be consistent in your approach and fly as little as possible. I'm not saying don't travel and don't fly. You have to optimize your plane so that it carries as many people as possible!

 

Clothing :

You have to try to consume better. The ideal is to buy from brands with sustainable and ethical approaches: no overproduction, limited collections with little stock. You reduce your consumption and buy better quality clothes.

Resale and second-hand buying are good options.

The aim of the "Démarqué" collective is to raise public awareness of ethical fashion. We fight against fast fashion. We contact brands directly and ask them questions about their processes.

But for the past year, I've been looking to get involved with another association.

I've only recently arrived in Paris. Between the demonstrations, the strikes and the Covid, I've never really enjoyed my Parisian life. My aim now is to make up for lost time! I'm taking advantage of all the cultural activities - concerts, museums, exhibitions, etc. - that Paris has to offer.

I love sport too: fitness/biking, hiking. I also like reading, dancing (Bollywood!) and cooking.

I wear very simple outfits: skirt/trousers and T-shirt, or dress. I'm not into jewelry.  

Natalie pants and Géraldine skirt.

My wallet, my keys and my cell phone.

A course from Yale University " The science of well-being " - the science of joy. The course gives the keys: why aren't people happy, and what do we need to do in life to be happy? This course EDITd my life and gave me back my joie de vivre. I was very unwell following the confinements.

Let's EDIT our consumption patterns and start today, because we don't have a planet B. We're in a state of emergency and we really need to start acting!