From ISRO scientist to sustainability educator: How Ecopreneur Award winner Pankti Pandey is driving change

For a long time, "sustainability" was pushed as something that belongs to politicians, big corporations, and global summits to figure out. For the average person, tackling climate change just felt way too expensive, complicated, or frankly, overwhelming.

But for Pankti Pandey, the real shift didn't happen in a fancy lab or a boardroom. It started right inside her own house.Her journey went from launching space missions and working as Project Manager for Gaganyaan to helping regular people completely rethink how they shop, consume, and live. The core of her message is simple: real change starts at home. As a former ISRO scientist turned sustainability educator and the founder of Zero Waste Adda, Pankti recently won the “Times Internet Ecopreneur Award” in 2025.

This is India’s first and only platform dedicated entirely to celebrate people who are actually making a visible mark in environmental issues through community action and fresh ideas. This initiative is a massive shoutout to the businesses that are actually doing exceptional work in India’s green transition.

It focuses on the people who are actually lifting stones in this field. Whether it’s a startup or a massive brand, the award celebrates those who genuinely care for the planet, and turns it into a highly successful, scalable business.

Before this, she has been recognised as “National Green Champion Creator” at the National Creators Award, 2024, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed her the award for using social media to make eco-friendly living actually accessible and encourage people towards sustainability.Prior to becoming India’s most recognised sustainability educators online, Pankti spent 14 years working as a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Her career revolved around science, engineering, and systems that looked far beyond Earth. But somewhere between high-precision scientific work and daily household routines, she began noticing something much closer, the sheer amount of waste generated in ordinary life.

Instead of seeing sustainable behaviour like an abstract global issue, Pankti started experimenting with practical changes at home. Switched to reusable containers, started composting kitchen waste, reduced plastic usage, and explored alternatives for cleaning products that are non-toxic and natural.That philosophy later became the foundation of her platform, Zero Waste Adda, where she shares practical and accessible ideas around low-waste living, composting, conscious consumption, slow fashion, and climate-friendly habits. “When you buy less and use things longer, fewer resources are extracted, less energy is used, fewer emissions are released,” she says while speaking to The Hindu. “Your role shifts from ‘I have to fix everything’ to ‘I can reduce the speed of the problem through my choices”.

Times Internet Ecopreneur Award

When discussions around climate action start to feel heavy, voices like Pandey’s offer a much-needed spin. This is exactly the kind of grassroots energy the Times Internet Ecopreneur Award was created to champion. The initiative exists to spotlight the people who are doing the actual work on the ground, those who are simplifying jargon, create visible change through community hustle and smart, and everyday innovation.

It is aimed to recognise businesses who are proving that it’s not necessary to harm the planet to scale a business, both the things can work parallelly. Because sustainable practices are now central to India's progress, the awards bring in a heavy-hitting jury to select the winners. By gathering experts in policy, business, science, and environmental advocacy, the platform ensures India’s most effective green leaders get the recognition they deserve.To nominate yourself for the Times Internet Ecopreneur Awards, Click here