At the Bloomberg Office, an unassuming man steps out of the studio after a TV interview. He looks around, and like a person perfectly content, he smiles at the world. He is Dr Ashok Khosla, the former Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

It is often mentioned that Dr Ashok Khosla was the person who inspired Al Gore, the former US Vice-President and well-know climate change advocate. The Professor makes the humble clarification that he taught Al Gore in the first course on the environment at Harvard. If he were in fact Gore’s inspiration, he would probably never admit with his most humble of demeanours, considering he was awarded the Sasakawa Environment Prize in 2002 by the UN Secretary General. As the current President of global environmental think-tank, the Club of Rome and Founding Member of the Factor 10 Institute, Dr. Khosla has also served on the board of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Alliance for a New Humanity, the World Future Council, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). He has recently been elected President of the world’s oldest and largest environmental group, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Development Alternatives (DA), the first social enterprise ever set-up in the Third World, also runs under Dr Khosla’s management. DA combines the objectives of a civil society organisation with those of a profit-oriented business by promoting products and technologies that are both environmentally-friendly and commercially-viable. For 25 years, DA has successfully introduced these alternative solutions to the masses. At a more fundamental level, DA has sought to challenge technology choices, consumption patterns, production systems and the existing designs of our institutions to ensure the long-term ecological health of this now very fragile planet.

In her nomination of Dr Khosla to the Sasakawa Environment Prize in 2002, Barbara Pyle, then Vice-president of CNN and Turner Broadcasting Network, and another UNEP Sasakawa Prize Laureate, summarised Dr Khosla’s contributions into the following 12 categories:

1. Developing Countries and the Environmental Problematique
2. Developing Countries and Global Environmental Negotiations
3. Information and Environmental Management
4. Environment and Poverty
5. Environment and Sustainable Livelihoods
6. Sustainable Livelihoods and Human Fertility
7. Grassroots Democracy and Managing the Local Environment
8. Environment Friendly Technology in a Poor Economy
9. Renewing Environmental Resources
10. Environmental Awareness
11. Building Effective Institutions for Sustainability.
12. Environmental Institutions for the Future: Building the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders

As the new IUCN President, Dr Khosla’s contributions to the environment will continue to be significant. Specifically, his presence at the 2009 G8 Summit will raise the international profile of issues relating to the environment and sustainable development.

Dr. Khosla boasts an impressive track record of bringing change on the world stage. Representing the UNEP in the 1970s, he essentially dictated the environmental policies of the UN. He described the experience as an “ego-trip” but recognised the need for ground-up action, tackling problems of the “global south” starting from his home country India. Working first-hand with India’s poor through DA was, for him, “greatly fulfilling.” The various technologies he developed have also been transferred and replicated across the globe, wherever such environmentally-friendly technologies can be appropriately applied.

Now, in the prime of his life, Dr. Khosla continues unrelentingly to improve the livelihoods of the poor, as well as inspire action amongst the wealthy. When asked about the motivation behind his work, Dr. Khosla mentioned how he felt the society has made a huge investment on him, and that was why he wanted to give back in any way he possibly could.