Terra.Do: This Startup Wants To Teach 100 Million Climate Professionals By 2030

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Anshuman Bapna met his soon-to-be co-founders online, where they were virtually introduced to each other and found themselves aligned in their passion to come up with climate solutions. What they came up with was Terra.do, a fully remote learning platform that is on an ambitious mission to get 100 million professionals learn from world-class environmental experts and come together to solve the planet’s most urgent threats today. 

Introduced by climate expert Dr. Kamal Kapadia’s brother-in-law who heard Bapna discuss climate change in a Bangalore café, the two co-founders decided to build a company – completely remotely amidst the pandemic lockdown – that could bring about positive change and ignite a sustainable post-coronavirus recovery. 

“Our company and our community were designed to be completely online and remote from day one to enable every corner of the world to collaborate asynchronously on the problem,” said Bapna. 

By August last year, they had leveraged their network, knowledge and passion to come up with Terra.do, whose entire team, situated across 25 countries all over the world, has never met in person. Their focus is to arm an entire network of professionals with climate knowledge, science and skills to come up with solutions and accelerate the fight against climate change – something that they say is still missing, despite the explosion of funding and resources pouring into sectors like cleantech and renewables. 

Our company and our community were designed to be completely online and remote from day one to enable every corner of the world to collaborate asynchronously on the problem

Anshuman Bapna, Founder, Terra.do

How it plans to do this is through a series of online training courses, which are curated to address specific environmental challenges and led by top climate experts and educators from around the world. Managed by Kapadia, the platform of programs will train professionals on “every major angle of the climate landscape” and will even feature lessons taught by renowned guest lecturers like scientist Dr. Charles Fletcher and sustainable investor Sierra Peterson. 

Among the 25 intensive climate courses that are slated to begin this year will cover topics like the new hydrogen economy, climate-resilient agricultural value chains and a workshop focused on climate justice. 

In addition, “fellows” of Terra.do will be able to connect with each other, and even partnering organisations like seed accelerator Techstars, through virtual events, job fairs and mentorship programs. By 2030, the startup has set its ambitious target of growing this network to 100 million climate-driven professionals. 

In March, Terra.do says it will be hosting the “world’s largest online climate career event”, which will match recruiters with prospective employees looking for sustainable tech-focused roles in real-time via Slack and Zoom. 

This infrastructure, which is the only one of its kind, will be critical to creating a high-impact climate workforce that can solve the diverse problems our world will face in the coming decades.

Anshuman Bapna, Founder, Terra.do

Since its launch, the platform has already seen a whopping 100% quarter-over-quarter growth in revenue, which Bapna believes is testament to the need for climate-focused education and network-building platforms like theirs. 

“A massive wave of climate jobs is coming that will require all kinds of skills,” he says.

“We built a platform that allows talented individuals from around the world to develop the skills and network needed to jump into the climate fight. This infrastructure, which is the only one of its kind, will be critical to creating a high-impact climate workforce that can solve the diverse problems our world will face in the coming decades.”

Lead image courtesy of Getty Images.