Tvarita Shivakumar
Employee portrait
Harry Leerkes
‘Small things matter because people matter’
‘The way snow crunches under your feet and feels soft in your hand are things I only recently discovered. Weather phenomena fascinate me. As a child, I was always looking up at the sky – and I was already worrying about global warming. When I recently experienced a snowstorm for the first time, I felt like that amazed little girl again. But the difference is that now I think about the climate and energy as part of my job too.’
From climate to people
‘I was born in India and grew up in Singapore. During my master’s in energy and environmental sciences, I discovered how science and policy come together on climate issues. My graduation project looked at atmospheric climate modelling. I worked on improving models that analyse human emissions in Europe. By adding oxygen signatures to the current emission models, it was possible to better calculate how emissions behaved and were absorbed in the atmosphere.
‘Although I really enjoy those mathematical analyses, I realised fairly quickly that technical knowledge alone is not enough. Ultimately, the energy transition is about people: how do you ensure that solutions actually get accepted and applied?’
Visible results
‘Following my studies, I started working at Witteveen+Bos in Singapore. For a short while now, I’ve been working in the Netherlands. We’re currently working on a new district heating network for Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Eventually, it will provide the city with sustainable heating. Projects like this are challenging, because regulations, technology, and competing interests are all involved. At the same time, it’s exactly what makes this work so interesting: you’re working on something that you’ll actually get to see functioning later on.
‘In my role, I do a lot of project management. I hadn’t expected it beforehand, but it suits me well. I’m learning how to direct teams and manage budgets, and how to bring people together to help a project move forward. But I also like to stay involved in the technical analyses – for example, by creating maps and connecting datasets to find the best solutions to the complex puzzles we face.’
Making complex matters understandable
‘What motivates me is the idea that small steps matter. You can’t always change an entire system in one go, but you can start by helping one project, one solution, or sometimes just one person move forward. Ultimately, it’s people who will make the energy transition possible. If we can explain complex, technical matters in a way that is understandable for everyone, and we can build up trust with clients and stakeholders, then projects can really get moving. That’s what I’m determined to keep working on in the years ahead.’
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