The BootCamp Battling Climate Change

Anshuman Bapna along with his two co-founders created an online climate school and community that selects talented individuals from across the globe to participate in an online bootcamp, teaching skills to find solutions for problems related to climate change .

The pandemic has witnessed an astronomical growth in the  Edtech sector. Amidst this, Anshuman Bapna, Founder of Terra.do speaks with BW Businessworld about his climate school, Terra.do that spreads awareness on climate change and finds solutions to combat it. The 12-week intensive course is taught by climate experts and followed up with work opportunities that ensure the skills training in the course is used to its maximum potential. 

How is your Bootcamp different from other online courses? 

Qualitatively the key factor that differentiates Terra’s courses is how they imitate the experience of actual offline education via an online platform. This is achieved using a cohort-based learning model where students can not only enjoy the convenience of learning in a self-paced manner but also get to interact one on one with the instructors. 

Quantitatively, this is reflected in the 85 per cent completion rate our courses have. Terra’s courses are not just about learning but also about networking. This creates a digital environment that not only focuses on the course but also on what happens after the course. This is by design because building a community is not just a key differentiator but also a necessity to aid real-world climate solutions. So much so that the online education world is going to transform altogether due to this cohort-based learning model. In addition, online courses aid scalability thanks to a robust technology platform and the underlying climate community 

Terra’s mission-focused learning covers the entire lifecycle of impact and offers learners a unique combination of asynchronous and high-touch learning. Students are surrounded by a growing community of diverse learners & mentors who help them discover climate work opportunities at a much larger scale than most online learning initiatives can. 

How do you build scale in a cohort-based model? 

Scale for us comes through multiple factors. To begin with, the fact that all our courses are available online reduces friction and increases our reach. For context, people from 25+ countries are already using Terra’s platform for climate education. In addition to this, the cohort-based learning model means students don’t move on after the course but become part of an ever-growing community of climate advocates who are all working together. Lastly, we are not solving a niche problem but a global problem making the endeavour relevant to people across the globe. 

If you look at this from the financial point of view, the climate industry which essentially already is or is poised to become a sub-sect of nearly all industries accounts for roughly ½ of the world’s GDP. As top professionals from traditional big industries like oil, gas and coal make the inevitable shift to climate work, the scale will be the least of our concerns. 

How has the perspective on climate change and sustainability changed during the pandemic?  

The short-term goal is simply to get the world back on its feet. The long-term future outlook has not changed but people have become more aware of how nature can completely bring life as we know it to a standstill. In terms of climate change, no place on earth is safe. For perspective, 18 per cent of all deaths in India are due to air pollution and global atmospheric carbon dioxide is around 420 parts per million which is 120 parts per million higher than it has ever been over the past millennia.  

How do you see this growing? 

In the coming years, environmental destruction will create more zoonotic diseases. We have already witnessed how the pandemic has hit the poor the hardest, impending catastrophic events will impact the marginalized in the worst possible way as well. The silver lining is that there is greater awareness about our place on earth and in the ecosystem. Mankind has been reminded of its fragile nature and this humility will guide us into a better future. 

Vasudha Mukherjee

BW Reporters The author works with BW Education