CEnv Profile | Principal Sustainability Advisor | Dr Rhythima Shinde

Dr Rhythima Shinde CEnv | 2026 Rising Star Highly Commended Finalist

What does an average day look like in your career?

No two days look the same, which is part of what I love about my career. My background spans engineering, research and consultancy, from a PhD which involved data intensive modelling the environmental impacts in housing sector, to my jobs which include advising live projects from solar farms to food manufacturing sites. A typical day in my work still draws on that whole range. I might spend the morning building or refining a whole life carbon assessment, working through a GHG inventory across Scopes 1 to 3, or developing a bespoke Python tool to make our analysis faster and more transparent. The afternoon could be a design-team workshop on a live project , helping a contractor and client team make decisions that hit demanding targets such as BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Platinum or bespoke project targets on net zero carbon. Alongside that, I’m often synthesising research, mentoring colleagues and translating complex data into clear recommendations that non-specialists can act on. The common thread is turning evidence into decisions that genuinely reduce environmental impact.

What are the top three key knowledge areas that are crucial to your role?

1. Carbon and lifecycle assessment. A solid grasp of whole life carbon assessment, GHG accounting and LCA methodology, including the standards and datasets behind them , so that numbers are robust, comparable and defensible. 
2. ESG reporting and sustainability frameworks. Fluency across the frameworks that shape the built environment and corporate reporting, from BREEAM and WELL to disclosure standards , and the ability to keep pace as they evolve. 
3. Staying at the frontier of innovation, and translating it into delivery. Sustainability moves fast, so a crucial part of the role is keeping up to date with emerging methods, tools and technologies, and having the judgement to know which are genuinely useful. Just as important is the ability to carry an innovation through the whole journey, from an ambitious sustainable design decision, through the technical modelling and stakeholder buy-in, to real implementation on a project. Underpinning this are strong data and tool-building skills (including coding in Python to using AI tools) and the ability to communicate clearly so that good ideas actually get built. 

What part of your job do you find the most exciting?

The moment when analysis actually changes a decision. What has kept me passionate about this work, from academia through to consultancy, is exactly that: taking a messy, complex problem , a building or a portfolio with dozens of competing pressures , and finding the insight that shifts a design or strategy towards genuinely lower impact. I particularly enjoy building tools that make that insight faster to reach and easier to trust, and working across disciplines so that sustainability isn’t a bolt-on but part of how the whole team thinks. Seeing rigorous evidence lead to a better outcome in the real world is the most rewarding part of the job.

How has achieving CEnv registration impacted your work?

Chartered Environmentalist status gives my advice independent credibility. Clients and colleagues know it reflects assessed competence and a commitment to ongoing professional development and ethical practice, which builds trust quickly, especially on high-stakes projects where recommendations carry real cost and carbon implications. It has also sharpened how I work: the standard behind CEnv is a useful yardstick I hold myself to and being part of a chartered community keeps me connected to peers and to how the wider profession is evolving. It reinforces that environmental practice is a rigorous discipline, not a nice-to-have. 

As a highly commended finalist in the Rising Star award, how has that recognition helped you?

Being named a Highly Commended finalist in the SocEnv Rising Star Award was a real encouragement and recognition from peers that the work is making a difference. Beyond the personal boost, it has given me a stronger platform to advocate for good environmental practice: it opens conversations, adds weight when I share ideas publicly, and helps when encouraging others, particularly those earlier in their careers, to see a future in the profession. It’s also a reminder that the impact of this work is noticed, which motivates me to keep raising the bar. 

Why would you encourage others in your sector to aspire to become a registered environmental professional?

Registration signals that you take your practice seriously and hold yourself to a recognised standard , and in a field where credibility matters enormously, that counts. The process itself is valuable: reflecting on your competence, evidencing your impact and committing to continuing development all make you a better practitioner. It connects you to a community of people tackling the same challenges, and it strengthens the profession as a whole, which we badly need as environmental issues become ever more central to how organisations operate. Whatever your route in , engineering, science, design or data , becoming a registered environmental professional is a way of saying your work is rigorous, trustworthy and part of something bigger. I’d encourage anyone considering it to take the step.