Gaurav has a degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Construction Management from NICMAR, Pune.

Thanks to his father, who was in the Indian Armed Forces, he grew up in cantonments all his life and wondered why all Indian cities couldn't look and feel like cantonments - lush green, healthy, conscientious spaces with powerful citizens.

With a commitment to impact that vision, he has spent eleven years of his life working in various capacities in the domain of green buildings and energy efficiency.

Six out of those eleven years were spent at TERI, heading a team that developed GRIHA (India's national rating system for Green Buildings). After which he worked as an academic and set up a consultancy company (PSI Energy Pvt. Ltd.) that works on various green building projects across the country and abroad.

All through this time Gaurav has realized that in the domain of sustainable development, we are hoodwinking ourselves, our country's people and reinventing the wheel - ignoring all the true sustainable practices and communities that already exist in the country, and focusing on "pop" (read 'manufactured) definitions of sustainability handed to us by "global" giants .

This despite the fact that the biggest global giants (population and geography-wise) are Asia and Africa - globalization has nothing to do with them and their local, traditional practices!With a mission to empower future generations to believe in local, sustainable traditions within the country, he and an equally committed group of friends have set up '5waraj' - a national NGO that works on reviving faith in our traditional culture through Teacher training programs, family-building workshops, awareness workshops, curriculum interventions, village immersion projects, research and documentation, and so on.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx