Fortune India MPW 2025: Women emerge as the most effective change-makers through climate-focussed enterprises, say panelists

Despite being the worst affected because of climate disruptions, women are the most effective change-makers when it comes to leading solutions through climate-focussed enterprises, panelists said at Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women event on Friday. 

The event, held at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre, saw women leaders from across sectors coming together to share how they are driving sustainability and climate resilience, not just within their organisations, but also in the communities they serve.

“More than 80% of women solve for issues on the ground when it comes to climate-related problems. So they are problem-solvers. But when it comes to finding jobs and areas of impact—whether it's policy at the highest level or on the farms—they are never consulted,” said Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Co-founder, ReNew & Chairperson, Sustainability. Speaking during a panel discussion titled ‘Women as Climate Warriors’, Sinha drove home the message that while women are the worst impacted by climate disruptions—floods, heatwaves, and earthquakes—they are also the most effective agents of change. 

Sinha emphasised that women’s participation in climate-related businesses is a largely untapped resource. “At ReNew, we have 40% diversity on our board. Since Covid-19, our diversity and inclusion ratio has improved by 80%. When women lead, real change happens on the ground,” she noted, adding that businesses today can no longer separate profit from purpose.

Dipali Goenka, MD & CEO, Welspun Living, shared similar views. From starting with just 7% women employees, Welspun now boasts of a 30% female workforce. “Women can be the change. They lead with purpose,” Goenka said, pointing to initiatives like SPUN, which upcycles two tonnes of textile waste each month into cushions and rugs crafted by rural women who earn ₹20,000 monthly.

Preeti Bajaj, CEO & MD, Luminous Power Technologies, shared how the company made a bold move in 2022 to empower women in the male-dominated tech and manufacturing sectors. She led the initiative to redesign transformer assembly lines so they could be fully operated by women. Despite initial resistance and doubts about physical capability, the company introduced semi-automation and upskilling programmes. "Those transformers (at her firm) are produced 100% by women,” she said. 

Bajaj emphasised that this shift is not just about inclusion, but about creating meaningful societal impact through women's participation in core engineering roles. 

Ritu Gangrade Arora, CEO & CIO, Allianz Investment Management, Asia-Pacific, underscored the power of inclusive meritocracy in building diverse investment leadership teams, where 60% of the workforce consists of women. She believes that creating a level playing field naturally leads to gender balance, rather than imposing quotas. Ritu highlighted how visible female role models act like magnets, drawing in more women and making it easier to diversify workplaces organically.

She also touched upon how women often feel isolated in male-dominated decision-making environments, which makes it crucial to change the composition of such groups. Through personal anecdotes, she shared how, while diversity may sometimes happen unintentionally, its impact is deeply noticed and remembered, even years later. She concluded by stressing the need to amplify the presence of women in fund management, a field where women are still rare, despite their innate financial acumen.