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Empowering workers while reducing waste in Mumbai

With the President’s Engagement Prize, Wharton seniors Peter Wang Hjemdahl and Svanika Balasubramanian will boost wages for low-income workers while simultaneously diverting thousands of tons of waste from landfills.
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Winners of a 2018 Penn President's Engagement Prize, Wharton seniors Svanika Balasubramanian and Peter Wang Hjemdahl will launch rePurpose, a digital marketplace that connects individual waste recyclers in India to larger recycling operations, boosting wages and diverting trash from landfills.

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  • From a desert to an oasis: Penn engages in ambitious greening effort in the Sahel
    People gather around a large map placed on the floor.

    In Senegal, the ambitious Dakar Greenbelt project seeks to create an extensive network of ecological infrastructure in and around the city to sustainably address environmental concerns and enhance urban life. With support from David Gouverneur and Ellen Neises, Ph.D. candidate Rob Levinthal in the Weitzman School of Design led two courses that included a field trip to Dakar, that culminated in students presenting their visions for parts of the Greenbelt.

    (Image: Courtesy of Chaowu Li)

    From a desert to an oasis: Penn engages in ambitious greening effort in the Sahel

    Students from the Weitzman School of Design journeyed to Senegal to help with a massive ecological and infrastructural greening effort as part of their coursework. The Dakar Greenbelt aims to combat desertification and promote sustainable urban growth.

    Jan 31, 2025