Initiative Director, Pacific Institute
Peak Water: Have We Reached It?
Meena Palaniappan is director of the International Water and Communities Initiative. Formerly the director of the Community Strategies for Sustainability and Justice Program, Ms. Palaniappan is an engineer with more than 10 years experience in community-based environmental planning and research. At Pacific Institute, she has directed numerous community-based participatory research projects, including Neighborhood Knowledge for Change: the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project and Clearing the Air: Reducing Diesel Pollution in West Oakland. The Environmental Indicators Project has successfully developed neighborhood-level criteria for assessing a community’s environmental conditions and helped community groups use this information to create positive environmental change.
Before coming to the Pacific Institute, Ms. Palaniappan worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable community development, pollution prevention, and environmental justice in the Great Lakes Before coming to the Pacific Institute, Ms. Palaniappan worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable community development, pollution prevention, and environmental justice in the Great Lakes Before coming to the Pacific Institute, Ms. Palaniappan worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable community development, pollution prevention, and environmental justice in the Great Lakes Before coming to the Pacific Institute, Ms. Palaniappan worked with the Environmental Defense Fund on sustainable community development, pollution prevention, and environmental justice in the Great Lakes region. In addition, she co-authored the Environmental Defense Fund’s “Environmental Sustainability Kit.” Ms. Palaniappan has also worked with public interest organizations in Madras, India on water pollution issues. The Action Plan for Clean Waterways that she helped develop was endorsed by the Tamil Nadu Government. Ms. Palaniappan received a Master of Science degree in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley. She also holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University. Her interests include environmental justice, community sustainability, pollution prevention, and international sanitation.