IITs Join the green movement: IIT Indore launches India’s first B Tech in sustainability

After top business schools, India’s premier engineering institutes are now taking major steps to embed sustainability into their core academic offerings. With growing industrial demand for a workforce skilled in enabling carbon-neutral operations, undergraduate, master’s, and PhD-level programs are increasingly aligning with the sustainability agenda.

IIM-Mumbai witnessed a staggering 2.12 lakh applications for just 30 seats in its flagship sustainability course this year — an indicator of the subject’s rising relevance. Many other business schools are also launching programs focused on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG), driven in part by SEBI’s mandate requiring the top 1,000 listed Indian companies to submit annual ESG reports.

Recognising the parallel need for a technically trained sustainability workforce, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore is breaking new ground. It will become the first IIT to launch a B Tech in Environmental Economics and Sustainable Engineering starting the next academic year.

The program will be housed in the newly established Mehta Family School of Sustainability at IIT Indore, supported by the Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation (MFF). This philanthropic organization has been instrumental in launching eight academic schools and centres across six IITs—including Madras, Guwahati, Roorkee, Kanpur, Palakkad, and now Indore.

Over the next decade, the school aims to nurture more than 1,500 professionals through Executive Master’s and PhD programs. It also plans to set up three **Centres of Excellence** focused on Energy Systems, Environmental Economics, and Water & Climate Studies.

Rahul Mehta, founder of MFF, shares that it took sustained dialogue to establish a sustainability school within an IIT framework.

“They understood that sustainability isn’t a fringe topic anymore—it’s central to every sector, from real estate to transportation to consumer goods,” says Mehta, who attended Stanford’s year-long ‘Climate and Society’ program in 2021.

“It changed my life. I started wondering — why aren’t we teaching this in India at scale? That’s when I began advocating for a full-fledged School of Sustainability in India, with proper faculty, robust curriculum, and programs across all academic levels rooted in Indian realities.”

The curriculum draws insights from leading global institutions such as Stanford, Columbia, and ETH Zurich, but is tailored for the Indian context. It emphasises localised content and embeds interdisciplinary verticals such as sustainable materials, mobility, water systems, and policy. Students will be trained not only in technical calculations but also in systems modeling, data analysis, and understanding socio-political frameworks.

To ensure industry relevance, there are also plans to establish an Industry Advisory Council comprising Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) from leading Indian firms. The council will contribute to curriculum development, offer guest lectures, host internships, and guide capstone projects — ensuring graduates are well-equipped to drive sustainability transformations across industries.