Namrata Sandhu is the co-founder and chief executive of Vaayu, an automated software platform that allows retailers to track and cut carbon and environmental impact in real-time. Born in Mumbai, India, her 20-year career includes time at retailer companies the Arcadia Group and Zalando — experiences that led her to want to find a way to fill the critical gap in the market for a real-time, impact-tracking tool to speed up reduction at scale. Her goal with Vaayu is to put environmental impact at the forefront of decision-making and empower retailers to avoid 1 gigaton of carbon use by 2030.

Sandhu was the 2023 winner of the Reuters Sustainability Trailblazer Award and was listed in TechRound’s Top BAME 50 Under 50 Entrepreneurs 2022 as well as EU Startups Most Influential Women in the Startup and Venture Capital Space. Vaayu currently works with over 60 global brands including Klarna, Vinted, Veja, New Balance, Axel Arigato, Missoma, Ace & Tate, Asket, Lestrange, Otrium and Wunderman Thompson Commerce.