USEPA award for city scientist

According to the press note issued by the USEPA from Washington,Shende was honoured for his longstanding efforts through the programmes of the UNEP to advocate the deployment of policies that simultaneously protect the ozone layer and reduce climate change. Shende’s work has helped145 developing nations through networking activities to comply with the Montreal Protocol.

Shende has been working to improve energy efficiency in refrigeration and air conditioning in buildings and in home appliances. His solar refrigerator had received accolades from the then President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. He became the second expert from UNEP to win a climate protection award after Marco Gonzales,executive secretary of the Ozone Secretariat,who won the award last year.

An alumnus of IIT-B,Shende has been working in the area of environment protection right from the beginning of his career. He has also been working on the plan to convert Rahimatpur village in Satara district into an ideal village. Shende said,”Being my ancestral place,I owe something to Rahimatpur. That is the reason I am involved in the development work like planting right kind of trees and making awareness about climate change in schools. I visit the place whenever I come to India and give inputs. The village is slowly but surely changing.”