Janet Ranganathan is the Managing Director, Strategy, Learning and Results at the World Resources Institute, an action-oriented global research organization that works in more than 50 countries, with offices in the United States, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Europe. She plays a lead role in ensuring that research is robust and actionable across WRI’s six programs: Food, Forest, Water, Climate, Energy, and Cities. Janet also leads WRI’s Information into Action strategy, which combines open data platforms, information and communication technologies, transparency, and human networks to drive more sustainable management of the planet’s resources. Janet is a co-author of the current World Resources Report, Creating a Sustainable Food Future which defines a menu of scalable solutions for how the world can adequately feed more than 9 billion people by 2050 while advancing economic development and reducing pressure on the environment.
During her tenure, Janet has held diverse positions across WRI’s programs. She has rolled out numerous initiatives to address the root causes of poverty and environmental degradation. Janet launched two major initiatives on Ecosystem Services and Forest Landscapes. She founded and directed the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, an international multi-stakeholder partnership convened by WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to develop international greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is now the international accounting and reporting standard for business and numerous national and state greenhouse gas programs. Janet also served in WRI’s Business and Climate programs. Janet has written extensively on a broad range of sustainable development topics, including business and markets, environmental performance measurement, environmental accounting, climate change, greenhouse gas measurement and reporting, ecosystem degradation, food security, forests, and global environmental governance. Janet’s is a member of the Ceres Board of Directors, Graham Institute for Sustainability, and Mars’s Science Advisory Committee.