How One Student Turned Her Love of Coffee Into a Campaign for Climate and Equality

The coffee industry fuels pollution while the labor behind it often goes unseen. Student Ambassador Gaurjan is changing that with ReBrew, a youth-led nonprofit turning used coffee grounds from local cafés into body scrubs and candles. The initiative also empowers rural women to earn with dignity through their craftsmanship. Join us in the conversation we had with her.

Tell us about yourself, where you live, your passions, and projects.

I am Gaurjan Sharma, a 17-year-old IB student currently living in Chandigarh, India, after moving 13 schools across various cities and states throughout the country. I have moved from place to place my entire life and have somehow found and curated a family at every single one of them. I am an incredibly sociable person who internalised the “jack-of-all-trades” mentality at the age of 6 and haven’t looked back since. Striking random debates as I go, editing short films at midnight, choreographing dance routines, writing relentlessly, painting my walls, teaching, researching, and I promise there is no end to this list.

I am a 1M1B Future Leader, a Bevisioneer (Mercedes-Benz fellow), and a member of the NYAS Junior Academy, and this is all because of the projects I devote my heart and soul to, such as ReBrew (a youth-led sustainable coffee initiative) and Edventure (an education access program).

I don’t have a lot of beliefs, I don't believe in god, or ghosts or love or souls but I believe in people, I believe in the people I choose to surround myself with, the people I teach and the people I help.

What inspired you to create your nonprofit, Rebrew? And what is the story behind it?

I have been a night owl for years, and especially during middle school when the pandemic hit in 2020, I just started studying, reading and doing all my work at night primarily. I love the quiet of the night and the fact that every single soul around me is sleeping, and I am completely alone leaves me at ease and comfort. Every night that I was up, every sleep-deprived day I was studying I always had one thing by my side--coffee.

I have been a coffee enthusiast for a long time but it was actually during these days that I tapped into the relentless obsession. I have also been very environmentally conscious and try to preach sustainability as much as possible, but when I realised that the coffee industry, something I invest in multiple times a day, is responsible for insurmountable amounts of pollution and degradation of the planet, it just didn’t sit right with me. I felt hypocritical as my peers and classmates usually identified me and coffee as one but it just goes against my values to be supporting and promoting something like this. And thus, I took up the accountability and started working towards changing the coffee game.

Could you tell us a bit more about the process of upcycling coffee grounds and how the profits come back to farmers?

ReBrew has partnered with a few local cafes to supply us with their used coffee grounds and we use them to create products like body scrubs and scented candles. We are growing and increasing the number of cafes supporting us in our mission as we speak. I create these scrubs and candles by my own hand. I like to be meticulous with things I start and work toward, so I find it hard to employ a lot of people, but the ReBrew team is in the works and hopefully working efficiently towards making many more products as soon as possible. Right now, our main focus is to find a way to develop a system with the coffee board of India or the government of the state of Karnataka (which is the nation’s biggest coffee grower ) so that our funds can be donated to every farmer in need. Our friends in Karnataka, and particularly the city of Bangalore, have been really helpful as we reach out to farmers in coffee plantations and work towards building an efficient and long-lasting system.

Does this sector have a lot of young women? If not, what have you experienced as a young woman advocate that is remarkable?

My aim for this sector and ReBrew is to develop a circular economy within, as ReBrew grows, I aim to employ women working as domestic help from economically weaker sections in my society to work for ReBrew and earn through commissions of every scrub and candle they make. A majority of women in India who come from weaker economic backgrounds work as house-help or as housewives, and I want to give them this opportunity to earn for themselves independently. I have been leading a financial literacy initiative with one of my classmates called SIP-HER, where we have been helping domestic workers open SIP accounts and invest money that can be compounded to gain financial independence.

Personally, as a young woman, working towards change in India has been really challenging. My own family did not take me or my project seriously for a long time, along with investors, business owners and more. These challenges not only stem from starting this project at 16 but also due to gender bias. I am not the only ambitious 17-year-old in Chandigarh, and I have seen many of my peers aiming big and working towards their own vision. And sadly, I have noticed a difference between responses towards me and my male peers.

What inspired you to become an environmental advocate?

Ever since I was in second grade, you could find me scolding my dad to stop the running tap water while brushing his teeth or debating fashion enthusiasts on their favourite brands like Zara or Shein that are unethical and unsustainable.

Even now, I try to be as updated with the news as possible and the situation in Gaza absolutely shatters me. The US government and its actions have left me baffled and I want to help to the best of my capabilities. And so, this October, we donated most of our revenue from ReBrew and the fundraiser to nonprofit organisations in Gaza, like Thamra and Gaza Great Minds to provide food and education to the people struggling in Gaza.

The environment we surround ourselves with is nothing but the byproduct of who we are and what we do so I never understand people when they say that “one person cannot change the world.” Some part of me always believed that if I believe and try my best to do something, I can change the world. And I think now that I have started to believe in myself, I can see the change taking place in my world and hopefully soon in yours too.

We know you founded The EdVenture Project, an education initiative that highlights the importance of accessing education no matter where you are or your income. How do you connect your environmental advocacy to your educational efforts?

During 2021, everything shut down, but we still had two girls coming to our house every day as house-help. They were 14-15-year-old girls going to public schools in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and talking to them made me realise how COVID-19 lockdowns impacted students who did not have access to online education. Their school was non-existent and even when they went to school the teachers would often not be present and barely teach anything, even when they were.

I started teaching them math as my mom helped them with other subjects. Slowly, just two girls in our living room turned into five students in our living room, which took little to no time to turn into 80+ students we taught in our apartment’s park. Soon enough, the authorities had to kick us out and we had to find another park in our neighbourhood, but that didn’t stop us; the numbers kept growing and the students continued learning. We were even featured in local news and after moving away in 2023, the evening school we started is still taught by our friends in Lucknow. We didn’t stop after moving away; we continued teaching in Mumbai and now in Chandigarh, disseminating knowledge everywhere and to as many students as we can. I try my best to teach them the importance of caring for our planet and surroundings, as I hope that the students I teach can grow into individuals who not only follow their vision but also make an effort for others around them to believe it and support it too. I teach them to consume consciously and about sustainability and ethical practices so that they can also pass on this information and learn from it. I want them to realise that education is their right and learning as much as possible will lead them to success as well as a happy future, while embracing their individualities.

How would you describe the impact both of your initiatives have had on your community? Is there any achievement from it that you feel especially proud of?

Both of my initiatives, The EdVenture Project and ReBrew, stem from a deep sense of accountability. For me, change is not about making promises; it’s about putting my actions where my words are. I’ve always believed that the smallest choices ripple outward: if I had decided not to teach two young girls one day, there would never have been an evening school in Lucknow serving over 80+ underprivileged children. That decision to act became a chain reaction--students gaining confidence, families valuing education, and peers around me realizing that leadership is about service, not titles.

With ReBrew, my youth-led sustainable coffee initiative, the impact has been both environmental and social. By upcycling coffee waste into products like body scrubs and candles, we’ve diverted waste from landfills while also starting R&D into coffee-based sustainable solutions. Cafes in my city now see their waste as material, not trash. Farmers supported by our profits have gained access to better fertilizers, and in the future, I plan to employ women from local rural communities to make ReBrew products--transforming their labor into dignity and income. The ripple effects of these initiatives have been recognized globally. I was awarded the Mercedes-Benz BeVisioneers Fellowship, invited to the UN Youth Summit (first in New York, and again in Geneva), and selected as a Junior Academy Member at the New York Academy of Sciences. But beyond the recognition, what I take pride in is the community transformation. Children who once had no access to quality education now dream bigger, and a cup of coffee that once ended in a landfill now fuels circular systems of empowerment. My greatest achievement is not the titles or awards, but seeing my community shift- towards education, sustainability, and opportunity because of something I started. That, to me, is impact.

Finally, if you were to share a message with world leaders about girls’ education and environmental advocacy, what would you say to them?

World leaders, the systems you uphold– medicine, policy, education, and social norms- are constructed with men as the default, and women continue to pay the price. This is not theoretical. In medicine, decades of research excluded women from clinical trials. Now, women are 50% more likely than men to die following a heart attack because our symptoms were treated as “atypical.” Drug dosages, pain thresholds, and treatment protocols are often calibrated for male physiology, leaving women more vulnerable to adverse effects and complications.

In policy, laws rarely translate into equitable practice. Workplace protections for women often exist on paper but fail in enforcement, leaving women to navigate gendered barriers alone. Consider maternity leave: even in advanced economies, policies are insufficient and rigid, while women continue to fight social expectations.

Education is similarly skewed. Girls are disproportionately denied access, especially in economically disadvantaged or conservative households even in this day and age. These biases are systemic, insidious, and global. Society compounds these inequities. From home to workplace, sons receive privileges daughters do not- from “harmless” jokes, to inheritance laws. These practices are not minor- they shape life outcomes, self-perception, and opportunity from childhood onward.

I speak from direct experience - women’s ideas, labor, and innovation are consistently devalued or dismissed. This is not an isolated complaint; it is a reflection of structural sexism embedded in every system that claims neutrality. And this is precisely why education and advocacy are inseparable. Denying access, recognition, and resources is not only morally indefensible- it is strategically catastrophic.

Leaders, here is the mandate: redesign your systems to center women, too. Medicine must study women as rigorously as men. Policy must enforce equity, accounting for domestic labor, reproductive health, and professional participation. Education must dismantle stereotypes and prepare girls to lead. Society must confront entrenched misogyny, from home to government.

We do not need charity. We do not need sympathy. We need accountability. We need structures that recognize women as equal stakeholders, not secondary participants. Until the default male lens is dismantled, claims of progress are hollow. The world cannot advance while half its population is left behind.