RIT alumni are shaping new careers: Life cycle assessment manager

Hema Madaka spent her doctorate journey disassembling laptops and phones piece by piece. Madaka ’22 Ph.D. (sustainability) was building a detailed data repository and understanding of the environmental impact of electronics.

That initial curiosity carried Madaka to a role as a technical and life cycle assessment manager at Aligned Incentives, part of Bureau Veritas, a nearly 200-year-old testing and certification firm.

Her group works with global industry giants across e-commerce, electronics, and data center infrastructure sectors to evaluate a company’s environmental impact in compliance with changing emissions guidelines for both the U.S. and European markets.

Organizations will often approach Madaka with incomplete estimates of their emissions. When Madaka’s team replaces those averages with a tailored life cycle assessment, using carbon foot-printing and data analytics, the real numbers are often dramatically higher.

“When we get more details into the modeling, they start seeing how their footprint is increasing,” said Madaka. “They realize that they haven’t accounted for all of this.”

She provides clients with suggestions to redesign supply chains, set goals with their suppliers, and helps clients build supplier engagement programs around renewable energy.

This is personal for Madaka, who grew up near a steel manufacturing plant in a city in southern India. Her childhood was often defined by constant pollution, where she and her family would clean black soot daily from their home.

“For me, it’s important that future generations don’t have what I grew up with,” said Madaka. “As a sustainability professional, you have a bigger role to play, and it’s not an easy one. But you see the bigger picture and work towards it.”