A documentary series about Environmental Justice
05/09/25 00:11
Our 1st season of Evergreen will include 5 fifteen minute stories covering the works of Environmental activists, scientists, engineers and educators, all sharing their work and insights to the betterment of local and global environments.
The Filmmakers
28/08/25 21:21
Our film crew began shooting for this project in early 2022. We had four separate shoots over 2 years, mostly in India and Nepal. We thank the various local agencies we have worked with for access, information and hospitality.
james dean conklin - Director, Writer, Producer
David Zung - Co-Director and Director of Photography
Yves Pasquarelli - 1st AD, Cinematographer
Deepak Bajracharya - 2nd AD
Udit Bhatta - 3rd AD, Production Associate
Elisa Zazzera - Producer
Associate Producers - Deepak Gadhia, Janak Palta McGilligan, Sameer Sharma, Ajay Chandak
Story Development - Erinisse Rebisz, james dean conklin, David Zung
Editing - Erinisse Rebisz, Brian Maffitt, james dean conklin
Motion Graphics - james dean conklin
Mo Graph Consult - Brian Maffitt
Voice Over - Smriti Bhatta
Narration - james dean conklin
Original Score and Music Direction - james dean conklin
Photographer Emeritus - Jim Metzger
Additional Photography - David Zung
this project also uses footage gathered since 2009 during environmental service trips, music projects, and college presentations, all occurring in India and Nepal w various teams i have either helped form or formed myself. featuring footage captured by Elisa Zazzera & james dean conklin. we hope you enjoy the work and find motivation in the stories - james dean conklin, Director
james dean conklin - Director, Writer, Producer
David Zung - Co-Director and Director of Photography
Yves Pasquarelli - 1st AD, Cinematographer
Deepak Bajracharya - 2nd AD
Udit Bhatta - 3rd AD, Production Associate
Elisa Zazzera - Producer
Associate Producers - Deepak Gadhia, Janak Palta McGilligan, Sameer Sharma, Ajay Chandak
Story Development - Erinisse Rebisz, james dean conklin, David Zung
Editing - Erinisse Rebisz, Brian Maffitt, james dean conklin
Motion Graphics - james dean conklin
Mo Graph Consult - Brian Maffitt
Voice Over - Smriti Bhatta
Narration - james dean conklin
Original Score and Music Direction - james dean conklin
Photographer Emeritus - Jim Metzger
Additional Photography - David Zung
this project also uses footage gathered since 2009 during environmental service trips, music projects, and college presentations, all occurring in India and Nepal w various teams i have either helped form or formed myself. featuring footage captured by Elisa Zazzera & james dean conklin. we hope you enjoy the work and find motivation in the stories - james dean conklin, Director
The Stories
28/03/25 19:45
The 1st five episodes of Evergreen: Stories of Environmental Justice have been written and assembled, with Episode 1 - Surya Ka Parivar, up and live on Youtube (link)
Chapter 1 : Surya Ka Parivar, aka Family of the Sun
- Some of the world's most significant advances in solar thermal energy have been developed by a tight-knit group of energy innovators, social entrepreneurs and spiritual devotees in India, working closely with Dr. Wolfgang Scheffler and his unique flexible solar-cooking dish parabola.
Chapter 2 : Green Hearts - Jimmy & Janak
Chapter 3 : The Dream of Anuben (The Story of Muni Seva Ashram)
Chapter 4 : The Solar Trek, aka Saura Yatra
Chapter 5 : Green Hearts - Shiran & Deepak.
Chapter 1 : Surya Ka Parivar, aka Family of the Sun
- Some of the world's most significant advances in solar thermal energy have been developed by a tight-knit group of energy innovators, social entrepreneurs and spiritual devotees in India, working closely with Dr. Wolfgang Scheffler and his unique flexible solar-cooking dish parabola.
Chapter 2 : Green Hearts - Jimmy & Janak
Chapter 3 : The Dream of Anuben (The Story of Muni Seva Ashram)
Chapter 4 : The Solar Trek, aka Saura Yatra
Chapter 5 : Green Hearts - Shiran & Deepak.
The People
28/02/25 19:46
FAMILY OF THE SUN | SURYA KA PARIVAR
List of Family members and associates
Deepak Gadhia
Deepak has lived several lives, growing up the son of a wealthy businessman in Mumbai, he was educated, clever, and ambitious. he was also a street magician for a while.
While training in Germany for energy development and management, he meets influential future wife Shirin. After returning to India w/ idealistic goals for development based on western ideals, they are invited to work directly for the Indian people, applying their skills and passion to their homeland..
Shirin encourages Deepak to move away from profit-only and into the people space. They advance several ideas regarding protecting forests from cutting for fuel-use by using solar thermal devices such as parabolic dishes, solar box cookers and concentrated solar power systems.
After years of work, Deepak advances a parabolic tech based on a german engineer named Wolfgang Scheffler. They develop an easy-to assemble, flexible dish system and create solar kitchens at various sites around the country.
Today, Deepak and his team - in association with Australian engineering co. Sunrise CSP, Australia - have completed the world’s largest and most efficient concentrated solar power (CSP) dish in the world, and have already begun siting projects around the country based on the government’s interest in their tech and Deepak’s amazing track record.
(Deepak Gadhia explains how the Solar-Concentrator assembly works, onsite at the original Scheffler-dish based solar kitchen install, Brahma Kumaris temple and grounds, Mt Abu, Rajasthan, India)
Janak Palta McGilligan
Janak, best known locally as Didi, was the fourth daughter of a well known spiritual leader and business person. she had health issues from an early age and was notably the first successful heart transplant patient in India, getting press and notoriety from an early age.
she has moved thru life disregarding or ignoring the usual S. Asian gender boundary limiters to become a highly educated and activated person. She eventually found agency as a chief founder and promoter of the Barli institute for Tribal women, as well as a member of the B’Hai group, a faith-based world thing.
At 40 yrs old, she met Irishman Jimmy McGilligan, himself in India to find a better path than his N. Ireland life as a bog clearer. While exploring solar energy systems and sustainability projects, he displayed to Janak that he was devoted to good things and a hard worker. So when his visa was expiring, he expressed a desire to stay in India. A friend of them both suggested that Janak might marry Jimmy to keep him in India. She was ok with that : ]
They continued work at Barli institute and also expanded into solar cooking and solar food processing; they had heard of Wolfgang Sheffler and soon started building solar kitchens in a similar vein to Deepak’s work.
Bittu Sahgal
Bittu Sahgal is a maverick in the wildlife protection space, and in the education of the importance of preserving South Asia’s biodiversity via interactive events at universities, Colleges, and primary schools.
His tone in our interview is a strong counter to the seeming endless optimism we encounter with Deepak and Janak and helps our audience connect to some of the questions we all have about what to do and then explore some of the answers in Janak and Deepak’s stories.
Ajay Chandak
Ajay is also responsible for establishing P.R.I.N.C.E. solar systems, a facility in Dhule, India that designs and manufacturers proprietary solar thermal energy systems, with clients all over India, Africa and soon, Texas and Illinois in the U.S.
Two of Ajay’s solar cooker designs, the Prince 40 and the Prince 15, were used in the 2013 Solar Expedition, in Nepal, w. zen monk Maarten Olthof.
Maarten Olthof
A dutch zen monk, with almost 30 years of experiences trekking and organizing / leading pilgrimages through ancient Buddhist sites across India, Nepal and Thailand.
Maarten’s love for the environment, (he is a trained Botanist and Environmental scientist), brought him to the attention of the Nepali government who were at the time looking for solutions to ease the destruction of forests on the country’s Eastern border, as over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees had been allowed to live in this area and began consuming the local vegetation for cooking and heating.
Maarten consulted with some of his friends in Environmental activism, and learned about parabolic solar cookers, easy to build and with strong output. Maarten deployed over 8,000 of these dishes, training the cooks how to work with the sun; they were able to feed tens of thousands of people a day, allowing the surrounding forest a chance to regenerate.
In 2013, Maarten mounted the ‘World’s First Solar Expedition: Bhairub Kund’ in the Nepali Himalaya, hoping to prove the efficacy of solar cooking at high altitudes. Through Deepak Gadhia, Maarten connected with my group Solar Punch, inviting us to be along for the experience, providing music for the group of 20 dutch trekkers that would be on the trek.
Pranav Gadhia
Pranav, the nephew of Deepak Gadhia and son of engineer and systems builder Bharat Gadhia, is now the director of most of the projects being brought forward with their firm CSP India and has been training practically his whole life to assume this role in the family business.
Pranav and many prominent figures in the energy industry were on hand for the official inauguration of the fully functioning ‘Large Dish’, which was initially designed and engineered by a team that was trained by Pranav’s father, Bharat.
Karishma Gadhia
Karishma is another outstanding human that has elevated the stereotype of the modern Indian woman in business. Wife of Pranav Gadhia and niece of Deepak, she worked her way into the family business by taking on typically female roles such as office worker, administrator, and the like and advancing quickly to roles in management and directorship.
She is also an outstanding proponent of local Gujarati culture. She is a trained dancer in the Gharba style and lead our group of 100 nurses and students in the Bollywood style dance around the ‘Big Dish’ for our show.
Udit Bhatta
Udit Bhatta is a Nepali born student of the environment and has for more than ten years been vice principle of Vajra Academy, a school just south of Kathmandu that has a green curricula devoted to agriculture and energy, as well as a massive Sheffler dish array on the roof of the school, used to bring steam into the kitchen for cooking.
Udit began as a student at the school, then became a teacher and finally moved into school management. He is the recipient of support and benefits from the Vajra Foundation, which is a social engineering NGO developed by Maarten Olthof and also the organization responsible for the school itself.
Sameer Sharma
Sameer has been involved in projects and developments in support of Janak and Deepak for almost 20 years.
Originally an IT software developer, he now runs a multi-state recycling and cleanup organization that has brought mobile composting, onsite waste management and true recycling to large events and institutions all over the sub-continent.
Sameer’s current passion and interest in cleaning cities and streets and developing productive waste flows came from Janak’s earlier efforts to do the same, lead by her promotion of solar cooking but also from her ‘plastic free’ lifestyle and public rallying for change to institutional waste policy.
Dr. Vikram Singh
Vikram-bhai is the director of Muni Seva Ashram and a big supporter of Deepak and his team’s accomplishments. As he helped the founder of Muni Seva develop its own infrastructure over the years he was convinced of the value of renewable energy and limiting combustion of fossil fuels - especially in a place like Muni Seva’s advanced-cancer research center.
He authorized the commission of a large sheffler array to develop their own solar kitchen, and when Deepak later came to help repair the system, Dr. Vikram offered him a home for his business and a residence at the Ashram.
Dr. Vikram has been very open to the renewable energy agenda that Deepak brings to the situation and has used the notoriety of Deepak’s accomplishments to elevate the status and visibility of the Ashram, itself positioned far from large cities in a rural area with many farms.
Sanukaji Shrestha
Sanukaji is a longtime solar cooking activist and has brought education and demonstrations to thousands of people across the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. He also is a proponent of creative reuse and reform, tasking waste material and using it for some other purpose than designed.
He started a non-profit group called FoST - Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Technology - and has visited Deepak, Shirin, Janak and Jimmy in India for speaking events and sustainability training in the early 2000s. He also hosted events in Kathmandu and Shirin, Deepak, and Jimmy, had a chance to meet in Kathmandu.
Sanukaji has also developed variations on the cleaner-burning and low-smoke producing ‘rocket stove’ which can also be fueled by bio-waste briquettes. The briquettes are yet another innovation from FoST, using bio-waste - paper pulp poo garden and food waste - and simple compression to make burnable discs which fit nicely in the rocket stoves.
Jayasimha BK
Jayasim is responsible for the expansion of the original Scheffler concentrator dish concept, eventually creating the solar energy farm ‘Solar One, India’ which has deployed an array consisting of 720 twenty-five foot tall dishes, all tied together and engineered to track the sun and flex shape based on position, season and time of day.
Jayasimbhai continues to promote the Solar One India site and though he is a prominent member of the Brahma Kumaris faith, he is also a practical engineer with real world training in energy systems and the very solar thermal energy systems we’re exploring.
George Nicola
George is the Chairman of Sunrise CSP Australia and is the co-director of the Muni Seva Ashram CSP dish that Deepak and Pranav have completed.
Just a few years ago, George and his team flew from Australia to India, anxious to meet the much hyped Deepak Gadhia and his team of extreme solar innovators. George was anxious to find applications and clients for a new generation of solar panel / cell type they had developed in Australia, such as would be used in an ideal parabolic situation. A scaled down version of the Indian dish was created in Australia and then realized full scale thru the current dish.
Pankar Singh
Mr. Singh is one of two chief engineers on site for the production of the large dish at Muni Seva. He and his engineering partner had to develop the means to fabricate parts and materials for the big dish on site at the Ashram. Instead of pre-building offsite and then assembling, they committed to developing their own means of production so that mods and tweaks could happen faster and the means of construction would be under local direction.
Mr. Singh has known Deepak since he was an engineering student in secondary school and has also learned much from Deepak’s late brother, engineering educator and project manager Bharat Gadhia, who passed only a half year before the dish itself was completed.
Mr. Singh and Deepak bring us into the means of production with a couple short tours through their shipping-container based fabrication plants, including the very advanced photometry unit used to calibrate each one-square meter panel - or cell - that was produced onsite for the large dish. In all, 530 one meter panels were produced there.
(the very large CSP - concentrated solar power - dish at Muni Seva Ashram, Goraj, India. A hundred nurses, nursing students and teachers joined us in a Bollywood-style dance around the dish.)
List of Family members and associates
Deepak Gadhia
Deepak has lived several lives, growing up the son of a wealthy businessman in Mumbai, he was educated, clever, and ambitious. he was also a street magician for a while.
While training in Germany for energy development and management, he meets influential future wife Shirin. After returning to India w/ idealistic goals for development based on western ideals, they are invited to work directly for the Indian people, applying their skills and passion to their homeland..
Shirin encourages Deepak to move away from profit-only and into the people space. They advance several ideas regarding protecting forests from cutting for fuel-use by using solar thermal devices such as parabolic dishes, solar box cookers and concentrated solar power systems.
After years of work, Deepak advances a parabolic tech based on a german engineer named Wolfgang Scheffler. They develop an easy-to assemble, flexible dish system and create solar kitchens at various sites around the country.
Today, Deepak and his team - in association with Australian engineering co. Sunrise CSP, Australia - have completed the world’s largest and most efficient concentrated solar power (CSP) dish in the world, and have already begun siting projects around the country based on the government’s interest in their tech and Deepak’s amazing track record.
(Deepak Gadhia explains how the Solar-Concentrator assembly works, onsite at the original Scheffler-dish based solar kitchen install, Brahma Kumaris temple and grounds, Mt Abu, Rajasthan, India)
Janak Palta McGilligan
Janak, best known locally as Didi, was the fourth daughter of a well known spiritual leader and business person. she had health issues from an early age and was notably the first successful heart transplant patient in India, getting press and notoriety from an early age.
she has moved thru life disregarding or ignoring the usual S. Asian gender boundary limiters to become a highly educated and activated person. She eventually found agency as a chief founder and promoter of the Barli institute for Tribal women, as well as a member of the B’Hai group, a faith-based world thing.
At 40 yrs old, she met Irishman Jimmy McGilligan, himself in India to find a better path than his N. Ireland life as a bog clearer. While exploring solar energy systems and sustainability projects, he displayed to Janak that he was devoted to good things and a hard worker. So when his visa was expiring, he expressed a desire to stay in India. A friend of them both suggested that Janak might marry Jimmy to keep him in India. She was ok with that : ]
They continued work at Barli institute and also expanded into solar cooking and solar food processing; they had heard of Wolfgang Sheffler and soon started building solar kitchens in a similar vein to Deepak’s work.
Bittu Sahgal
Bittu Sahgal is a maverick in the wildlife protection space, and in the education of the importance of preserving South Asia’s biodiversity via interactive events at universities, Colleges, and primary schools.
His tone in our interview is a strong counter to the seeming endless optimism we encounter with Deepak and Janak and helps our audience connect to some of the questions we all have about what to do and then explore some of the answers in Janak and Deepak’s stories.
Ajay Chandak
Ajay is also responsible for establishing P.R.I.N.C.E. solar systems, a facility in Dhule, India that designs and manufacturers proprietary solar thermal energy systems, with clients all over India, Africa and soon, Texas and Illinois in the U.S.
Two of Ajay’s solar cooker designs, the Prince 40 and the Prince 15, were used in the 2013 Solar Expedition, in Nepal, w. zen monk Maarten Olthof.
Maarten Olthof
A dutch zen monk, with almost 30 years of experiences trekking and organizing / leading pilgrimages through ancient Buddhist sites across India, Nepal and Thailand.
Maarten’s love for the environment, (he is a trained Botanist and Environmental scientist), brought him to the attention of the Nepali government who were at the time looking for solutions to ease the destruction of forests on the country’s Eastern border, as over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees had been allowed to live in this area and began consuming the local vegetation for cooking and heating.
Maarten consulted with some of his friends in Environmental activism, and learned about parabolic solar cookers, easy to build and with strong output. Maarten deployed over 8,000 of these dishes, training the cooks how to work with the sun; they were able to feed tens of thousands of people a day, allowing the surrounding forest a chance to regenerate.
In 2013, Maarten mounted the ‘World’s First Solar Expedition: Bhairub Kund’ in the Nepali Himalaya, hoping to prove the efficacy of solar cooking at high altitudes. Through Deepak Gadhia, Maarten connected with my group Solar Punch, inviting us to be along for the experience, providing music for the group of 20 dutch trekkers that would be on the trek.
Pranav Gadhia
Pranav, the nephew of Deepak Gadhia and son of engineer and systems builder Bharat Gadhia, is now the director of most of the projects being brought forward with their firm CSP India and has been training practically his whole life to assume this role in the family business.
Pranav and many prominent figures in the energy industry were on hand for the official inauguration of the fully functioning ‘Large Dish’, which was initially designed and engineered by a team that was trained by Pranav’s father, Bharat.
Karishma Gadhia
Karishma is another outstanding human that has elevated the stereotype of the modern Indian woman in business. Wife of Pranav Gadhia and niece of Deepak, she worked her way into the family business by taking on typically female roles such as office worker, administrator, and the like and advancing quickly to roles in management and directorship.
She is also an outstanding proponent of local Gujarati culture. She is a trained dancer in the Gharba style and lead our group of 100 nurses and students in the Bollywood style dance around the ‘Big Dish’ for our show.
Udit Bhatta
Udit Bhatta is a Nepali born student of the environment and has for more than ten years been vice principle of Vajra Academy, a school just south of Kathmandu that has a green curricula devoted to agriculture and energy, as well as a massive Sheffler dish array on the roof of the school, used to bring steam into the kitchen for cooking.
Udit began as a student at the school, then became a teacher and finally moved into school management. He is the recipient of support and benefits from the Vajra Foundation, which is a social engineering NGO developed by Maarten Olthof and also the organization responsible for the school itself.
Sameer Sharma
Sameer has been involved in projects and developments in support of Janak and Deepak for almost 20 years.
Originally an IT software developer, he now runs a multi-state recycling and cleanup organization that has brought mobile composting, onsite waste management and true recycling to large events and institutions all over the sub-continent.
Sameer’s current passion and interest in cleaning cities and streets and developing productive waste flows came from Janak’s earlier efforts to do the same, lead by her promotion of solar cooking but also from her ‘plastic free’ lifestyle and public rallying for change to institutional waste policy.
Dr. Vikram Singh
Vikram-bhai is the director of Muni Seva Ashram and a big supporter of Deepak and his team’s accomplishments. As he helped the founder of Muni Seva develop its own infrastructure over the years he was convinced of the value of renewable energy and limiting combustion of fossil fuels - especially in a place like Muni Seva’s advanced-cancer research center.
He authorized the commission of a large sheffler array to develop their own solar kitchen, and when Deepak later came to help repair the system, Dr. Vikram offered him a home for his business and a residence at the Ashram.
Dr. Vikram has been very open to the renewable energy agenda that Deepak brings to the situation and has used the notoriety of Deepak’s accomplishments to elevate the status and visibility of the Ashram, itself positioned far from large cities in a rural area with many farms.
Sanukaji Shrestha
Sanukaji is a longtime solar cooking activist and has brought education and demonstrations to thousands of people across the Kathmandu valley in Nepal. He also is a proponent of creative reuse and reform, tasking waste material and using it for some other purpose than designed.
He started a non-profit group called FoST - Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Technology - and has visited Deepak, Shirin, Janak and Jimmy in India for speaking events and sustainability training in the early 2000s. He also hosted events in Kathmandu and Shirin, Deepak, and Jimmy, had a chance to meet in Kathmandu.
Sanukaji has also developed variations on the cleaner-burning and low-smoke producing ‘rocket stove’ which can also be fueled by bio-waste briquettes. The briquettes are yet another innovation from FoST, using bio-waste - paper pulp poo garden and food waste - and simple compression to make burnable discs which fit nicely in the rocket stoves.
Jayasimha BK
Jayasim is responsible for the expansion of the original Scheffler concentrator dish concept, eventually creating the solar energy farm ‘Solar One, India’ which has deployed an array consisting of 720 twenty-five foot tall dishes, all tied together and engineered to track the sun and flex shape based on position, season and time of day.
Jayasimbhai continues to promote the Solar One India site and though he is a prominent member of the Brahma Kumaris faith, he is also a practical engineer with real world training in energy systems and the very solar thermal energy systems we’re exploring.
George Nicola
George is the Chairman of Sunrise CSP Australia and is the co-director of the Muni Seva Ashram CSP dish that Deepak and Pranav have completed.
Just a few years ago, George and his team flew from Australia to India, anxious to meet the much hyped Deepak Gadhia and his team of extreme solar innovators. George was anxious to find applications and clients for a new generation of solar panel / cell type they had developed in Australia, such as would be used in an ideal parabolic situation. A scaled down version of the Indian dish was created in Australia and then realized full scale thru the current dish.
Pankar Singh
Mr. Singh is one of two chief engineers on site for the production of the large dish at Muni Seva. He and his engineering partner had to develop the means to fabricate parts and materials for the big dish on site at the Ashram. Instead of pre-building offsite and then assembling, they committed to developing their own means of production so that mods and tweaks could happen faster and the means of construction would be under local direction.
Mr. Singh has known Deepak since he was an engineering student in secondary school and has also learned much from Deepak’s late brother, engineering educator and project manager Bharat Gadhia, who passed only a half year before the dish itself was completed.
Mr. Singh and Deepak bring us into the means of production with a couple short tours through their shipping-container based fabrication plants, including the very advanced photometry unit used to calibrate each one-square meter panel - or cell - that was produced onsite for the large dish. In all, 530 one meter panels were produced there.
(the very large CSP - concentrated solar power - dish at Muni Seva Ashram, Goraj, India. A hundred nurses, nursing students and teachers joined us in a Bollywood-style dance around the dish.)
Environmental Justice
28/01/25 21:22
Evergreen shares the interconnected effort of individuals around the world to find effective solutions to climate challenges.
- - -
These 'solutions' address instances of environmental poverty, including issues involving energy access, resource distribution, agricultural imbalances, waste management, and other social structures that are prone to unhealthy distortions.
“Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
The opposite of Justice is Poverty
things we find in our story relating to the value statement of what environmental justice is:
- - -
These 'solutions' address instances of environmental poverty, including issues involving energy access, resource distribution, agricultural imbalances, waste management, and other social structures that are prone to unhealthy distortions.
“Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
The opposite of Justice is Poverty
things we find in our story relating to the value statement of what environmental justice is:
- Fair Treatment
- Gender, race, heritage neutral
- Restores balance
- Brings access and interaction
- Democratizes technology and engineering
- Appropriate application of tech and innovation
- Access and Influence in policy regarding climate challenges
- Seeks balance between humans and the biosphere
- Replenishes more than diminishes
- Acknowledges and acts upon the abundant ambient energy available to us all - wind, solar, tidal, etc., in contrast to grid-tied and coal-fired electric
- Develops communities that eschew corporate capitalism in favor of local goods