International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST): Grantee Spotlight (Q2 2026)

Grantee spotlight: International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST)

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to iFOREST to accelerate industrial electrification and renewable energy demand mobilization in Uttar Pradesh. iFOREST is a subnationally focused Indian nonprofit that leverages rigorous research, stakeholder engagement, and innovative solutions to accelerate climate action. 

iFOREST’s work falls within our philanthropic strategy of supporting a clean energy transition in LMICs and, more specifically, our sub-strategy to accelerate power sector decarbonization in India. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including potential risks and co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: May 2026

What Is iFOREST?

iFOREST, established in 2020, leverages evidence-based research, stakeholder engagement, and partnerships with governments, industry, and civil society, alongside regional expertise and solutions, to inform both state and national policy.

iFOREST focuses on building state-level institutional capacity, developing district- and city-specific action plans, and providing sustained technical assistance on the ground. It prioritizes work in states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Assam, where economies are highly dependent on conventional energy systems, especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or both.

What Are We Funding, and How Could It Help Address Climate Change?

As part of our focus on scaling clean energy supply in India, accelerating subnational energy transition in India, and enabling electrification, we are funding iFOREST’s work on industrial electrification and renewable energy procurement in Uttar Pradesh (UP) through three key activities within each of two workstreams:

• Process heat electrification: Accelerating heat pump adoption for low- to medium-process heat applications in the industrial sector.
  
  • Feasibility and prioritization: Conducting techno-economic feasibility studies and energy audits to identify priority industries and clusters. 
  • Piloting: Developing financial models, building the capacity of industrial players, and designing three sector-specific evidence generation pilots. 
  • Scaling: Developing process heat electrification roadmap, drafting state policy, and engaging with government and industry to drive policy adoption.
• Industrial RE demand mobilization: Unlocking and aggregating industrial demand for renewable energy (RE) in industrial clusters.
  
  • Aggregating demand: Aggregating renewable energy and storage demand in two industrial clusters to enable Renewable Consumption Obligation compliance while accelerating in-state renewable energy deployment.
  • Informing state policy: Developing an industrial RE policy framework to inform the state's renewable policy revision in 2027. 
  • Scaling: Providing technical assistance to UP New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) to scale demand aggregation. 

By shifting the industrial sector's reliance on conventional energy sources toward clean energy sources, this work creates a direct pathway to emissions reduction. In the near term, the project aims to unlock at least 100 MW of RE deployment across pilot clusters. Over the longer term, iFOREST estimates that unlocking industrial demand could drive 10-15 GW of RE capacity in the state by 2030. The co-benefits of this work include improved air quality, reduced energy costs for involved industry players, and stronger industrial competitiveness.

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Why Do We Think iFOREST Will Use This Funding Well?

iFOREST has demonstrated traction across both workstreams with sustained presence in UP since 2022. As India's leading institution on process heat decarbonization, it has partnered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to develop the national MSME boiler landscape and is currently building a national heat pump adoption framework and roadmap with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. 

Additionally, iFOREST has already demonstrated RE demand aggregation pilots in Odisha, mobilizing 270 MW of demand across two industrial clusters, which are now under implementation. This proof of concept directly informs their work in UP. iFOREST has  MoUs with UP's Directorates of Environment, Department of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, and active engagements with UPNEDA and the Boiler Directorate, which provide the institutional access needed to embed findings into state policy. 

iFOREST’s work is also quite timely and strategic, as UP's RE and Solar Policy is due for revision in 2027, creating a clear policy window to translate pilot results and analytical outputs into durable regulatory frameworks. 

Philanthropic funding for industrial electrification and demand-side RE mobilization is limited. We believe iFOREST’s approach, grounded in its field experience, implementation track record, and strong stakeholder relationships, positions it well to move rapidly from evidence generation to policy adoption and on-the-ground implementation.

Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our Top Climate Nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.