Making a ‘mark' with sustainability

The CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development will, over the next 18 months, develop independent sustainability ratings “of the top 200 companies.”

Speaking to Business Line here, Ms Seema Arora, Executive Director of the centre, said, “We may bring out a list using our own metrics, then we may link this to a sustainability label so that the market can recognise the leaders. There's a great need for metrics, a framework, to make sure which are the companies that actually create value and which are the ones that only talk.” She was responding to a question on greenwashing, marketing aimed at misleading people into believing a company's policies or products are environment-friendly.

The centre aims to create an enabling climate for Indian businesses to pursue sustainability goals on several fronts – environmental, social and economic. It creates awareness, promotes thought leadership, and teaches organisations how to engage with different stakeholders and how to report sustainability.

Ms Arora said large companies see the benefits of corporate sustainability quickly enough. Small and medium enterprises are slower to adopt it, usually pushed into it only if seen as important to their buyers.

She emphasised the importance of recognition of companies that take voluntary measures in this regard, saying official/formal commendation for them would go a long way in keeping them motivated and setting an example for others.

Ms Arora said the centre is also working on developing a sustainability mark over a period, something that companies can voluntarily apply for, which may appeal to consumers aware of its importance. The centre is also working with the Government to come up with green procurement norms to boost corporate sustainability. Once they are in place and notified, hopefully in a couple of years, the Government would no longer go by the ‘lowest bid' to buy whatever it needs – the products would have to adhere to the green guidelines, Ms Arora said. Green guidelines are those that take into account environment-friendly manufacturing processes and consequences of end-of-life use of the product

On the benefits of corporate sustainability, Ms Arora said, “We have to be not shy to say it makes business sense.” Other benefits include new markets (such as the ones for Godrej Chotukool, a low-cost battery-operated refrigerator for the rural areas; ITC's farm forestry initiative and e-choupal); the trust built among communities; cost reduction; healthy workplaces; lesser attrition in companies that have environmentally- and socially-conscious employees, and for companies going global, access to money and financial capital overseas.

According to her, almost 40 companies in India put out sustainability reports, some annually, others once in two years or so. The major reporting companies include ITC, Jubilant Life Cycle, ONGC, some Tata companies, BHEL, L&T, Infosys and Wipro are some of them. It's a growing trend, she said, adding that there are many more companies which are issuing internal reports and not yet going public with them.

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