Champions of the Clean cause

If you call them corporate India's green champions, you are not likely to be off target.

More than 63 companies have taken to the GreenCo rating system backed by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). This means not only an improvement in their own production processes, aimed at plant efficiency and bringing down energy consumption, but also helping their core SME suppliers to spruce up their act.

Ostensibly the first such rating system anywhere in the world, the CII GreenCo Rating System has caught the fancy of the Who’s Who of industry spanning corporate majors such as Godrej, ITC, Dr Reddy’s, ACC, L&T, Tata Motors, Brakes India, Cummins, and IT firms TCS and Wipro, among others.

And what are the criteria used for a green corporate image? The list is long and not so easy to accomplish.

Companies are rated and certified for Greenco based on resource conservation, waste management, emission and green house gas reduction, supply chain management, product responsibility, product packaging, and optimisation of resources. Besides, they are expected to have a long road-map for resource conservation and use tools to monitor and reduce environmental impact.

About 10 parameters are taken into account. Of the 1000 points that can be scored based on company/unit performance, they get rated as Platinum, Gold and Silver. Platinum or Level 5 is awarded if they score more than 750 out of 1000 points, Gold for Level 4 between 650-749 points, Silver Level 3 for 450-549 points and for Certification of Level 1 between 350 and 449 points.

Assessed scientifically, weightage points are assigned based on parameters covering energy efficiency, water conservation, renewable energy usage, green house gas emissions, waste management and others. Says S Raghupathy, Executive Director of CII IGBC, “A first of its kind initiative in the world, the main objective is to assess companies for their environmental performance and whether they meet stringent norms.”

Evaluation takes between 6-9 months with managers in companies trained on various aspects of the rating system. They then implement best practices leading to the evaluation. The initial focus starts with one unit or a factory and depending on the response is extended to the entire company.

To become a Platinum rated company, it is not just a one-time target. The focus is on seeking excellence and a permanent commitment. Every year the entity needs to improve performance and bring additional savings. Significantly, it also has to bring into the green fold its suppliers or key business associates. That means, one company has to in turn help three to four companies improve their processes. That is how the GreenCo movement is sought to be broad based.

There are several routes to the GreenCo rating. Take the case of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited. According to IGBC, the company has set up a 600 TPD (tonnes per day) lime sludge and fly ash management system to reduce 83470 mt of solid waste and 32, 960 tonnes of CO2 emissions. It has set up a recycling paper machine effluent after clarification for bagasse washing and storage to reduce average fresh water consumption by 3000 m3.

Biogas from bagasse wash water is reused to generate 96,63,897 m3/year of biogas and reduced 127,928 t of CO2 GHG emissions. The company has also set up a 35.6 mw wind farm, biomass based recovery boiler, bio-methanation plant leading to 43 per cent of renewable energy share. It has reduced specific water consumption in the last three years by 14 per cent.

At Tata Motors’ Pantnagar unit the journey has been different. It developed a vendor park for 70 per cent of its material supply and the internal conveyer system and managed to reduce emissions by 12 per cent in two years. Apart from monitoring fixed and variable water consumption, it has pioneered the Amrutadhara project and saved five lakh litres of water per day.

Cement manufacturer ACC Limited at Kudithini Cement Unit has brought about 13.7 per cent reduction in specific energy consumption in the last three years, 40 per cent reduction in water consumption, zero liquid discharge and zero solid waste, and installed a high capacity mobile vacuum cleaning machine for collecting bulk cement fine dust.

The Platinum rated appliance division of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited, Shirwal, has brought down water consumption by 29.41 per cent, reduced hazardous and non hazardous waste by 55 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively, in the past three years. It now manufactures green refrigerators and air conditioners with 100 per cent hydrocarbon refrigerant. It uses 26.8 per cent of recycled content in the product and uses solar thermal energy for lab heating to save 25000 kwH/annum.

As important, if not more significant, it has become water positive through implementing several water conservation and rain water harvesting projects and uses hanger burning ash and ETP (effluent treatment plant) sludge for brick manufacturing.

“GreenCo is the most comprehensive tool to measure a company's green quotient. It shows us where we stand, identifies the gap areas and provides benchmarks for guidance,” says Hussain Shariyarr, Senior VP (Operations), Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd, Appliances Division.

GreenCo rating was initiated about three years back. Thus far, Raghupathy says 175 companies are in the fray, including the 63 already rated companies. Going forward, CII expects to formulate separate norm for SMEs to help them on to the green bandwagon.

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