New Delhi (T2S News Release): The underlying theme of India Sustainability Conclave 2012 – “Balancing business goals in a sustainability paradigm”, clearly highlighted the role businesses must play by moving from the narrow confines of “compliance mentality” to taking a “broader” and “proactive” approach.
The two day conclave was spread across highly focused plenary sessions:
- Building a sustainability paradigm for businesses
- Policy: A catalyst or imperative for businesses to adopt sustainability
- Sustainability of the supply chain
- Has sustainability reporting become fashionable?
- Reducing lending risks through sustainability reporting assessment
- CEO Panel: Sustainability in the new decade: CEO’s perspective
- Development and diffusion of clean technology for corporate sustainability
- Water & Waste: Being water positive: Why is it vital to sustainability? & closing the loop, moving towards zero waste strategy
- Stakeholder engagement – Towards making business decisions sustainable
- Concluding session: Achieving the critical balance between growth and sustainability
The discussions emphasized the relevance of corporate sustainability strategies in adding value in terms of cordial stakeholder relations that are necessary for businesses to maintain their ‘license to operate’.
In India, few leading companies have set excellent examples by building high levels of trust and confidence with their stakeholders by actively engaging them in decision making process, by adopting environment best-practices such as resource conservation and waste management, by adhering to sustainable financing and reporting protocols and by influencing strategic partners in the value chain to focus on ethical sourcing and fair trade practices.
However, this trend is yet to pick up momentum in terms of a “sustainability drive” or a “sustainability movement” in the industry.
The speakers had mixed responses on the need to have national policies that would mandate companies to report on their sustainability performance. The government through the new Companies Bill 2011 which is currently under review, might mandate disclosures on Corporate Social Responsibility.
The speakers also deliberated on the existing sustainability guidance such as the UNPRI, Equator principles, UN Global Compact and GRI’s sustainability reporting framework to understand how Indian businesses can leverage these frameworks to build trust and confidence among their stakeholders. Though designing relevant metrics to measure sustainability performance and moving on to the reporting paradigm still remain a challenge for most Indian companies.
The speakers also discussed the various approaches to link sustainability initiatives to company performance and highlighted the need for having quantifiable metrics such as the Dow Jones sustainability index (DJSI). DJSI is the first global sustainability benchmark that tracks the stock performance of world’s leading companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. DJSI provides relevant information to investors who want to factor the environmental and social performance of a company in their investment decisions. In India, the Bombay Stock Exchange has recently launched its ‘BSE GREENEX‘, measuring the performance of companies in terms of carbon emissions.
The CEO panel was chaired by Naina Lal Kidwai, Senior Vice President, FICCI & Country Head HSBC. The high-profile panel included eminent business leaders – Harshpati Singhania, MD, JK Paper, Mukesh Aghi, MD, Steria India, R S Sharma, MD, Jindal Power & Chairman, FICCI Power Committee, Ravi Sharma, MD, Adani Power & Co-Chairman, FICCI Power Committee.
The CEO panel pointed out the steep inequalities that are responsible for demographic trends that would put a strain on natural resources. The members raised the stress our metropolitan cities would be facing due to huge infrastructure requirements needed to cope with a migrating population.
From a sustainability perspective, the panel highlighted, it would be critical for businesses to ensure that they adopt energy efficient technologies and also identify the inter-linkages between best sustainability practices and corporate performance.
The conclave concluded with the theme address that was delivered by Mr Jairam Ramesh, Hon’ble Minister of Rural Development, GoI. Mr Jairam Ramesh touched upon the need to understand the uniqueness of the Indian demography – the size of population, the weather patterns, diverse climatic conditions and the concentration of mineral wealth in dense forest areas inhabited by tribal communities.
Present on the occasion, Mr Digvijay Singh, Senior Congress leader, opposed the provisions for sharing of profits and royalty on mining in the new Mines Bill and contended that it would become another source of corruption.
Mr S Ramadorai, Advisor to the Prime Minister in the Prime Minister’s National Skill Development Council, Mr Ranjit Barthakur, Founder & Trustee, Balipara Tract & Frontier Foundation, Mr Kamal Nain Pandya, Balipara Tract & Frontier Foundation & Ms Naina Lal Kiwai, Senior Vice President, FICCI & Country Head HSBC also graced the session.
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About the Event: The concept of the Triple Bottom Line in the business paradigm suggests that business goals are inseparable from the society and environment within which they operate. Corporate Sustainability is now treated as an all encompassing framework for businesses rather than a stand-alone achievable. For more details about the event – objectives, speakers etc visit
– India Sustainability Conclave 2012 at New Delhi
– ThinktoSustain.com partners with FICCI for India Sustainability Conclave 2012
