Mumbai – TERI-BCSD organised its annual flagship event – the 11th Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development (earlier known as World CEO Sustainability Summit) – in Mumbai on October 29-30. The Summit witnessed participation from over 120 delegates, including Indian and global business and thought leaders who deliberated the challenges faced by businesses in the context of mainstreaming environmental and social sustainability in their business strategy.
At the Inaugural Session, Dr. R. K. Pachauri sensitized the business community about the severity and extent of impact that the human race will have to face if businesses don’t realize their responsibility towards the environment and society. He shared the findings from the recent working report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to corroborate how climate change, pollution and global warming shall influence the human race and what will be the impacts of going long-head in exhausting natural resources.
Post his address, Yes Bank and TERI-BCSD launched their second knowledge report on ‘Low Carbon Industrial Growth in India’.
Mr. Ton Büchner, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management and the Executive Committee, AkzoNobel, during his speech at the special luncheon session at the summit shared with the delegates, his perspectives on the benefits of mainstreaming sustainability in the DNA of a corporate. He assured, “I have rarely seen economics fight with sustainability,” and urged the corporate world to take action to future proof their own business.
Some of the eminent dignitaries speaking at the summit, among others, were Mr. Deepak Amitabh, Chairman and Managing Director, PTC India; Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Country Head India and Director Asia Pacific, HSBC; Mr. Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman and Managing Director, HCC; Mr. Duncan Van Bergen, Global Head, Long Term Market Development, Shell; Mr. Mahendra Singhi, Executive Director, Shree Cement; Mr. R Mukundan, Managing Director, Tata Chemicals; Mr. Prasad Chandran, Advisor, BASF India; Ms. Rabab Fayad, Director- Regional Network, WBCSD; Mr. Pooran Chandra Pandey, Executive Director, UNGC; and Mr. Martin Wright, Founding Editor – Green Future, Forum for the Future, UK.
Learnings and insights on business sustainability were shared with the delegates during the deliberations in the day long sessions on ‘Disclosure and Transparency: Towards an Integrated and Holistic Approach to Sustainability’, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The Changing Paradigm’, and the ‘High Level CEO Panel on Innovations in Sustainable Development’ at the summit.
In the session on ‘Implementing Sustainable Development in Business – The Practitioners Perspective’, Chief Sustainability Officers (CSOs) of 14 leading corporate also shared the co-created project reports of their year-long engagement on specific thematic areas of Energy, Water and Value Chain, as a part of the CSO (Chief Sustainability Officers’) Forum 2012-13. The reports launched during this session were:
- ‘Knowledge Paper on Operationalising Sustainability in Value Chain’
- ‘Integrated Water Management Framework for Corporate’
- ‘Compendium of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Best Practices in Leading Indian Corporate’
The Summit was organized in association in World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Geneva. The Associate Sponsors of the Summit were HSBC, SAP and PTC India. Some of the companies that participated included – ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, ACC, AkzoNobel, BPCL, Clariant Chemicals, SBI, CLP India, GAIL, Grundfos, Aditya Birla Group, HCC, IDBI, YES Bank, Indus Towers and JSW Steel, among others. ThinktoSustain.com was the Media Partner for the event.
Source: TERI-BCSD.
