Is Indian Industry Doing Enough to Combat Climate Change?

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”, were the immortal words of the Mahatma.

The unsustainable consumption patterns across the globe since industrialization are responsible for the predicament that we face today. Although India is one of the fastest growing nations and considering that a sixth of the world’s population lives here, an Indian citizen emits only 10% as compared to his counterpart in the United States. The policies India has undertaken so far can help contain the threat of climate change, but the truth of the matter is that Indian Industry has to take far greater steps if we have to combat the dangers of climate change.

“An overwhelming 83 per cent of the respondents from the industry claimed to have a fair understanding of climate change issues. However, just under half of these respondents said they had a clear strategy in place to tackle these issues. Almost 60 per cent responded to climate change issues for the need of complying with regulations. Only 21 per cent of the businesses surveyed measured their current carbon footprint,” says a report made by one of India’s leading consultants.

India Inc. has for quite some time pursued GHG friendly policies in her own interest. India’s obligation to minimise energy consumption - particularly oil consumption - and to deal with its environmental problems prompt it to follow many such policies. But it is the lack of concrete environment policies that is proving to be a setback in a huge portion of the Industry.

Some of the measures that companies can engage in to tackle climate change issues are: installing energy efficient appliances for lighting, heating, and air conditioning, educating and training employees on environment friendly practices, recycling products, reviewing and updating global supply chain to improve energy efficiency, achieving carbon neutral status, discontinuing high energy/carbon devices or services, reducing air travel and using vehicles with cleaner technologies.

Slowly but steadily, the awareness & the expertise is reaching the industry and each day a few more companies are getting onto the path of becoming carbon positive, water positive & waste positive.

Meghna Mehta & G. Aditya Narayanan
Industrial Safety & Environmental Management, Class of 2010
NITIE, Mumbai

To grow and reduce carbon footprint simultaneously is the biggest challenge for corporate India today.  Companies are reluctant to invest in environmental friendly technology as it has a direct impact on bottom-line of the companies, due to its longer turnaround cycle. The Indian government is also reluctant to provide financial incentives as our per capita emission of carbon dioxide is amongst the lowest in the world at around 1 ton per annum as against a world average of 4 tons.

However all this is bound to change with the business opportunities provided by the Kyoto Protocol. Companies can earn carbon credits by reducing their carbon footprints and trade the same in open market. Companies like Suzlon, DMRC are already tapping onto profits by dealing in them.

The sole motive of business is Profits. Unless the Indian government provides social and financial incentives for industries to adopt green business practices, less compliance will be reported. On the global scale, only 12 among in Fortune 500 companies follow green business practices. With lowest per capita emission of carbon dioxide, India has huge business potential in the carbon trading market. Right incentives like tax sops, transfer of technologies can further facilitate the initiatives taken by Indian industries.

Sherfur Rehman
Management Batch - PGDIM,  2010
NITIE, Mumbai

Climate change. From government bills to big screen adaptations, climate change seems to be on everyone’s mind. Anyone who has watched Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth would say that climate change is the next big crisis to hit humanity. If this is the reality, then governments and leaders should do much more to avert this. Climate change has not been the hot topic in India as it has been in countries like the United States where there are federal and local laws for climate change.

The Indian industry is only just waking up to the impacts of climate change. Recently the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) signed an agreement with Japan’s business associations - Nippon Keidanren and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry to share resources and practices that could lead to climate change mitigation. Educational institutions like NITIE are offering specialized courses in Industrial Safety and Environmental Management (ISEM). Companies recruit from such courses for profiles like Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), carbon trading etc. Indian companies are becoming more eco -friendly by undertaking environmentally inclined CSR initiatives.

India is the fifth largest carbon emitter. This has sensitized the government and the corporate sector on the importance of green technology and self sustainability. Climate change might be on everyone’s mind but unless there is a government mandate, action would not occur. Apart from being a social responsibility, it is also a business opportunity.  Indian companies are already concentrating on renewable energy projects which earn carbon credits. 43% of carbon credits issued so far by the CDM executive board, the highest international body under the Kyoto protocol, have been to India. India’s contribution towards this cause has been substantial and it can be made fruitful and sustainable only through concerted efforts of Indian industry in entirety.

Ramanathan Venkatiraman
Management Batch - PGDIM, 2010
NITIE, Mumbai

The problem of drastic climate change is one which is faced by all economies. Every organization big or small is trying to make a valuable contribution towards tackling the issue. This will help the environment and also the companies in earning good leverage points, both as a company and an organization contributing to the economy. Recently, IBM launched the second phase of its Project Big Green in India, selling greener technology infrastructures, on the back of a successful phase 1. IBM says its designs can help reduce energy consumption by up to 50%. Another example is of Patni-BPO, which adopted the practice of consolidation and virtualisation of servers to save energy.

Tata Autocomp announced the launch of the country's first green battery in April. It uses calcium in place of the harmful antimony used in the old battery technology. Apollo Tyres is gradually replacing carbon black with bio-degradable silica and has begun to use harmless aromatic oils in place of carcinogenic aromatic oils.

However, many environmental analysts feel that the major motivation behind the greener innovations is the system of Certified Emission Reductions (CER) issued by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which are a profitable proposition for Indian companies. The CERs are issued to organizations by UNFCCC, if their technology is environment friendly and satisfies certain guidelines laid down by the Convention. These CERs can then be sold to other developed countries which cannot control or lower their carbon emissions due to their industrial practices. These advanced economies buy these CERs from the Indian companies, and in-turn pay a hefty amount to the Indian companies. It is this profit, which many environmentalists fear is driving today’s Indian companies to adapt to greener practices, rather than a real concern for the impending effects of global climate change.

Efforts to adopt greener technology, even if they are profit driven at the outset, should be adopted and kept under vigilance. The prime concern of every player today should be environment protection. When the level of environment conservation is reached, then probably more ethical ways of adapting and integrating greener practices could be encouraged.

Abhishek Mishra
IIFT, Delhi
Class of 2010