"We need to stress on triple bottomlines" - Financial Express
December 06, 2009
ITC is the only company of its size in the world to be carbon positive, water positive and solid waste recycling positive. That's a claim that has been certified, and one that its company Chairman YC Deveshwar can justifably be proud of. That ITC has been a trailblazer in the green buildings arena in India is now established. Moumita Chakrabarti met him to understand his passion for green initiatives, including its iconic green centres and hotels.
Will there be an agreement at the Copenhagen Summit?
There is hardly any choice. We have to be responsible. We must accept in principle that we must leave behind a more sustainable future for generations to come than what we have inherited. We have to realise that once societies are threatened, then nobody can really get away by contributing to that threat. So, only people who will mitigate that threat and would help to make the society more sustainable will be valuable.
How green are the Indian industries? Are claimed green practices being followed?
The issue is how quickly can we mobilise our industries and businesses to transform themselves to integrate sustainability as a part and parcel of their system. That is what the CII-ITC Centre for Excellence is trying. We are trying to enhance the building capacity among Indian industries and businesses. It is about working together within Indian industry, pooling our knowledge resources and our tool kits so that we know how to integrate sustainability practices and business strategy.
The hotel industry has to follow and create more green hotels. Recycling water, water harvesting, ensuring the use of natural breeze as a cooling mechanism, using materials that are less energy intensive in their production and recycling food waste are a must.
Is the sustainability contribution of Indian companies being measured adequately?
We haven't got a measure of the entire economy yet. That is exactly what we need to do. One of the recommendations always has been to be measure the sustainability contribution of companies. We are talking about triple bottom-lines-the financial part people know. There are two other dimensions-ecological asset formation and social asset formation. Creating sustainable livelihoods and contributing to re-energising the environmental asset are dimensions of companies that are yet to take prominence. Our balance sheets do not disclose what the impacts of the industries are on society and ecology.
So we are looking for a new system of economic activity whereby we are able to create institutions that would be able to measure not only the financial dimensions of a company but the contribution that they make towards ecological asset formation and the social capital formation. The government, business and civil society have to work together in the PPP model to be able to take this forward.
What other green steps is ITC planning?
We continue to build on our strengths. Now that our company is water positive, carbon positive and waste-recycling positive, we should be able to create five million sustainable livelihoods. We are already the number one, so what do we do after these-be the number one by far.
