Its Green Rating Project (GRP), funded by the United Nations Development Programme, has found that none of the mills got the top two ratings of five and four leaves, respectively, devised by the organisation. The first two mills, which topped this year's green rating, managed to get three leaves, while 12 managed to get just one leaf. Out of 31 mills reviewed under the GRP, JK Paper Mills in Raygada, Orissa, has been rated as the greenest paper mill in India followed by Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Limited and BILT's Ballarpur unit, according to CSE director Anil Agarwal.

The JK unit won the medal of honour for installing a modern pulp process called rapid displacement heating, which consumes less energy with higher fibre efficiency. Also the amount of chlorine required for bleaching andwater to process the pulp is much lower than those mills which do not use this technology.

The mills that came at the bottom of the ratings were Grasim Industries Ltd, Kerala; Amrit Papers and Mukerian Mills, both in Punjab. These mills have been operating without the consent of the state governments for two decades now. But one of the mills, which has been using more environment-friendly technology, the Sinar Mas Mill in Maharashtra, could not be included in this year's rating despite a high score as it was not functional during the period for which the green rating has been done.

Says N Chandrabushan, who headed the GRP: ``The pulp and paper industry was chosen because it is one of the most polluting industries. We used over 100 criteria under three broad categories -- corporate environment policy and management systems, input and process management, and public perceptions of the mill's environment responsibility.'' None of the mills could get the five leaves rating (a score between 75 and 100) or fourleaves rating (a score between 50 and 75). ``This clearly indicates that the overall environmental health of the paper industry is not very good,'' he says. The reasons being that the sector is plagued by inefficient use of resources, poor sourcing of raw material, outdated technology and wasteful and polluting processing, he analyses.

Agarwal is more critical of the situation. He says the global debate over the use of chlorine-free bleaching has been largely by-passed by the industry in India. The GRP has found that almost all the mills continue to use chlorine to bleach paper. Chlorine used in the processing releases carcinogenic dioxins that can enter the food chain, he points out. None of the mills use non-chlorine processes. Recently a few larger mills have begun to recover chemicals from the `black liquor' waste for reusing. But even this is not enough, Agarwal says.

The GRP also found that most of the Indian mills used high amounts of fresh water, which is dangerous for the health of the waterbodies. ``They should think in terms of harvesting rainwater,'' says Agarwal. Sinar Mas is the only mill, which is located in a dry area in Maharashtra, and is mainly using rainwater harvested by it to meet its water needs.

Another serious allegation brought out by the GRP is that most of the mills are in conflict with the local communities and complaints of water pollution are widespread. One of the mills, Seshasayee Paper Mills in Tamil Nadu, has taken some steps to interact with the local community, but it is just a small step, says Agarwal.

But the GRP has already had a considerably impact on the paper industry. Agarwal points out that when the first questionnaires for the GRP were sent out, only one company, JK Mills, had an ISO 14000 certification. ``By the end of the GRP, nine companies had a definite environment policy. This clearly shows that a civil society can make an impact on the industry to get serious about the environment,'' says Agarwal. The GRP report concludes that all companies want agood rating and a clean public image. Concern among investors and regulatory authorities on environmental factors are increasing making the companies want to improve their environmental policy. Spurred by this response to the green rating, CSE will now begin to green rate the Indian automobile industry.