The second edition of the Indian Sustainability Conclave, to be held in the capital today and tomorrow, promises to make the dialogue more vibrant and the outcomes meaningful
Globally, an increasing number of companies are making strategic investments into sustainability and are also reaping significant value from such investments. However, the scenario in India is vastly different?majority of businesses hesitate to adopt green practices because they fear it will hurt their bottom line and negatively impact profits. The trick for businesses is to be eco-friendly without compromising profitability. Simply put, it is the right thing to do and will make the world a better place for future generations.
Facilitating comprehensive deliberations and brainstorming on key issues of sustainability for businesses, the India Sustainability Conclave (ISC) is back this year with its second edition. Organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in association with The Financial Express as the print media partner, the event will be held in the capital today and tomorrow. It promises to catch this emerging trend in all its dimensions.
The Conclave is a platform for knowledge sharing on trends and practices in corporate sustainability, and aims at addressing three critical questions: Why must businesses embrace sustainability? What are businesses currently doing and what do they need to do to become environmentally sustainable? How can businesses implement sustainable practices?
The two-day meet will look into new dimensions like incentivising sustainability through policy, making reporting a value-added proposition, and creation of industrial ecology clusters. It essentially seeks to be a topical brainstorming platform with knowledge, networking and capacity building as additional takeaways to address key issues, including national and international best practices, case studies, suggesting policy directions, incentivising companies to engage in sustainability, and creating a business interface.
The Conclave will be addressed by several Central ministers, notably minister of urban development Kamal Nath, Jairam Ramesh, minister for rural development, and minister of state for corporate affairs Sachin Pilot. Some of the other speakers from the government side include UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan and V Rajagopalan, secretary, ministry of environment and forests.
The private sector will be represented by GS Uppal, head-corporate sustainability, Tata Motors, Hardeep Sodhi, vice-president, Reliance Industries, Harshita Pande, head-CSR, Apollo Tyres, Radhika Kalia, head-corporate & public relations, Panasonic India, among others.
Last year, the Conclave was successful in bringing together diverse stakeholders from industry, government, multilateral and bilateral organisations, businesses engaged in sustainability services, academia, consultants, financial institutions, international community and civil society to debate on the opportunities and challenges for corporate sustainability.
This year too, the programme promises to be action-filled and engaging. Some of the major themes, which will be discussed at the conclave, include the CSR provisions in the Companies Bill. With the Companies Bill ascertaining that companies spend at least 2% of the average net profits, this session will deliberate upon what constitutes CSR, the implications that these clauses may have on the sustainability initiatives of a company and whether this 2% would also cover environmental sustainability initiatives taken by corporations.
There will also be a session that will look into industry outlook towards sustainable production and consumption. It will explore possible ways of balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, discuss the relevance of and ways of operationalising the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Driving sustainability from the top: CEO?s perspective is another theme, which will be explored at the two-day meet. With corporates today increasingly looking at creating a positive impact on social, environmental and economic parameters that go beyond mere compliance mandates, business leaders are striving to bring a shift in their policies as well as practices in order to meet their long- term goals. Sustainability is being seen not as a stand-alone achievable, but as an all encompassing framework in which to operate. The valedictory session will dwell on the theme of ?achieving the critical balance between growth and sustainability? building on the discussions through the two days.
FICCI launched the India Sustainability Conclave in March 2012 to help businesses find solutions to address the challenge of embedding sustainability within the day-to-day operations of their businesses and help develop a whole new level of organisational commitment to their wider group of stakeholders. The Conclave focused on three dimensions: overarching issues for businesses like trends, challenges, broad understanding of sustainability paradigms, current corporate initiatives and role of policy.
The second edition of the Conclave promises to make the dialogue more vibrant and the outcomes meaningful. The platform would present national and international best practices and case studies, deliberate on policy interventions for enabling companies to engage in sustainability and seek to create a deeper understanding of sustainability through shared learning.