Building A Sustainable Future

Our planet has witnessed it all—from pandemic to calamities to geopolitical crisis. The time to act is now! The time is now to celebrate and acknowledge the best sustainable practices and motivate corporations to collaborate in a better way said Mehta of Hindustan Unilever while sharing his views on sustainability for corporates at the second edition of BW Businessworld’s ‘Sustainable Conclave’. 

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it,” Mehta said. He added that developed nations take the lead, developing nations then follow and take action to mitigate the impact of climate change. Enormous challenges could be addressed by rewriting the contracts between businesses and societies and by aligning business goals with socio-economic growth. 

Realigning Goals 

With over 65 per cent of the population below the age of 35, India has the demographic advantage to act upon the many opportunities, Mehta said. “We also have an extraordinary reservoir of public and business leadership talent who are committed to building a new sustainable era,” HUL’s Mehta mentioned while speaking on how India can attain a sustainable mark across various levels. 

“India has activated a farreaching policy framework to support electric vehicles by introducing subsidies and setting targets to transition in a time-bound manner. We have set ourselves a target of net zero-emission by 2070. A lot will have to be done to achieve these goals,” Mehta emphasised. 

Commenting on what HUL has been doing, Mehta said, “Hindustan Unilever has three stated core beliefs—Brands with purpose grow faster, People with purpose thrive and Companies with purpose last longer.” 

What should be done?

“Companies should set audacious sustainability goals, transition to renewable energy, integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion into the foundation of the businesses and embed sustainable practices into the entire supply chain,” that was the mantra spelled out by Mehta.

In recent months, Mehta has consistently said that the climate crisis and healthcare are the two big lessons that businesses and people the world over must focus on as part of the takeaways from recent events like pandemic and changing climatic conditions and its adverse effect. 

He said recently, “as a world, we have to stop procrastinating and take concrete steps. And as businesses we have to adopt sustainability as a business goal.” He also believes that India can become the affordable healthcare capital of the world, winning a greater share in global API manufacturing