Sustainable Practices Need To Be Shared To Create A Movement, Feel Experts
Sustainability is an issue that cannot happen behind closed doors. There are several challenges one faces when companies and corporates try to adopt sustainable methods. But the corporates need to come together with MSMEs and government bodies like municipal corporations to create long term strategies for sustainability.
This was the prevalent opinion by experts who shared their views on 'Maximising Circular Economy For A Carbon Neutral Future', a panel discussion at BW Businessworld's Sustainable World Conclave 2023.
Neelam Gupta, Vice President, Group Portfolio - India for Capgemini, shared how the company has embedded sustainability in its corporate strategy. Gupta said that the company strongly believes in the key pillars of sustainability i.e., environment, diversity and digital inclusion. With practices like solar farms across all facilities and an energy command centre that connects all energy devices, the company has been taking significant steps towards more responsible sustainable practices.
Ratnesh Jha, executive director at UN Global Compact Network India, spoke about how involving the MSME sector is the key to creating a more Carbon neutral future. He agreed that awareness is key, yet some hand holding is required. Jha spoke about how there is a lack of information available in the public domain and one has to go through a company’s brochures or websites to know about their best practices. “It does not cost a lot to share the best practices that can be replicated by smaller corporates or MSMEs and this is where we have failed as an aggregator. We have to bring the companies out of their complacency, the top companies have done a lot, but it has to be a movement,” Jha opined.
The packaging industry has been one of the biggest contributors to the sustainability movement. Juhi Gupta, director Sustainability, Tetra Pak India, shared about the various partnerships that they have been doing with major companies. She too opined that there needs to be a platform where the best practices can be shared. “This will actually help in scaling up the efforts as there are good companies who are doing some great work and setting up really good examples,” said Gupta.
Meanwhile, Shipra Misra, CEO & MD of Drivv said that there are several innovations which have been sitting in the labs of institutes like IIT Delhi and more, which need to be adopted. Misra spoke about how through corporate responsibility efforts, there have been drives to collect plastic, recycle it as school furniture and then give it to schools, thus creating a sustainable chain. She added that multiple such cases exist. Everyone needs to create that value chain collectively.
Rahul Nene, Head of Sustainability at Huhtamaki India too opined that there is a strong need for partnerships and associations which can take sustainability ahead.
