Why should a company be environmentally responsible?
Generally, a good environmental practice always turns out to be good business. In a large number of cases, a company in its attempt to find solutions to environmental damage, carries out an overhaul of processes and methods as well as modification of products. This type of renovation and revamping of past practices reveal opportunities for improving overall efficiency with beneficial financial results. Good environmental practice need not be driven by governmental regulation. It could go far beyond, and address general public concerns; it could yet be profitable for a company.

How can waste reduction help a company?
There is a general misconception that reducing waste or environment pollution can be expensive for a company. In fact, this is not the case. Waste reductionor recycling has important benefits in terms of reduced costs, while at the same time being beneficial to society. For instance, a large multinational company implements a programme for recycling of polyester film by involving a large number of its customers. This has not only brought down costs for its customers, but also allowed the company to attain savings of about $3.5 million annually. Of course, the societal benefits are even greater. There are many such examples in industry of genuine win-win measures.

What about raw material and energy use?
Raw materials and energy costs often form a large part of the costs of manufacture of many products and services. After the oil price increases of 1973-74 and 1979-80, several companies worldwide introduced energy savings programmes to reduce their overall costs. Not only did this lead to cost reductions exceeding those estimated initially before the introduction of the programmes, but actually went far beyond through savings in other costs aswell.

Today, many companies in India are going through energy audits, because electricity prices in particular have gone up for industry. Most of these reveal and result in substantial cost savings. This is also true of raw materials where, through better process control, for instance, raw material use per unit of output can be reduced, with significant cost savings. For the first 15-20 per cent of reduced energy and raw material use, the investments require are generally negligible.

How would you promote corporate responsibility?
Undoubtedly, the most important ingredient for a turnaround in corporate responsibility is the exercise of leadership. There are a large number of cases of enlightened leadership in organisations, which give us confidence that a change is taking place globally in the vision and values of corporate leaders. Examples such as John Browne of BP-Amoco, Chad Holiday of DuPont and Jack Wech of GE are a few among many. In the words of Lester Brown, president of the WorldwatchInstitute, "a growing number of high profile CEOs have begun to sound more like spokespersons for Greenpeace than for bastions of global capitalism of which they are a part". Conviction has to begin at the top.

What about rest of the company?
Mere words by the leadership are not enough in this regard. They have to be backed up with meaningful and company-wide programmes of action, which seek the participation of all employees. Several major companies today run awards programmes that recognise individuals and teams within organisations for contributions to good environmental practices and the pursuit of sustainable development. A programme of awareness creation among employees also helps greatly in changing mind-sets and creating motivation in the right direction.

What about the community?
Community involvement can also be very valuable for a company. For instance, a programme of waste recycling such as the one mentioned above would require participation from outside the organisations.Often, a programme of waste collection and treatment in an area surrounding a company's premises or a programme of tree planting can not only provide a much cleaner environment where the company is situated, but also create considerable goodwill and a favourable image for the company in general. Such projects also provide a very good example of industry- community partnerships.

What can the government do?
Governments, of course, have a responsibility in creating legislation and regulations to ensure desirable corporate behaviour, but they must also recognise good examples of responsibility and good cases of socially conscious organisations. Monitoring and measurement of good corporate performance should invariably involve the community and persons of eminence from the outside. All stakeholders should be part of any recognition that is granted to a company.

What more can be done?
The government also needs to interact closely with industry on these issues. Energy conservation efforts inJapan, for instance, are spearheaded by an organisation that is treated jointly by industry and government, who hold high profile breakfast meetings with one CEO at a time to get a commitment for reducing energy use in the CEO's company. The system worked extremely well.

How can organisations like TERI be involved?
Involving organisations like TERI can help organisations in coming up with a menu of things that could be done, which are viable and socially desirable. Bringing in external expertise can also be a useful motivator. TERI has a total staff of over 300 persons with expertise in over a dozen disciplines and a presence overseas, based on which not only can knowledge be generated for solving a company's problems in specific conditions, but examples of similar efforts elsewhere drawn upon for this purpose.

What is the current Indian scene like?
There is a major change in India, which is becoming increasingly evident. Corporates are today showing considerable responsibility intackling environmental problems, not only within their own jurisdiction, but also for society as a whole. TERI's major project, GREEN India-2047 (Growth with Resource Enhancement of Environment and Nature) for instance, was sponsored and supported entirely by the corporate sector, even though it addresses the challenge of managing India's natural resources at the national level, with no direct benefits to any individual company.