Finally “The Good” were rewarded at the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards function which were a manifestation of a larger goal – that of creating a mechanism for visibility of those corporate initiatives that are making genuine advances toward sustainability.

As I had written about these awards some time back, all the usual players were present.  After all these awards reward the most Sustainable companies in India and any company that is truly sustainable will have to be there on a YOY basis – along with new ones adding up.

Here is the part of the official CII Press release:

“The event began with a panel discussion on how and why Sustainability is Rewarding and how it really does lend companies a competitive edge and tangible bottom-line benefits. Panelists were Mr. Nazeeb Arif, ITC Ltd, Dr. Ajay Mathur, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Mr. C Hariharan, Biodiversity Conservation India Ltd., Mr. Sanjiv Paul, Tata Steel.

Opening remarks were delivered by Mr. Y C Deveshwar, Past President, CII, Chairman, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development Advisory Council, & Chairman, ITC Ltd.

Mr. Anand Sharma, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry and Textiles, Government of India, was present as Chief Guest.

Mr. Y C Deveshwar said, “We believe that corporate entities, by virtue of the resources and managerial talent they possess, can do much more”.  Addressing the winners, he said, “You are exemplars, and if others follow you,” we can work toward replenishing our natural wealth.

Mr. Anand Sharma said, that “India is home to 18 percent of the world’s population” and does not have the natural resources to meet its needs, reminds us we need to “seriously focus our efforts on sustainability,” and make India a hub of innovation and green technology. He added, “I’m very happy that CII and ITC have taken this laudable initiative”, and the rigour of the awards assessment adds tremendous value to the competitiveness of companies.”

Some of the winners were well-known names like Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Yes Bank, Infosys, TCS while ZED Habitats and Paharpur were among the lesser known companies.

Ideal case scenario existed. The hotel where the awards function was held is LEED Platinum certified…owned by ITC group. And ITC, being the sponsor of the awards, didn’t deem it fit to participate.

The seemingly rigorous assessment took nearly 8 months resulting in a detailed feedback report. I am not aware of the kind of metrics used or how the base-line years were calculated – in any case (hopefully they were meaningful so as to compare apples to apples only) these awards do one thing – they bring the sustainability agenda on the table causing mass awareness.

In my opinion, if just one more company makes a commitment to being a sustainable company and nothing else – these awards would’ve served its purpose. And guess what! The real sustainability embedded, environmentally restorative company is yet to emerge.

(For more: CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, www. sustainabledevelopment.in)www.twitter.com/ciicesd 

www.facebook.com/ciicesd

 Related articles:

• Rewarding “the Good” @ CII-ITC Sustainability Awards (linkingsustainability.com)
• Sustainability Solutions: Summit & Exhibition
• 5 Takeaways from the CII-ITC Sustainability Solutions Summit
• “Can Silicon Valley repeat itself in Sustainability?” asked @ XLRI-WWF Sustainability conference
• Can we have Real Design change? Looking in CII-NID Design Summit
• 7 Overarching Objectives of Sustainability