Hyderabad, Oct.8 (Hydnow): The 9th GreenCo Summit, 2020 was inaugurated by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre on CII virtual platform. The two-day virtual summit features deliberations and interactions among industry stakeholders on a range of green and environmental sustainability aspects, such as green business strategies, product innovations, circular economy, resource efficiency, green procurement & supply chain, and life cycle thinking among others.
The 9thedition of the GreenCo Summit saw participation of 350+ companiesand more than850 industry delegates. It also featured more than 80 speakers, nationally and internationally, sharing their views on various green aspects.
Pradeep Bhargava, Chairman, CII GreenCo Summit 2020 underlined the theme address stating that the current scenario has provided an opportunity for industries to re-look at the building blocks and to build back better through green. He re-emphasized that green is not about meeting compliances but to stay ahead of it all. He mentioned that GreenCo is driving an efficiency improvement agenda. “The GreenCo Awards is a culmination of the process for which the reward is already attained during the course of the journey in terms of cost advantages, cultural change of organizations, and many more”, he outlined. He put forth the additional focus areas for GreenCo in the years to come as GreenCo for green finance, facilitate public sector organizations to systematically adopt green, guide MSMEs go green by leveraging the power of OEMs, and GreenCo for services sector.
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Dr Rene VAN BERKEL, Representative at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), India expressed his delight to partner with CII in the GreenCo Summit 2020. He stated that MSMEs are an important backbone to the economy and to the larger organizations. He mentioned that greening of industries, with a special attention to MSMEs, has been UNIDO’s agenda and GreenCo has complemented it by encouraging industries to look beyond compliance.
Mahendra Singhi, Managing Director & CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited & President, Cement Manufacturers Association in his address to the GreenCo Summit 2020 stated ‘Green makes life sense’. He accorded credits to CII GreenCo for guiding Dalmia Cement Group in going green. “As one of the major contributors to carbon emissions, the industry has an opportunity to be a solution-seeker and a solution-provider to global climate change issues”, he stated. Mr Singhi re-emphasized Dalmia Cement Group’s commitment to be carbon negative by 2040 and be 100% reliant on renewable energy by 2030. He advocated that green finance is crucial and will serve as a great opportunity for industries in adopting green technologies.
Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman, CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre and Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce, congratulated all the GreenCo award recipients and stated that the CII members are immensely benefitting out of the GreenCo rating system. He urged the industry to be the change makers and systems like the CII GreenCo will facilitate the change. He stated that CII’s thought leadership is clearly leading the agenda of green in terms of companies, products, and buildings from a global perspective. All of these efforts will build equity with the society, the government and with every other involved stakeholder and is clearly something that the industry needs.His message to all the CEOs in India was to pursue green and realize the enormous benefits that it will have to offer. “If every member of CII adopts GreenCo, then that is going to be a wonderful way in which India will move towards net carbon neutrality”, he stated. To underline his key message.
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The GreenCo Summit 2020 also featured a fireside chat with Paul Polman, Co-Founder and Chair, IMAGINE and Former CEO, Unilever which was hosted by Jamshyd N Godrej. “To have a business model that would actually decouple growth from environmental impact and the business model that would maximize its social impact is the need of the hour”, was Mr Polman’s key message. He also stated that the best investment and best ROI on investment is on sustainability. (Hydnow)