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EC+10: Business, CSR and Green Economy Workshop

Over the past decade or so, the concept known as corporate social responsibility (CSR) has developed from a fringe interest associated with companies with particular links to the environment into a mainstream business activity adopted by major business houses around the world. Good CSR is about maximizing the company’s positive impact on the society, while maximizing returns. It is about using innovation to find creative and value-added solutions to societal and environmental challenges. With the growing importance of stakeholders, the concept of CSR has become inevitable for the success of a business unit.

With climate change being a major concern and the rise in carbon emissions, potential of environmental accidents, and huge consumption of both renewable and non-renewable resources, the role of industries and business to protect the environment is gaining more significance. How can a business unit help in environmental protection? The answer is tied up in the amount of energy it uses - and the contribution this energy use makes towards issues such as climate change. Today, it is extremely crucial for the business units to adopt usage of alternative energy and help in conservation of natural resources.

 With green economy, the core is to promote social economy and business to transform into high energy efficiency, low energy consumption and low carbon emission. Eminent business houses like Nestle, Corporate Express- Australia, and Hindustan Unilever have taken initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains. There are others like Google, Infosys, Kingston, Ford Motors, ATIS, etc who have taken several green initiatives for sustainability.

Initiatives taken for building green economy by corporate will not only help the society and development of the world, but also the corporate houses involved. It will strengthen interaction with consumers, and promote green business development with the help of innovations in utilization of energy; it will also attach importance to low-carbon technology creation, it will help build strong relations with all the stakeholders, and thereby help in creating the goodwill and brand value for the organization. 

But for this, there is a requirement that all the corporate houses around the world, collaborate and share knowledge on global trends, challenges and thereby reaching to conclusions about the best practices that can be adopted for development of green economy framework. Do you think that all the business houses will realize the importance of environmental and ethical development? Can there be an integration of such activities undertaken throughout the world? Is it possible to get all the corporate houses to think alike and work towards low carbon economy? If yes when will this happen?

-Shraddha Ganwani