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'View corporate environment responsibility as investment'

A Correspondent in New Delhi

Corporate environmental responsibility should be viewed not as a cost, but as an investment, which would yield positive results in terms of a company's reputation and brand image.

This was stated by Ibrahim H Zaki, minister of planning and national development, Maldives, while addressing a session on 'Environment: Why should business care?' at the India Economic Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the World Economic Forum.

As tourism and fisheries were the prime drivers of the Maldives economy, environment formed an inherent part of its development strategy.

According to Zaki, two elements, which form the basis of such a strategy, are public-private partnership, which draws up the rules of trade in cohesion, and cost effective technology.

He stressed on the moral responsibility of the private sector in investing in the environment and the positive effects of such investments on individual company's reputation and brand image.

Three interesting initiatives in the field of environment in Maldives are: mandatory environmental evaluation of corporate bodies; ban of drift net fishing; and a scheme introduced by two European airlines, who give their passengers bags to collect their wastes generated while holidaying in Maldives, which is subsequently recycled in the European countries.

On the issue of global warming, Zaki stressed on the need to bring developed countries on board for any multi-lateral legislation to prevent global warming.

Krishna Pillai, president, Alstom, India, highlighted that there is a wide gap between the action takers (corporate bodies) and the beneficiaries (wider population ranging through generations) of environmental legislation.

The challenge lies in the ability to bridge the gap between these two, bringing out direct costs and benefits of environmentally responsible actions.

Patrick Siewert, President, East and South Asia Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Hong Kong SAR, reiterated that responsible environmental leadership is an essential 'good business' practice.

He talked about environment being a part of his company's mission statement and the benefits of investing in resource management programmes, which are integral to an environment friendly corporate policy. Coca-Cola's water resource management programme alone has generated a savings of $27 million this year.

Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment, India, stressed that corporate bodies 'need' to care for the environment because they 'must.' She highlighted that local communities in India are becoming increasingly eco-conscious and would penalise companies who do not display environmental responsibility.

Out of 30 pulp and paper companies that she analysed in India, 28 had legal cases against them pertaining to the environment. She warned that the greatest threat was the short cut measures taken by companies to adhere to environmental regulation and the erosion of credibility of institutions that regulate environment related issues.

Replying to whether an environmental audit should be mandatory, Narain said that it was mandatory for companies in India to make an environmental statement in its disclosures, but since this was an internal system it was implemented more in form than in reality. These systems need to be put into the public domain.

K P Nyati, head, environment management division, CII, said corporate India was increasingly beginning to care for environmental issues as they start to reap the benefits of recycling leading to lower resource use.

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