MOSL: SUSTAINABILITY-India Inc. gearing up for a more constructive approach

​SUSTAINABILITY: India Inc. gearing up for a more constructive approach

We attended a conference on 'Strategic CSR and Sustainability Summit 2017,' which saw participation of representatives of large corporate houses like Reliance ADA Group, Tata Power, JSW Group, UPL, Idea Cellular and IDFC Group. The event not only proved highly insightful in that a rich blend of sustainability and CRS perspectives were offered, but it also served as a much-needed reminder that while India Inc. is moving progressively to adopt sustainability in corporate culture, a lot still needs to be done to achieve the desirable results. Key highlights of our conference discussions:

India moving progressively on adopting sustainability

• Movement toward sustainability has gained traction in India over the last three years after the government introduced a law that requires companies to plough back at least 2% of their net profit on CSR initiatives for the betterment of the society.
  
• Company board meetings now not only focus on growth, but also sustainability and CSR initiatives. Notably, sustainability is gradually becoming part of the business DNA – core to how and why business exists.
  
• Interestingly, corporates have also started acknowledging the benefits that CSR brings along with it. Globally, efforts made to achieve only four of the stated sustainability development goals (SGDs) could open up economic opportunity worth at least USD12t by 2030.
  
• Sustainability reporting is gradually becoming a mainstream among corporates over the last few years. In the long term, this should help to create accountability, ensure activity benchmarking and make goals time-bound. However, this remains a work-in-progress in India – the concept of materiality and disclosure standards varies among corporates, even among those operating in the same industry.
  
• Youth are increasing becoming part of the CSR departments in companies.