Page 86 - TIC_Content-Portfolio
P. 86
Within sectors, some businesses have since the cost of adaptation is cheaper
been collaborating to combine their than the cost of mitigating
supply chain or are leveraging each emissions. Accelerating the adoption of
other’s to ultimately benefit the consumer renewable energy will also help
and themselves. There were also companies reduce their dependence on
several innovative logistics solutions that fossil fuels.
cropped up during this lockdown period.
For instance, when last mile delivery The other measure that companies must
proved a challenge, Godrej Consumer undertake to reduce their emissions is to
Products Limited tied up with Swiggy to strengthen their monitoring systems. This
deliver sanitisers and soaps to grocers and is one of the initiatives
other shops!
under Godrej’s Good & Green
sustainability programme, which has
All these examples of operations being helped us successfully reduce our specific
managed differently show how businesses carbon emissions by more than 55% from
could function without expending carbon the baseline. We have digitised our
the way we used to. According to a study monitoring systems, which enables us to
conducted by the UK-based journal solve issues on a real-time basis instead of
National Climate Change, India’s carbon relying on a post mortem.
emissions dropped by 26% in early
April. This pandemic, thus, has been an Plastic packaging is the next area that
unwelcome but effective prod to industry companies need to focus on. While there
to completely revise the way we think is a lot of talk about banning plastics, it’s
about production, manufacturing and even important to understand that this wonder
the way we work.
material by itself is not a problem. The
real issue is in the circularity of plastic:
it is being dumped in landfills instead of
Reprioritisation of Sustainability being brought back into the ecosystem to
be recycled. There is no dearth of
There is a school of thought that technologies to recycle plastic; the
sustainability and environment targets roadblock lies in efficient models for
may get sacrificed in the effort to regain collection and segregation.
margins. But aside from that, efforts
towards sustainability have actually been
accelerating. Businesses have realised that A better way to tackle this problem would
they will face several climate-related be to pinpoint gaps in the value chain. For
emergencies over the next two decades, instance, organising and empowering the
for which they need to be prepared. Many informal sector of waste workers to safely
companies are revisiting their work in plastic recovery may boost
dependence on fossil fuels, their water livelihood opportunities. Increasing
consumption, resource usage and efficiencies in plastic recycling will
emissions. reduce consumption of virgin plastic,
which ultimately translates into lesser
emissions.
The need of the hour is to put an actual
price on both the carbon and water that
businesses consume. Since there is no Time for Introspection
national carbon price, companies should
set a notional one internally and include it A lull in consumption and a shortfall in
in their product cost. This accelerates the production are the main issues businesses
pace of adoption of green technology,
