IIM urges green rating for corporates

Economists have suggested introduction of green accounting norms for corporates with the aim to protect the environment and biodiversity and to foster sustainable development.

"The United Nations has come up with suggestions on a framework on how to implement the concept. However, it has to be integrated with the system in India. If the law is suitably changed, we can also have green accounting, environmental balance sheet," Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, professor at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC), said.

One way of making a corporate sensitive to environmental issues was introducing green rating on stock exchanges.

For instance, a company with good compliance could be given green rating, followed by yellow and red with decreasing scale of adherence.

"There should be an estimate how the companies are using natural resources and the cost of it. A mechanism should be evolved by which such resources can be replenished," Anup Sinha, dean, IIMC noted.

Indonesia has applied some of the tools in this regard and the experiment met with reasonable success. The government had collected data about various corporate on their compliance with green laws.

It gave these corporates time to mend their ways. The names of companies which did not comply were made public and this resulted in huge turmoil. Stocks of errant companies were hammered on exchanges.

To deal with such complex issues of bio diversity, its assessment and valuation, livelihood, traditional knowledge, intellectual rights, Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE) would be holding a conference starting tomorrow in collaboration with Centre for Development and Environment policy (CDEP) of IIMC.

The three-day conference will see over 150 participants coming together for a round table on 'National Biodiversity Act and biodiversity strategy and action plan'. It will also deal with 'Millennium Ecosystem Assessment'.

The meet would aim to prepare the country for important issues of the future and management of environment and ecology, secretary of INSEE, S Iyengar said.

Iyengar pointed out one of the most crucial issues confronting the preservation of biodiversity in the developing countries was to manage the interests of those depending on nature for their livelihood and also its conservation.