Over 1000 firms to be green company rated by 2017: CII

The number of firms opting for CII’s Green Company (GreenCo) rating, a holistic mechanism for evaluating the performance of companies on the ecological front, is likely to reach 1000 by 2017, according to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). At present, India has 48 GreenCo rated companies and over 140 companies are working on this rating. As per CII estimates, these 1,000 companies would save about Rs 2,000 crore, apart from gaining other tangible and intangible benefits.
 
“Today, Indian industry is in the forefront in adopting ecologically superior and economically viable business growth models and in the process setting new benchmarks in environmental management. It is heartening to witness how Indian industry is looking beyond compliance and achieving global excellence,” said Jamshyd Godrej, chairman, CII-Godrej Green Business Centre, while speaking at the GreenCo Summit 2015 in Mumbai on June 25, 2015.
 
The roadmap for GreenCo Rating was based on the success story of Mission on Sustainable Growth (MSG) initiative. In days to come, CII would work with the stakeholders in developing exclusive GreenCo rating for SMEs. “Based on the earlier experiences, CII will appropriately fine-tune the existing GreenCo rating and will adopt a cluster approach in rating Green SMEs in the country,” informed Jamshyd Godrej.
 
Speaking on the occasion, Dr K U Mistry, chairman, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, said, “Large number of manufacturing units in Gujarat follows the zero-discharge norms and reprocesses hazardous waste materials. The pollution control board is enabling green Gujarat.”
 
Highlighting the green industry platform, Ayumi Fujino, director, Regional Office India, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), called on the need to work towards mainstreaming of resource efficiency in production by the collective efforts of all stakeholders.
 
Dr Prem Jain, chairman, Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), highlighted that IGBC, with the support of all the stakeholders has crossed the 3 billion square feet mark of registered green building footprint. This remarkable milestone enabled India become the second country in the world with the largest green building footprint, he underlined.