‘Together for Sustainability’ Launch Their India Chapter
Together for Sustainability (TfS), an initiative by global chemical companies to adopt sustainability measures and supply chains in chemical companies recently launched formally in India. A day long summit was organised in Mumbai in this regard.
The summit aimed at building awareness around the importance of creating a sustainable supply chain in the chemical Industry. The day long summit included different sessions on sustainability practices, a panel discussion by chemical industry leaders and music performances with sustainable equipments like tin and others.
“By 2020, atleast 90% of our manufacturing plants would have energy efficient systems,” said Dr Raman Ramachandra, Chairman & MD, BASF India Ltd. and Head, BASF, South Asia during the panel discussion.
Talking about responsible business being taken practiced by Bayer CropScience Ltd, Richard van der Merwe, Vice Chairman & MD, said, “We do not tolerate any child labour in our supply chain. We warn farmers to lose work if they are found having child labour.”
Many leaders from the chemical industry spoke about sustainability practices in their organisations and exchanged their views.
The summit saw participation from over 500 representatives from suppliers and TfS member companies as well as local and international associations, international audit companies and experts.
The event featured presentations from key executives of participating companies as well as industry bodies like Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Indian Chemical Council (ICC). Senior leaders also came together for a media panel discussion around the theme of “Charting a sustainable ecosystem in the Indian chemical industry”. The attending panelists agreed on the critical need of developing and implementing the global audit program to assess and improve sustainability practices within the chemical industry in India.
“TfS’ formal launch in India comes at a time when the Indian Chemical industry is rated 6th in the World and 3rd in Asia in value added terms at constant prices. India is at the cusp of becoming the manufacturing hub for the world with government support and initiatives like Make in India. Business activities of all organizations are thus becoming more global and supply chains more complex. Considering the important role played by chemical industry across sectors including automobile, pharmaceuticals, textiles and even manufacturing, aligning with sustainability will help the sector to drive innovation as well as their growth engine,” read the official statement of TFS.
Established in 2011, TfS has commitment from 19 leading chemical companies including AkzoNobel, Arkema, BASF, Bayer, Brenntag, Clariant, Covestro, DuPont, DSM, Eastman, Evonik, IFF, Henkel, Lanxess, Merck, Sanofi, Solvay, Syngenta and Wacker. The initiative is based on good practices and builds on established principles – such as the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the Responsible Care Global Charter as well as standards developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Social Accountability International (SAI) and others.
While the need of growth cannot be denied today, need of maintaining environmental sustainability with fair business practices is equally important. Persistent practise of responsible behaviour towards environment and society would lead to real growth.
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