‘Sustainability’ today is seen as an increasingly crucial strategic need by all business groups. The global pandemic has placed the spotlight on the value of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) considerations across all sectors. There is an absolute explosion of net-zero commitments from companies and countries surrounding the 5th anniversary of the Paris Agreement.
At Sustainable Organisations series of The Economic Times – Global Sustainability Congress, held on June 29th, 2022, Mr Sunil Jain, Operating Partner – Energy Transition, Essar Capital, was a part of a very interesting discussion on the topic “Leadership Matters: How the C-Suite is seizing the ESG Opportunity”. The series are part of Economic Times initiatives that aims to highlight the challenges and opportunities that India Inc has been facing over the last decade, especially with regards Sustainability and ESG.
The session was moderated by Ms Namrata Rana, Director-Strategy and Brand, Futurescape, who initiated the discussion in the presence of renowned fellow panellists that included Mr Sunil Jain, Mr Anup Mathew, Head of Greener India Council and Business Head- Godrej Construction, Godrej & Boyce, Mr Aun Abdullah, ESG Leader, Lodha Group, Mr Surya Valluri, Head Sustainability- Pulp and Fibre, Grasim industries Limited, Mr Sandeep Chandna, Chief Sustainability Officer, Tech Mahindra, and Mr Prabodha Acharya, Chief Sustainability Officer, JSW.
The panel discussion amongst the industry leaders sparked conversations and brought together diverse perspectives on ESG, the future of sustainability and actions that will drive the change towards this goal. Addressing the audience and his fellow panelists on scaling sustainability, Mr Jain pointed out Sustainability as being an integral part of ESG, focusing on People, Planet and Profit. Commenting on the future of sustainability, Mr Sunil Jain underlined the evolution of technology that is changing business models. Today, renewables are the cheapest source of energy purely because of the evolution of designs. One learns from their mistakes and keeps evolving, so the human mind will adapt to new things and come up with new ideas. He elaborated on how innovation and technology will play a key role to enable, adapt and transition to sustainable business practices. He further emphasized on the 3R’s – Reduce, Renew and Recycle – as the mantra for businesses across sectors to be sustainable in the long run. While sharing his thoughts, Mr Jain gathered audience’s attention towards the fact that 50% of carbon emission comes from the energy sector. Therefore, he stressed upon the urgency of the country to do away from thermal power and switch to renewables and electric vehicles to strongly drive the biggest change towards sustainability.
The Global Sustainability Congress series are also part of The Times for India’s initiative to identify exceptional organizations, and under that umbrella, The Economic Times Sustainable Organisations aims to showcase India Inc’s sustainability trailblazers and celebrate their success stories. At the conclusion of the event, it was a great privilege for Essar to be among the best in India Inc, who were recognised for their sustainability initiatives. A token was presented to the Essar team by Ms Diya Mirza, who apart from being an eminent Bollywood personality, is also an active social worker and sustainability warrior.
