INDIA INC.'S GREEN CHALLENGE

For sustainable practices to work, India Inc. needs a green-embedded business strategy, not a compliance-driven one.

- V KESHAVDEV

GUESS WHO IN INDIA INC. owns the biggest mango orchard? It’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the oil-to telecom giant owned by the country’s biggest billionaire Mukesh Ambani. You might wonder what mangoes have got to do with a company whose origins lie in the fossil fuels business. For the No. 1 company on the Fortune India 500 list, the orchard—spread over 875 acres around its refinery along the country’s west coast—is symbolic of its commitment to preserving the ecological balance even as its businesses spew greenhouse gases. But the ₹5.4-lakh crore conglomerate is now no longer aiming for the low hanging green fruit. Instead, it wants to be a zero-carbon entity by 2035, riding on its $10-billion (₹75,000-crore) renewable energy bet.

It’s a turning point for India Inc. as it has, traditionally, dabbled in the green from a compliance perspective rather than a way of doing business. A concoction of regulations blending consent, permits, and fines, largely under the ambit of the environment ministry and pollution control boards, has governed the behavior of companies. In practice, sustainability is enshrined within the CSR Act.

“The tendency is still to look at environmental laws as a regulatory burden that hampers the ease of doing business, instead of looking at them as essential to the fulfillment of corporate and social obligations,” says Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister, and Congress MP.