“Moving on from CSR activities for the sake of it as mandatory practices organizations have to move to larger sustainable business models and best practices which brings in environmental and societal changes”, said Dr. Jitendra K. Das, Director, FORE School of Management.
Along with Dr. Jitendra Das, who was the session moderator at Corporate Governance and Sustainability Vision Summit organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), were present corporate leaders Mrugank Shekhar Dash Bhattamishra, Executive Director, NTPC Ltd; Prabodha Acharya, Chief Sustainability Officer, JSW Group and Sanjay Gupta, General Manager, Shree Cement Ltd in the session, Effective Corporate Governance, CSR and Sustainability Reports.
Citing unprecedented and unexpected climatic changes and its recent impacts at various places, Dr. Das said, “Extreme care needs to be taken immediately by all to protect and sustain the precious nature and its resources. CSR sustainability essentially is to be aimed at helping organizations to measure, understand and communicate their actions and performances on economic, social and the environmental aspects. Performances should be measured on what is popularly known as the triple bottom line. CSR initiative should focus on goals and evaluate performances on those set goals.”
Mrugank Shekhar Dash Bhattamishra stated how the CSR activities in industry started with an overview of Indian Corporate Governance, the Companies Act 2013 and SEBI requirements to present day CSR in the Indian context to interpretation of CSR Legal Framework. “Now it is all about Business sustainability which is seen as an opportunity for business houses to act upon climate change, biodiversity loss which is happening hundred times faster”, he said.
Prabodha Acharya in his adress mentioned how CSR activities has over the years transformed from a “feeling good factor to a doing good“ factor with sociatal focus. He said, “Companies also felt that CSR initiatves is a way to win hearts and started having strategic investements into CSR practices.”
Moving forward it is now important to have a system in place for disclosing of sustainibility information and reporting with transparency, fairness and accountability by having governance and proper committees with stake holders – Investors, customers, government and media.
Sanjay Gupta shared similar sentiments and spoke of industry’s responsibility today on environment and Society for ensuring sustainability. Adopting Best practices and methods of Operational Excellence can help in achieving optimum profitability in the lines of the triple bottom line.
Related ethical issues were taken up thread bare by a host of other eminent speakers and thought leaders in the field during the course of the seminar.
