Source: Business Standard, Apr 12, 2011
Mumbai: The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has tightened pollution monitoring norms for power projects with a generation capacity of 500 Mw and above, integrated steel plants with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum and cement plants with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum which have already been granted environmental clearance.
Source: Business Standard, Feb 17, 2011
Mumbai: The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF),currently under attack for being allegedly too rigid in providing clearances to projects, has lifted an earlier moratorium in this regard on eight more critically polluted areas.
Bavla (Ahmedabad): Greendiamz Biotech Pvt Ltd, in partnership with Limagrain-France, on Monday announced the launch of the country’s first fully-biodegradable and compostable bio-plastic material.
Mr Champat Sanghvi, Chairman of the company, told reporters here that the 5,000-tonnes-a-year facility, set up at a cost of Rs 40 crore, has been commissioned to manufacture sheets and bags as an alternative to plastic for consumer and industrial products.
“The products, branded as Truegreen, are bio-plastic, hundred per cent biodegradable and compostable, and very similar to plastic in terms of strength and usage,” he added.
Range of products
The bio-plastic range to be manufactured from Biolice, a biodegradable polymer, includes films for custom-printed carry bags, duffle bags, fast food containers, clamshells and thermoformed products, besides products for use in agriculture and horticulture, lining material for jute, canvas and paper bags and even bins, containers and plant pots.
“It does not include any petroleum product in its manufacturing cycle, making the product truly environment-friendly.” We hope to capture five per cent of the market share in the packaging sector alone,” Mr Dipack Sanghvi, Director.
Consumption boom
Mr David Pearson, Marketing Director of Limagrain Cereales, an international farmers’ co-operative of France, which is supplying the raw material, said India’s per capita annual consumption of plastics is expected to increase from the current 150 bags per head and to 200 bags by 2011 with the country slated to become the third largest consumer of plastics after the US and China.
“We are providing a product made from naturally grown raw material derived from renewable resources which complies to European norms, which means that soil bacteria will decompose 95 per cent of this material to carbon, oxygen and non-toxic bio-mass within 180 days,” he added.
Source : The Hindu Business Line. 09/06/10
Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar: The Orissa government, which has come out with a draft Action Plan on Climate Change entailing an investment of around Rs 17,000 crore, has proposed to put in place a Climate Change Agency to ensure effective implementation of the plan.
“A Climate Change Agency is proposed to be put in place to oversee the progress and liaise with the Government of India, external funding agencies and different sectors for the smooth implementation of the State Climate Change Action Plan”, state chief minister Naveen Patnaik said after releasing the draft Action Plan on Climate Change on Saturday.
Orissa is the first state to have formulated the Climate Change Action Plan.
The draft Action Plan, which was released on the World Environment Day, is expected to be finalized by the third week of June this year.
“The Climate Change Action Plan would lead Orissa to move towards a carbon conscious and climate resilient state. It envisages an outlay of around Rs 17,000 crore in 11 key sectors over the next five years”, Patnaik stated.
“The impact of climate change could disrupt the fragile life sustaining ecological system that holds this world together. Increasing temperatures, rising sea levels and more frequent climate mediated extreme weather events could seriously threaten the state’s infrastructure, economy, health, and ecosystems. Thus, it has become imperative to take appropriate mitigative and adaptive measures”, he added.
The chief minister had constituted a high-level coordination committee headed by the chief secretary to steer the preparation of the draft Action Plan. Eleven working groups were constituted on agriculture, coastal zones and disasters, energy, fisheries and animal resources, forestry, health, industry, mining, transport, urban planning and water resources.
For agriculture, the Action Plan has suggested a climate friendly agriculture policy, capacity building to cope with climate change, people centric watershed development programmes, developing water efficient micro irrigation methods as well as improving monitoring and surveillance techniques.
Similarly for industries, the key priorities are setting medium-term emission targets for the thermal power plants, promoting the use of bulk waste material like fly ash and slag.
These also include implementing a system of compensatory water harvesting at the industrial clusters, integrating climate change concerns in policies and plans for industrial development, carrying out heat island study for Talcher and Jharsuguda area, training various stakeholders on climate change issues and carrying out energy efficiency study for iron and steel, thermal power, aluminium and cement sectors.
Source : Business Standard. 08/06/10
NEW DELHI: THE Indian arm of PepsiCo has become the first of its global units to put more water back into the environment than it consumes, the company said.
The beverage giant has achieved ‘positive water balance’ by recharging 6 billion litres and using 5.17 billion litres during 2009 with a net saving of 836 million litres. PepsiCo, which has 45 beverage bottling and snacks plants in India, said the figures were verified by audit firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India.
“As the first business in our system and probably the entire beverage world to conserve and replenish more water than it consumes, PepsiCo India is a huge inspiration for all of us. I am proud of this accomplishment,” PepsiCo Chairman & CEO Indra Nooyi told ET. The India model will be replicated in PepsiCo’s other markets which face water scarcity, such as China.
PepsiCo India chairman and CEO Sanjeev Chadha said India is a water-distressed market but the solution to water replenishment is “basic and simple.” “If corporates get together and step up efforts like direct seeding, it would lead to very positive results.”
But environment activists are not entirely pleased with PepsiCo’s efforts. Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment said she would like to see companies achieve positive water balance, but this must happen within their factory compounds. “It would be ideal if PepsiCo was replenishing all the water it consumes in areas where its plants are located. The scarcity and problem lies in those areas,” she said.
PepsiCo said it has achieved water balance through conservation in agriculture to substitute transplanting of paddy with direct seeding technology, community programmes like construction of check-dams and recharge ponds, and rain or roof-water harvesting.
Recharge ponds have helped it save 133 million litres of water. The World Bank has warned that growing shortage of water in large countries such as India and China will hamper their growth. It estimates that India’s fresh-water supplies could be exhausted by 2050 at the current rate of consumption. In March this year, a Kerala Assembly panel asked PepsiCo to cut water usage by 60% at its bottling plant in Puducheri in Palakkad district.
A company spokesman said its Palakkad facility is a “model plant and one of the most water-efficient units in the PepsiCo system. The plant has been able to save about 200 million litres of water in the last four years and has also brought down the water usage by 60%.” Rival Coca-Cola is facing a more serious situation in the state. It has been asked by a government panel to pay Rs 216 crore as compensation for polluting and depleting groundwater.
Source : Business Standard. 27/05/10
New Delhi: As sustainability and good environmental practices become the cornerstone of doing business in the developed world, the message from big-ticket retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco, and IT majors like IBM to their army of suppliers of anything from apparel to computer hardware in India is becoming clear— let’s together shape up or else.
For example, IBM, which had a revenue of Rs 12,000 crore from its India office in 2008-2009, is clear that it would stop sourcing from the country “if it comes to that (supply chains don’t fulfill sustainability requirements)”, says Wayne Balta, vice-president, Environmental Programs and Product Safety, IBM. But, he adds, the objective is to help suppliers succeed.
Suppliers, on their part, are taking cognizance of the emerging ‘green order’. Rahul Kulkarni of Mumbai-based Alliance Foods, an exclusive supplier for a frozen food category to Wal-Mart, says: “There would be a rethink from the perspective of capex/opex allocation to the introduction of newer technologies and management practices that need to be built in order to achieve a desirable environment-friendly standard.” He is just one of the 1,700-odd suppliers in India from whom Wal-Mart sources goods ranging from textiles to apparel, leather accessories, fine jewelry and houseware. Their number is likely to grow as the retailer pursues its aim to source goods worth $1 billion in a couple of years from the country.
“Achieving these expectations is not like simply turning on a switch. It may take a little time. Our objective is to help our suppliers build their own capacity to succeed with these responsibilities and to accept corresponding accountability,” adds IBM’s Balta.
Appreciating the concerns of suppliers, Wal-Mart is focusing on educating them on the benefits of sustainability, communicating that greening the supply chain is not only good for the environment but also makes sound economic sense. Says Raj Jain, president, Wal-Mart India and MD & CEO, Bharti Wal-Mart: “Efficiencies in transportation, energy consumption and storage will reduce costs for wholesalers and retailers, who in turn, can reduce prices for consumers, thereby saving them money.”
While Wal-Mart is planning to cut emission of 20 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) of its 100,000-plus global suppliers by 2015, IBM requires its 28,000 first-tier suppliers spread over 90 countries to follow a management system by 2011 to record how they are discharging their environmental responsibilities.
been watching sustainability practices of its suppliers for quite some time now. In addition to other environmental initiatives, the retailer is already working on developing a sustainable products index, which will be built on a survey of its one lakh suppliers worldwide, focusing on energy & climate, material efficiency, natural resources, and people & community. Stating that the survey responses will be accepted in good faith, the company’s policy on sustainability supplier assessment points out: “Violation of that good faith will be considered very serious by Wal-Mart.”
Similarly, IBM requires all of its global suppliers to define and deploy a formal management system for corporate responsibility and the environment that fits their business operations, to set voluntary goals for improvement and to measure corresponding performance, and to publicly disclose results, says Balta. The first-tier suppliers are, in turn, expected to pass on the practices to their suppliers. Some have already started acting on those lines. Ranjini Poddar, president, Artech Information Systems, a first-tier IBM supplier, which operates out of America/India is planning to comply with the requirements: “Now, we’re planning to do the same thing with our suppliers.”
Wal-Mart and IBM are not alone. Companies like HP, Dell and Tesco are also pursuing the same path and engaging their suppliers on sustainability. HP has introduced a global goal to reduce GHGs to 20% below 2005 levels by 2013. Saying that they would achieve this goal by working within their own business and others, Neelam Dhawan, managing director, HP India, adds: “We have not only requested our first-tier suppliers representing more than 80% of our total product manufacturing spend to report company GHG emissions, but also started work with them to approach their suppliers in a similar way.” It’s important for HP because its aggregated supply chain GHG emissions are more than twice its own emissions from operations.
Dell too is helping its suppliers reduce their emissions. Saying that Dell requires its primary suppliers to disclose emissions data and set improvement targets, Mahesh Bhalla, executive director and general manager, Consumer Division, Dell India, adds: “A supplier’s volume of Dell business can be affected by the scores earned on these reviews.”
Similarly, Tesco, which is UK ’s biggest retailer, aims to become a zero-carbon business by 2050. Saying that they want to cut their own carbon footprint and help suppliers and customers do the same, a Tesco spokesperson says: “We’re working with the Consumer Goods Forum (a global network for shoppers) to reduce the carbon impact of consumer behaviour all the way through our supply chain by 30% by 2020 (to begin with).” Tesco sources goods, mostly apparel and grocery, worth more than $300 million annually, from India .
And the trend seems unstoppable. Saying that Wal-Mart may be the most conspicuous among the big-box retailers that have been rattling their supply chains with tightening specifications in areas like the environment, John Elkington, founder of SustainAbility, a consultancy, which has worked with Wal-Mart, adds that many others are cranking up in this area and the trend would spread.
Looking into the future, Elkington, who has given the concept of triple bottomline of people, planet and profit, says: “Over time, it will be easier (for MNCs) to cascade tough requirements through supply chains to remote geographies than to incur the social and political repercussions closer to home. And market gatekeepers like supermarkets and other retailers – alongside mainstream manufacturers—will bring more pressure (on supply chains) to bear over time, not less.”
Source : Live Mint. 21/05/10
Pune: Thermax Ltd has signed a technology transfer licence agreement with Lambion Energy Solutions, a German engineering company with expertise in converting waste to energy.
The agreement was signed by Mr Hemant Mohgaonkar, Executive Vice-President, Thermax, and Mr Axel Lambion, Managing Director, Lambionis. It is valid for five years.
The technology transfer will provide Thermax with high efficiency combustion systems for using biomass that is high in moisture content for energy generation. These will be integrated in boilers and heaters with heat output ranging from 4 MW to 30 MW.
Thermax will have an exclusive licence to market heating systems, equipped with the new technology in India and SAARC countries, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
Though Thermax has been offering its clients biomass-based equipment for energy generation for three decades. The technology upgrade will equip it with advanced systems to provide industry eco-friendly ways of extracting energy from waste.
Mr M.S. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and CEO, Thermax, said, “The new technology infusion will reinforce our product offerings in the area of green energy.”
For Lambion the partnership offers an opportunity to promote its expertise in new markets.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, May 18, 2010
Mumbai: The number of carbon credits issued for emission reduction projects in India is set to triple over the next three years to 246 million by December 2012 from 72 million in November 2009, according to a CRISIL Research study.
This will cement India’s second position in the global carbon credits market (technically called Certified Emission Reduction units or CERs). The growth in CER issuance will be driven by capacity additions in the renewable energy sector and by the eligibility of more renewable energy projects to issue CERs. Consequently, the share of renewable energy projects in Indian CERs will increase to 31 per cent.
CRISIL Research expects India’s renewable energy capacity to increase to 20,000 MW by December 2012, from the current 15,542 MW.
According to Mr. Nagarajan Narasimhan, Director, CRISIL Research, “We expect the government’s focus on renewable energy power projects to drive this growth. Distribution utilities already have to meet 5% of their power requirements from renewable sources, and this proportion will increase to 15% by 2020, leading to a growth in installed capacity. As more of these projects register with UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), CER issuance volumes will increase.”
The current share of renewable energy projects in CERs is just 19 per cent; only 284 of the 1846 renewable power projects in India are registered with UNFCCC.
CRISIL Research believes that CER issuance, purely from registration of existing and new renewable energy projects,will increase to 76 million by December 2012, from 14 million in November 2009. Assuming a price of Euro 10 for one CER, additional issuances of CERs from renewable energy projects will be worth about Rs 40 billion by December 2012.
Source: The Economic Times, May 13, 2010
The development of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), with an investment of over $110 billion over the next ten years, could bolster India’s chances of becoming the global workshop for geotechnologies.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma said: “India has the potential to become the workshop of new technology. The late eighties and early nineties came with the big boom in communication and information technology. India quickly moved in at the high end. The development of the industrial corridor will bring about a revolution in the use of green technologies.”
The DMIC envisages setting up of investment regions in Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Maneswar-Bawal in Haryana, Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana in Rajasthan, Bharuch-Dahej in Gujarat, Igatpuri-Nashik-Sinnar in Maharashtra and Pitampura-Dhar-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh. An industrial area is also planned around the Dighi port in Maharashtra.
The land acquisition process has been initiated and the finances are being worked out. Of the $ 100 billion dollars required for development, India and Japan have committed $100 million each.
However, the government does not want DMIC to become an isolated activity “but move within multiple new policy frameworks of the government” and come up with products and innovations in green technology.
The government is already working on a national manufacturing policy to help increase GDP contribution from the sector from the existing 15 per cent to 25 per cent. It has already decided to set up the first National Manufacturing and Investment Zone (NMIZ) in Rajasthan along the DMIC to boost the manufacturing sector.
Consistent with these policies, the Cabinet has also cleared the setting up of an enterprise, Invest India, in which the government will have 49 per cent equity and FICCI will have 51 per cent. The organisation is already operational and will undertake missions to sensitise investors and have focal points in states to co-ordinate with them, says Sharma.
To hasten sanctions and clearances at the state level, Sharma said a conference of state industry ministers was organised to discuss a way out to better cooperation. The conference looked at bringing uniformity and simplification of rules.
Amitabh Kant, chief executive and managing director of DMICDC, said, cities and industrial regions planned along the corridor, will be built using smart technologies.
However, there has been a delay in implementing the world’s largest infrastructure development initiative. The first phase covering 12 nodes was initially scheduled for commissioning by 2013 and the remaining 12 investment regions and industrial areas were supposed to be developed by 2018. Due to procedural delays, it has been decided that seven nodes will be completed by 2018.
Seventy-five per cent of the project, Kant says, will be developed on public-private partnership (PPP). The finances will be sourced through Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) loans from Japan and resources raised through institutional bonds. Officials claim a major portion of the project would be ready for commissioning in nine years.
“We are an aspirational country. Today we see a commitment both at the industry and government level. This country has a vision and self confidence. We are investing in institutions and developing human resources. I am optimistic,” said Sharma.
Source: Business Standard: May 13, 2010
India is finally set to give shape to its futuristic smart cities — world-class, self-sustainable habitats with minimal pollution levels, maximum recycling, optimised energy supplies and efficient public transportation.
The pilot projects to develop these ‘smart communities’ is underway and is expected to be completed over the next 18 months. Japanese corporations such as Hitachi, Mitsubishi, JGC Corp and Toshiba, among others, will design and build these eco-friendly towns along the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC).
The DFC between Delhi and Mumbai will pass through six states — Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
“This is the first time after Chandigarh that a serious effort is being made to build modern cities,” said Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.
The eco-friendly cities would provide world-class facilities with 24-hour power supply and drinking water, mass rapid urban transportation, with bicycle and walking tracks, complete waste and water recycling, systems for smart grids — digitally managed systems to control energy consumption — and smart metering.
The industrial hubs and eco-friendly cities along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) are expected to double employment opportunities, triple industrial production and increase exports by four folds over the next decade.
The pilots have been initiated in Haryana (Manesar Bawal region), Maharashtra (Shendra industrial region) and Gujarat (Changodar and Dahej).
“With industrial expansion pollution increases. The attempt here is to ensure that development takes place in harmony with the environment, not in conflict with it. Everything in these cities will get recycled,” said Sharma.
Amitabh Kant, chief executive and managing director of Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corp. Ltd (DMICDC) said Japan has been a frontrunner in introducing sustainability concepts.
“Japan’s Kitakyushu Eco-Town has received global acclaim for its environment friendly practices. The city has successfully integrated an environment conservation policy and an industry promotion policy. It is our aim to learn from them and do better while coming up with ecologically sustainable cities along the industrial corridor.”
Once the pilot programmes are successfully implemented the smart community concepts would be taken forward and executed in developing three mega cities in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The first of these cities would come up in Dholera investment region in Gujarat, 110 km from Ahmedabad. The master-plan for the city is ready and talks are on with farmers for the acquisition of land.
“These cities are expected to draw young people because of their employment potential and would therefore come up not just as manufacturing hubs but also as integrated residential areas. No city in the world has succeeded only because of manufacturing pull,” said Kant. The cities will have several central business districts with residential areas.
The master plan for the new cities will soon be put up on the website of DMICDC to seek comments from experts. “We are starting late. So, we need to learn from others and do at least 2 per cent better.”
Admitting to the challenges ahead, Kant said, “It’s the toughest project anyone has done in India.” DMICDC is looking at creating 500 million world-class dwellings, and will be one of the biggest urban development projects globally. Suzhou, a new city in China, is one of the models that the DMICDC is looking at. Some of the other models are Shanghai, Iskandar Malaysia and Amsterdam-Rotterdam.
To make the region energy-sufficient, DMICDC is also working on building six power projects of 6000 MW along the corridor. For water availability, it has already tied up with sites where gas grids and water is available.
Source: Business Standard, New Delhi May 12, 2010
