Aiming to paint the corporate world a shade of green

Corporates are generally reluctant to follow the green route and it takes some cajoling for them to really listen. So, it is no mean feat that the Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE), an NGO working in the field of environment, has achieved with its successful green corporate plan in two cities, and a plan for the third city in the pipeline.

CERE’s USP is that it actually plans practical guides for corporates and follows up with auditing to ensure that the work bears fruit. Two years ago, the NGO started making green inroads into the corporate world when it realised that “the big role they play in energy consumption and resource management cannot be ignored”, said Janjri Jesani, project co-coordinator with CERE, who currently works with Indusind Bank.

Earlier, its activities were focused on conducting workshops in schools and colleges, teaching professors and conducting studies in the field of environment, studying environmental problems and how to tackle them. “Coming out with new solutions that can aid green initiatives formed a large part of the working,” said Katy Rustom, another project co-ordinator.

“That is when we develop strategies where every employee is sensitised so that the reach is better and they continue to work till the very end,” added Tina Abraham, another project co-coordinator. As a starter, the project was broken up into phases. The first focused on creating green champions who would come up with ideas that can be utilised first at one branch and then spread it to other branches.

“The idea was to promote sustainable practices so that we have bottom up ideas and better feedback. And, to ensure that we stay focused, we partnered with CERE,” said Paul Abraham, chief operating officer of Indusind Bank. So, for example, the housekeeping ensures that teas and coffees are not given in plastic mugs and instead in cups that are washed. Air conditioners are strictly switched off after 6 pm.

And once the green champions were trained, slowly, the company moved to having screen savers that depicted the logo and theme of the company ‘Hum aur Hariyali’, to regular pop-ups creating awareness on the environmental hazards, the company has moved in a big way. “These would be messages like how much plastic and filth is choking our system so that people genuinely get concerned as they start the day. One such message would always pop-up during the day,” added Rustom.

“Since banks require lot of paperwork, we now have all our paper work in bagasse sheets that are recycled,” said Sudhir Pai, executive vice president of the bank. To ensure that bank’s green programme reaches all section, even the customers are sent e-statements.

Converting all office cars to CNG, shutting off the AC compulsorily during lunch hour, having a solar ATM and looking to create many more, giving and paperless faxes are some of the other measures. “The idea is also to take one idea to another office and move beyond this. We also conduct tree plantation drives, clean-up drives apart from taking lectures” added Katy Rustom another project co-ordinator. The NGO has now come out with its guide to sustainable practices. “This also helps with resource people who are into recycling of waste and e-waste so that waste is put in the right place,” Rustom added.