THE KEY INSTITUTIONS

The institutional set-up of the project has been established taking into account the following key aspects:

The project should have a transparent rating process

The project should involve representatives from various sections of the society who can discuss, debate as well as charter the future of Indian industrialisation towards sustainability.

The project should have technical experts from industry to guide the process through research and rating. This will ensure that the rating criteria will bring out the reality at grassroots and bring in practical rating methodology.

As a result, the key institutions of this project are:

Project Advisory Panel (PAP) It was possible for the industry to assume that a NGO’S attempt to assess their environmental performance may lack credibility and capability.

An independent rating of an NGO was also vulnerable to charges of preconceived bias or notions given the mandate of the institution. Therefore, to give credibility to the entire rating process, a Project Advisory Panel has been set-up.

Comprising of eminent politicians, scientists, civil society leaders, lawyers and judges, and industrial leaders, this panel was formed to advise, guide and steer the project and give the entire rating process a holistic and credible outlook.
This panel is the final rating clearance forum, wherein the ratings are scrutinised and cleared by the panel members before public dissemination.

The panel also serves as a sounding board for testing new ideas and for building up pressure on the government in formulating fiscal and environmental policy to support sustainable development.

Project Advisory Panel (PAP)
It was possible for the industry to assume that a NGO’S attempt to assess their environmental performance may lack credibility and capability.

An independent rating of an NGO was also vulnerable to charges of preconceived bias or notions given the mandate of the institution. Therefore, to give credibility to the entire rating process, a Project Advisory Panel has been set-up.

Comprising of eminent politicians, scientists, civil society leaders, lawyers and judges, and industrial leaders, this panel was formed to advise, guide and steer the project and give the entire rating process a holistic and credible outlook.

This panel is the final rating clearance forum, wherein the ratings are scrutinised and cleared by the panel members before public dissemination.

The panel also serves as a sounding board for testing new ideas and for building up pressure on the government in formulating fiscal and environmental policy to support sustainable development.

Technical Advisory Panel (TAP)
This is a sector-specific panel comprising of leading technical experts from academics, research institutions, consultant and industry. This panel in general guides the project team through research and rating.

The specific role of the TAP is to:

Guide the GRP team in preparing questionnaires;

Review the information supplied by companies and the company profiles prepared by CSE and identify the possible lacunae and technical drawbacks;

Review the work done by CSE on the overall rating format, criteria and weightages; and

Guide CSE in finalising the ratings.

The green squad
The Green Rating Network (GRN) includes volunteers from across the country who inspect the production unit of companies and undertake surveys for ascertaining the perception of local communities, NGOs, media, etc., on the environment performance of companies.

Currently there are about 300 Green Rating Network volunteers spread across the country. The network consists of highly qualified professionals, energetic technical students and high position government employees, all driven by the fact that Indian environmental problems needs to be addressed urgently.

The GRP team at CSE
The green rating project (GRP) team is young and dynamic, consisting of people with a background in science, social sciences and engineering. The team undertakes the whole rating exercise in consultation with the above stated institutions.

OJECT ADVISORY

THE METHODOLOGY AND THE RATING PROCESS

5 STEPS TO FINAL ASSESSMENT Data Collection and Analysis

Diagram 2: The rating steps

Aspects

• Data collection and dissemination:
The project involves comprehensive data collection worldwide on all aspects of the Indian industry. This is made available to the public through publications, web site and on disk.

• Education and awareness rising: The project includes an environmental awareness programme with special emphasis on management graduates, environmental managers and government officials. Training workshops covering media, regulatory authorities, industry and financial institutions are also the part of this programme.

• Advocacy: After every rating, CSE recognises outstanding environmental performers as well as highlight companies with poor environmental performance. It also plans to push for the introduction of fiscal and environmental policy to support sustainable development.

The rating steps
• A detailed sector study is prepared.  This study contains all the environmental issues of the sector and also the 7 interface of environmental issues with trade, commerce and policy issues of the sector.

• Sector-specific questionnaire and questionnaire about corporate environmental policies and management systems is prepared and sent to the companies.

• Simultaneously secondary information collection is initiated which includes interviews with plant managers, local communities, NGOs and media, collection of information from state pollution control boards, etc.

• Based on the company’s response and secondary data collected, an environmental profile is prepared for the company.

• The profile is scrutinised by the Technical Advisory Panel and cleared.

• The draft profile is sent to the company for review.

• Company’s feedback is received and one to one meeting is organised to discuss disagreements and for furnishing evidence of claims made by the company.

Green Rating Project combines both internal management tools like ISO 14001 and participation of public in environmental affairs of the company

• TAP reviews the comments of the company and finalises the information. Based on the final information, internal rating is done as per the rating schemes prepared for the sector.

• Finalisation of ratings for the sector by TAP.

• Project Advisory Panel meeting is organised to review and clear the rating.

• Ratings is released at a high profile public function. Monitoring the journey from cradle to grave

For assessing actual environmental performance, CSE uses the broader Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) instead of the more limited Environmental Impact Assessment or environment audit made by official agencies. This is a highly technical process and has no precedence in India. So, the project is not only building a database of India’s industrial sectors, but also setting-up the process and methodology for environmental benchmarking of the industrial sector and companies within it.

TECHNICAL ADVISORY PANEL FOR PULP AND PAPER SECTOR

Chairperson Dr N J RAO Professor, Institute of Paper Technology, Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh Members Dr P K BHATTACHARYA Professor, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Dr T N CHATURVEDI Consultant, pulp and paper sector and expert on agrowaste-based small-scale paper industry

The LCA approach

• The environmental impact during the sourcing of raw materials,

• The environmental impact at the production stage during processing of raw material into final product,

• The environmental impact during product use,

• The environmental impact arising out of the disposal of the products. A combination of all these factors gives the rating a holistic perspective image and brings it in tune with the ground reality. The uniqueness of GRP is that this is the first time anywhere in the developing world that the environmental performance rating of industrial firms is being undertaken by an NGO and that information of the environmental performance of companies is being made available to the public. In today’s industry-environment interface globally, where internal management tools like ISO 14001, EMAS etc. are being favoured by the companies, GRP goes a step beyond the claims of internal improvements made and actually verifies the claim.

CRADLE-TO-GRAVE The Life Cycle Analysis approach was adopted by CSE to study the environmental impact of an industry — beginning from raw material procurement to product recycling

ISO 14001 is an internal management tool for improving the environmental status of an industrial firm and is restricted to employees working in the industries only.

GRP is a combination of both internal management tools like ISO 14001 and public participation in environmental affairs, which is the corner stone for a democratic society.