 FOR THE CONSUMERS
1. Automobile pollution is happening in our own backyard and under our
very nose and is ffecting one and all. In such a scenario the pro-active involvement of
the public in making environment a buying point will go a long-way in improving the air
quality of our cities. Therefore, it is recommended that the public:
|
| Consumers should demand information on
the environmental performance of the vehicle |
|
 Use the ratings given by
the Green Rating Project and support pro-active companies.
Use the product rating to
make its buying decisions.
2. Automobiles pollute maximum
when they are in the consumer’s hand and therefore the proper maintenance of the
vehicle by the consumer will reduce the emissions substantially. As of today, the quality
of information supplied to the consumer is just not sufficient to engage him/her in the
maintenance of the vehicle. Just pointing the finger towards the authorised service
station by the companies will not solve the problem. It is recommended that the consumers
demand information from the automobile companies regarding:
The actual emissions and fuel efficiency of the vehicle
Type of emission control systems installed in the vehicles
Relevant and usable information to know about the conditions in which the
pollution control equipment are likely to fail and how will the consumer be able to
ascertain that.
Easy to do guidelines which he/she can follow without any assistance of
service station to check/maintain the vehicle and its pollution control equipment on day
to day basis.
Emission warranty to ensure that the emission from the vehicle is within
the norms. The emission warranty must be such that it can be easily executed and not of
type in which the companies can blame the consumer for the malfunctioning of the control
equipment.
3. To save fuel and money:
Combine errands into one trip. Turn your engine off rather
than letting it idle for more than a minute.
Keep tyres inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended maximum
pressure and the wheels properly aligned.
Anticipate situations and avoid unnecessary braking.
Use air conditioning sparingly and in recirculation mode whenever
possible.
4. Avoid these fuel-wasting habits:
Jackrabbit starts and hard braking and obey posted speed
limits. Travelling at 10 km per hour less speed reduces your fuel consumption by over 5 %
.
5. Avoid other polluting habits:
Disposing used oils and lubricants on the ground. They
directly pollute the groundwater, which is the major source of drinking water in city like
Delhi.
Throwing battery, which contains heavy metals
Before the vehicle paint deteriorates, do not get your vehicle painted
just for appearance.
6. For proper working of the vehicle and
the emission control equipment:
Get your vehicle maintained at the authorised service
stations only
Follow the maintenance schedule given by the company in the consumer
manual.
7. Today, both company and
government blame the consumers lack of interest for the absence of the clean alternate
fuelled vehicles on Indian roads. Demand alternate fuelled vehicles from the automobile
industry and the infrastructure for the alternate fuel from the government. Alternate
fuelled vehicles have same driving performance as that of any other diesel or petrol
fuelled vehicles unless you want to reach 60 km per hour in less than 5 seconds. In the
long-run, alternate fuelled vehicles will become cheaper since there is a finite source of
conventional fossil fuels and it is depleting fast.
8 . Demand automobile companies
to give incentives for properly disposing the used parts and components like battery,
tires, used oil and lubricants etc.
9. Demand automobile companies to
give more numbers of free servicing. They too have the responsibility for reducing the
environmental impact of the vehicle during use.
FOR
THE POLICY MAKERS
1. Government is of the people, by the people and for the people. This
means that the people’s interest should be of paramount importance to the government.
Therefore, it is recommended that the government policy should not get caught in the
so-called scientific debates, which are unscientific.
Consider the poor air quality of urban India and make decisions, which can reduce the air
pollution. Safeguard the public health with proper legislations, and then let the market
decide the best option.
2. Do not subsidise fuel for the
rich of the society. Price fuels as per the cost. Rich should not get the benefits meant
for the poor. This also includes government cars running on diesel.
3. Government should take lead in
introducing alternate fuelled vehicles. What about converting all diesel cars of gov -
ernment to CNG? This will not only reduce particulate pollution, it will also reduce
government expenditure, which is increasing year after year.
4. Formulate policy, which
rewards less polluting vehicle and penalises polluting ones. This will not only lead to
the rejection of polluting vehicles by the public, but will also generate resources which
could then be used for undertaking research and development and for establishing effective
inspection and control regime for automobile industry.
|
| Your support to the clean company is
going to clean the air you breath. So support the company and the vehicles, which has come
at the top in the green rating project |
|
5. Pushing MNCs to indigenise 70%
of their operation within five years of setting up of plant, without any guideline on the
broader practise of indigenisation, is leading to transfer of pollution from the
automobile companies to the small-scale sector, who neither have the means nor the intent
to reduce pollution. Therefore, the policy of the government on indigenisation of new
automobile companies needs modification. The policy should include broader guidlines
on indigenisation, which should ensure that the transfer of pollution is not practiced .
6. Pollution norms should match
with the kind of pollution being generated by the industrial sector. The pollution norms
applicable to the automobile production/assembly plants needs reconsideration especially
with respect to the wastewater characteristics. Currently, automobile companies can meet
all the norms without any effort.
7. Pollution control boards
should not prescribe systems/technologies for pollution control. They should rather set
the standards and monitor the pollution effectively. The responsibility of deciding about
the type of technology/ systems for pollution control should be left to the automobile
companies.
8. Central pollution control
board urgently needs to harmonise regulations and monitoring system pertaining to the
solid/hazardous wastes management across the states.
9. Pollution control board (P C
B) should set regulations for the incinerators being used at the automobile companies for
incinerating paint sludge and others.
10. PCB need to upgrade their
scientific capability to start monitoring the specific toxins like dioxin and furans.
11. Tri-chloro-ethane should be
completely banned since it is a cancer-causing chemical.
12. Supply chain management
should become a part of the pollution regulations applicable to the automobile industry.
Government needs to formulate a regulation system, which will also look at the performance
of the suppliers of the automobile companies before granting clearance to the companies.
This will push automobile companies to green their supply chain.
13. Government needs to urgently
look at the downstream pollution impact of the automobiles as well. The
environmental status of service stations, workshops etc. need careful consideration
since enormous amount of pollution goes unchecked from these sources.
14. Multi-utility vehicles are
being used as passenger cars in the cities. Therefore, there is no reason to set standard
for MUVs under commercial vehicle segment. The project recommends that the government use
the standard of diesel passenger cars for the MUVs as well.
15. Government should promote
scrapping of old vehicles by providing incentives to the consumer and the industry.
16. Goverment should introduce
legislation for makingthe companies responsible for their product disposal.
FOR THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Corporate environment governance and pro-active initiatives
Environment policy
Less than 50% of the automobile companies have environment policy and out of all the
companies who have policies, less than 50% have addressed environmental aspect of the
product in the policy. Similarly, the efforts made by the companies towards communicating
the environment policy to the various stakeholders are disappointing.
The environmental policy sets the stage for the
organisation’s environment management system. It is proof of the company’s
intent to translate commitment into actual performance. Automobile companies need to
formulate environment policy which reflects the inherent environmental aspects of their
business. Environmental policy should be mandated by top management, and verified by them
during management review. The policy should include moral, ethical and environmental basis
for the organisation’ s actions Communication of environment policy by automobile
companies should aim to:
Demonstrate management’ s commitment to the environment
Address concerns about the organisation’ s environmental activities
by external parties; and
Announce the organisation’ s strategic environmental management
approach.
|
| The emission norms for MUVs should be
same as those of the diesel passenger cars, since MUVs are used for the same purpose as
diesel passenger cars |
|
Environment organisation
Automobile companies need to re-look at the responsibilities assigned to the environment
department. A environment department is not just for the production plant but for the
entire activity of the company and in this regard Indian automobile companies need to
broaden the responsibilities assigned to the environment department and make changes
accordingly. Environmental aspects of the product must be included within the
responsibility of the environment department.
EMS certification
Considering that the EMS certification should include all the environment impacts in all
stages of the life cycle, the certification of production plants means very little in case
of the automobile industry, because its major impact happens during the product use and
disposal phase. Also without the greening of supply chain, the ISO 14001 certification of
the production plant means that the major pollution during production has not been
considered in the EMS.
Automobile companies need to rework on the kind of
environment management which will be effective and useful in their kind of business.
Merely following the existing systems, which has no relevance, will not be useful at all.
They need to develop a management system, which is able to include their entire
environmental aspects.
Implementation of E M S and environment audit
Decision-making in automobile companies with respect to
the environment management needs to be decentralised to make its environment initiatives
more effective. To increase the importance of the environment management within their
operations, companies need to increase the profile of the environment manager. At the
current middle management level, they are just not able to push changes, which will
improve the company’s environment performance substantially.
Proper targets should be set for the environment management to ensure
continuous improvement.
Environment audit does not only mean mass balance. It goes far beyond it
and includes both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the environment. Indian
automobile companies should undertake comprehensive environmental audit to understand the
aspects, which they have not yet considered.
|
| Automobile industry needs to seriously
consider the views of the civil society. Because their views reflect the views of the
society and reflects the social, environmental and ethical concerns which the society has
regarding the automobile industry |
|
Training and awareness rising
Training and awareness raising initiative of automobile industry needs restructuring. It
should not only restrict itself to the issues related to the production plant. Issues
related to the supply chain, product’s environment performance and disposal of the
product should also be included. Though training is required for all the employees, it
should be designed differently for different target groups.
Stakeholders relationship and
working with civil society
First and foremost, the automobile industry needs to seriously consider the views of the
civil society. Because their views reflect the views of the society and reflects the
social, environmental and ethical concerns which the society has regarding the automobile
industry.
Automobile companies should come out with
their policy on the kind of interaction they wish to have with the civil society as well
as with their other stakeholders. A continuous exchange of ideas between the companies and
its stakeholders will go a long way in making India more environmentally clean, socially
responsible and morally correct.
Consumer awareness raising
initiatives and reducing pollution during the usage phase
Consumer awareness raising initiatives and
reducing pollution during the usage phase Automobile companies have serious responsibility
of increasing the awareness of the consumer regarding the environmental aspects of the
product. They should also devise methods to engage the consumers in maintaining the
vehicles. Towards this, the automobile companies need to work on the following items:
1. It is important to educate the
consumer about the environmental aspect of the vehicle. Automobile companies need to make
the consumers aware that " the vehicle is good in terms of providing mobility to the
people but bad for the society in terms of public health"and that the customer has to
play an important role to reduce this impact.
2. Automobile companies need to
develop transparent information system on various negative aspects of the automobile like
actual emissions, failure of control equipment, changes in emission characteristics with
time, and other aspects and provide this information to the consumer. Similarly, easy to
use guidelines for reducing the emissions from the car, which consumers can do on their
own should be made available.
3. Promote dealers/distributors
to undertake training/orientation programmes for consumers to increase the environment
awareness
4. Publish
newsletters/advertisements for increasing the environmental awareness of consumers
5. Introduce programmes for
providing assistance/ warranties/ incentives etc., to the consumer during the use of the
products, which can lead to reduction in the emissions
6. Initiatives like encouraging
consumers to go to affiliated service stations where the used items like batteries, oil
etc., can be properly collected and properly recycled or disposed. In this regard,
automobile companies need to seriously look at the cost of servicing/ maintenance
currently charged by there authorised service stations/ workshops. Till the time this cost
is very high compared to the not authorised service stations/ workshops, consumers will
avoid the authorised ones. So automobile companies need to use the economics of scale and
make vehicles maintainace affordable, which can benefit the environment as well their own
bottom-line. Annual maintainance contarct could be one of the options.
Corporate fuel performance and alternate fuelled vehicles
Automobile companies should seriously look at the
alternate fuel options; rather then pushing for the use of conventional fuel. They should
show proactiveness by doing things on their own rather than waiting for the
government’s push in form of regulations.
Use of subsidised diesel in passenger car to push sales in unethical,
since the benefits instead of reaching the poor reaches the rich. Automobile companies
should themselves reject such an option.
Corporate engine performance and introduction
of clean technologies
Automobile companies should demand from the government a
policy framework, which rewards clean vehicles and penalises polluting vehicles. This in
no case will hurt company’s bottom-line; since the reward as well as the penalty will
be passed on to the consumer. That is, if a consumer wants to drive a polluting vehicle
he/she should be ready to pay more for it.
MNCs should stop the practise of selling obselete vehicles in India; if
they are selling advanced vehicle in developed countries. Just by using government norms
and poor fuel quality as excuse, they are doing nothing but hurting their own business.
They need to develop a long-term strategy rather than going after short-term gains. Monitoring
of emissions from vehicles There is an urgent need for the automobile companies to
establish their conformity of production in a detailed scientific and statistical manner.
Research and development (R&D)
The environmental R&D in Indian automobile sector is extremely poor and needs urgent
upgradation. Studies like impact of poor fuel quality on emissions, ageing of the vehicles
on emissions etc. should be undertaken by the companies to synchronise their vehicles to
meet the existing ground scenario. MNCs instead of relying of the R&D of their parent
companies, should promote R&D in India.
DURING
AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION
Outsourcing Practices and Supply chain management
To ensure that the entire life cycle chain of the final product is environmentally
compatible, the company must bring in a strong greening practice on the part of its
suppliers and dealers.
1. The company must clearly
define the features of the environment commitment it wants its suppliers and dealers to
implement. For example, asking the dealers and suppliers to get ISO 14001 certification
etc.
2. The company should then
restructure its procurement department to enable itself and the supplier and vendors to
adhere to the new procurement guidelines. For example, the procurement department should
have a technically qualified person to assess the environment performance of the suppliers
and vendors on a continuous basis.
3. The procurement department should be made responsible for making sure
that all the new businesses with vendors and suppliers are as per the requirement of the
procurement policy. They should also ensure that support and incentives are provided to
the existing suppliers and dealers towards this objective.
4. Automobile companies need to
vigorously pursue the greening of the supply chain. Like asking its suppliers/ vendors to
get ISO 14001 certification.
5. If outsourcing, the company
should think in terms of substituting its polluting process with a non-polluting one. In
this case, despite outsourcing the process, the transfer of pollution do not figures
predominantly in the company’s supply chain.
|
| The environmental research and
development in Indian automobile sector is extremely poor and needs urgent upgradation |
|
6. Sourcing of polluting
processes from one of its own company/joint-ventures. This will give the company the power
to influence the environment performance of the vendor, since the company itself is a
major stakeholder.
7. Sourcing of polluting
processes should be from the competent vendors only.
8. Sourcing of processes like
electro-plating should not be undertaken unless the vendor is capable enough to solve the
heavy metal pollution.
Production/assembly plant performance
1. Automobile companies need to shift their entire energy requirement to
clean gaseous fuels like LPG, CNG, Propane etc. This will reduce their air emissions
substantially.
2. Companies need to continue
their good work in reducing the specific energy and water consumption at the plant.
3. Automobile companies should
evaluate the option of water harvesting seriously. The costs are low and the returns
tremendous.
4. Automobile companies should
try to use as much recycled metal as possible. Metals are highly versatile material and
hence, use of recycled metals will not deteriorate the quality.
5. Majority of the metal working
fluids used in the plant are non-biodegradable in nature and urgently needs substitution
with the biodegradable ones.Vegetable oils, ester-based oils etc. are options, which can
be looked at.
6. Recycling of the metal working
fluids and lubricants itself will reduce their consumption substantially and hence
companies should promote recycling of the metal working fluids and lubricants.
7. Tri-chloro-ethane should be
completely phased out from the Indian automobile sector. Substitution like alkali cleaners
etc. should be tried.
8. Use of parts/components that
has heavy metal plating, should be minimised and if possible eliminated from the vehicles.
9. Selling of waste oil, solid
and hazardous wastes without proper monitoring of the end-use should be stopped.
10. Automobile sector need to
undertake extensive R&D to arrive at a suitable reuse/recycling programme for solid
and hazardous wastes like paint sludge, grinding sludge, ETP sludge, etc. It should look
at the possibility of reusing paint sludge as sealant in the vehicles.
11. Existing paints used in
automobile are polluting as well as toxic to human health. Automobile companies should
look at the options like heavy-metal free paints and water-based paints.
12. Manual painting should be
completely eliminated. There are automatic technologies that give finishing as good as any
manual painting operation.
13. Indian companies should
monitor VOC emissions from the painting section and toxic emissions from the incinerator.
14. Use of VOCs from the paint
section for energy generation should be promoted.
|
| Use of parts/components that has heavy
metal plating, should be minimised and if possible eliminated from the vehicles |
|
15. Detailed inventories,
including those of the part manufacturers, suppliers and vendors need to be developed by
the automobile companies. Currently the inventory is very poor and restricts itself to the
production/assembly plant only.
16. Pollution prevention has been
largely ignored in the automobile plants and therefore, should be given priority over the
pollution control.
17. The segregation of wastewater
either in terms of the level of pollution (less polluting and more polluting wastewater)
or in terms of the characteristics (biological and chemical waste) need to be implemented
to reduce the pollution load from the production plant.
18. Companies need to seriously
re-look at the design of their ETP’s and should make suitable changes to match the
nature of wastes they generate.
19. Suitable air pollution
equipment need to installed for incinerator and if required, for the DG sets as well.
Product use and disposal phase
Indian vehicles should be bought to the same level as that of the developed countries or
even better than, that since India is facing pollution far in excess of anything that the
developed world has ever faced. Towards this:
MNCs should stop the practise of dumping obsolete products in the Indian
market.
Indian companies need to upgrade their engine technology and the
technologies for the pollution control system.
Pollution control system should match engine design rather than acting as
a stand-alone feature.
Promote alternate fuelled vehicles like CNG for 4-wheelers and LPG for
2-wheelers.
R&D should be undertaken on the alternate vehicle technologies like
hybrid and fuel cell based vehicles, and then these vehicles should be promoted in India,
Research and development in engine technology is very poor and needs
urgent upgradation. Companies need not rely on the developed countries for engine
technology.
Companies should take all the initiatives required to move beyond the
statues. They should push the standards to become more stringent rather than getting
pushed by the standards.
Companies should disclose all information related to the environment
performance of the vehicles to the consumer.
Companies need to consider product disposal during the product
development stage only. They must label parts based on their recyclability and publish
product disposal manuals.
Companies must promote setting up of product disposal facilities in
India. |