newsletter

15th August 2013

As ECoBiZ Club comes out of its infancy,

having completed two years, it aspires to grow

now! As a conscious next step in our mission we are proud to launch this newsletter on the occasion of our Independence Day. Through this we attempt to highlight the happenings in the world of so called green businesses and everything related to sustainability. While doing so we also intend to put forth our opinions, thoughts and perspectives on different issues. We hope this opens channels of thoughts for the readers; discussions are most welcome!

Our Mission Promoting, practicing, studying, commenting on & communicating about sustainable business & social practices for the development of the society.

Content

Carbon Credits: A perspective on the booming green investment market Walmart: A new approach of making efficient supply chain for Dairy Industry Green Supply Chain Management: Breaking the myth

newsletter Carbon Credits

15th August 2013

A perspective on the booming green investment market

Carbon credits market encourages companies and strategic groups which emit less than the limit and monetize this gap so that they can advantage of their position in the market. It provides not only financial gains but also improves the brand value of the company and aligns the companys image with that of a sustainable company. India holds the second position in the global carbon credits market and MCX has become the first exchange in Asia to trade carbon credits. But, the carbon credit market is in a very nascent stage right now and the rules governing it are not so clear. Also, it is difficult to know the exact bid/ ask spreads in this market. There is also a lack of clear exit strategy for the investors. Most of the

green projects in this area in India are driven by the state and the central government policies. So, it is up to the government how they want to take advantage of their unique position in this market. As the concept of climate change and global warming is not going to cease in the near future, can India become the world leader in implementing innovative ideas to pave way for a cleaner and greener environment and become the envy of the world?

Walmarts new approach of making efficient supply chain for Dairy Industry

Walmart brought the dairy supply chain contributors to come up with ways in order to have effective communication all the way to the farm to enable, encourage, and track progress on the industrys leading issues with respect to environment through its Sustainability index by which larger sustainability goals of the company can be met. The Index is created with a particular set of specific ques-

tions related to sustainable performance on major issues which will be answered by Walmart s suppliers twice in a year. An intense research on science-based, multi-stakeholder helped in zeroing down to these set of 14 questions at The Sustainability Consortium. The supplier responses will be basis of sustainability scorecards that drive Walmarts product sustainability since they rapidly identify improvement opportunities for suppliers

individually and across categories. Having this information will definitely empower the merchant teams to target key issues and engage their suppliers in an effective manner. In fact; the dairy industry has a communication channel through which issues such as hormone use, organic certification, issues on food safety, or usage of antibiotic are addressed. So Walmart came up with ways to leverage these existing channels for sustainability communication.
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newsletter Green Supply Chain

Breaking the myths
Implementation of sustainable green supply chain involves additional expenses for any organization. Many organizations have introduced recycling programs or made efforts to reduce their carbon emissions as a way to achieve green supply chain. But are these efforts are sufficient to achieve green supply chain? Will green supply chain add any value to the bottom-line of an organization? Now-a-days companies of every size and type have begun implementing environmental sustainability initiatives. However these corporations cannot make a difference unless and until they decrease environmental impact throughout the value chain, from raw materials to the final product thereby reducing the energy use, consumption of natural resources, and pollution-related problems.

15th August 2013

of the best practices. The focus should be on three major issuesdematerialization, detoxification, and decarbonizationwhich lead to the 4Rs (reduction, redesign, reuse, and remanufacture) in practice. There are several companies which has taken considerable effort to reach green supply chain practices. Fujitsu established a committee including the logistic departments of all business groups to launch a working group to promote the environmental preservation activities in logistics in June 2003. Maruti Suzukis Environment Policy not only promotes energy conservation and green procurement but it also reaches out to its suppliers and dealers to make them conscious about environmental protection. The company also tries to reduce the transportation costs, thereby reducing the fuel consumption by encouraging its suppliers to open facilities nearer to Marutis plant. Another famous example is the event of SONY, where it developed SS-00259 technical standard (SONY, 2004) to restrict all of their component suppliers to follow a standard flow in partnership, in order to ensure that no toxic material like metal cd will ever appear along their supply chain. Eventually the success of Green Supply Chain depends on the cooperation and actions of both manufacturers and Suppliers. And thus proper implementation of Green Supply Chain actually derives benefits like improved financial performance, lowered cost, product differentiation and competitive advantage. Hence the Green Supply Chain should be a part of Corporate Strategy.
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Hence companies should examine every step of their product lifecycle and apply green supply chain management (GSCM) practices across the board. In order to achieve the goal of GSCM, the companies must follow 6 integral steps. The first and foremost step is recognizing and assessing the current and future trends. It is very important because the company should know about the green initiatives, regulations, benefits and barriers exist. In the second step, the company should assess the current status including the status of the supply chain. This step is intended to know the current level of emissions, natural resources utilization, waste and recycling (environmental dimensions); quality, efficiency and responsiveness (economic dimensions); health and safety, noise and employees (social dimensions). Third step is defining the objectives of each element of the green supply chain. Next, it is necessary to develop a KPI system, which is a kind of quantitative tool (parameters) used to implement strategic goals into company operations. The next step is to select the best practices or actions to attain each objective. The last step is to evaluate the performance

newsletter First Energy

15th August 2013

A Cleaner Alternative to our cooking gas

Pune based First Energy has developed a cooking stove called Oorja which runs on pellets made of farm waste. According to the company, the fuel is cheaper than our widely used LPG by around 30-40%. Though agri-waste is being used in power producing plants, but its for first time that it has found such usage in viable form for cooking activities. Already the company has leased out some 5000 such stoves for commercial establishments and also has substantial users in homes mainly in states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The company originated under stable of BP in 2006 as BP Energy. But in 2009, BP exited India from all its non -core activities and same was bought by two BP Employees who had worked in the project. They renamed it as First Energy. During its initial days, scientists from IISc, Bangalore were involved in the project which led to the development of the pellets. In 2011, the World Economic Forum identified First Energy as one of 25 firms globally "whose cutting-edge technologies are transforming business and society". The idea behind continuing with the development was to create a cost-effective, clean and convenient cooking solution for those who have no access to clean energy or for those who cannot afford it. Initially their focus was on domestic consumers, but upon calculations, it was observed that the average monthly cost for pellets was comparable to subsidized cost of LPG cylinder. Also in the Oorja stoves, controlling the flame was difficult. But with changes in policies like capping on cylinder and increasing prices, they are again hoping to gain in. Also First Energy has standardized the pellets so as to reduce its cost. Due to the unviability in the consumer segment, First Energy started focusing on the commercial segment like hotels, restaurants where cost economics is better when used for 6 hours a day. Although its still used in conjunction with LPG stoves, but owners are reaping in benefits. The company in collaboration with IIScs Centre for Sustainable Technologies has now integrated Oorja's flame with an inbuilt thermal fluid that transfers the heat to a surface leading to improved flame control, increased efficiency and better usage. For any new technology to succeed, it will need some amount of handling, training and development. Also fuel is abundantly available as it uses only agri wastes. But it to have a wider appeal, the task in front is to make it viable for the domestic users. Also Government can provide assistance in subsidizing it for greater use by masses.

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means
- Albert Einstein

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