By: Sunil Chari
Last updated : July 09, 2022 10:53 am
The company adheres to sustainable manufacturing practices and embraces sustainability and eco-friendliness across its business operations
Our surroundings have gone through a significant change lately with temperature rising across the globe resulting in extreme weather conditions. This has resulted in emphasis on the role of sustainability for the success of any business. In order to achieve an environmentally sustainable future, companies need to adopt a joint approach. It involves collaboration between their business goals, employees and consumers towards environment protection. The Covid-19 pandemic has further acted as a catalyst for innovation with companies and brands focusing on sustainability and reconsidering the way they conduct businesses and how they interact with the surroundings.
GROWING IMPORTANCE OF ESG
As consumption of natural resources increase at alarming rates, protecting and preserving environment should become a prominent part of every organization’s survival strategy. Mindful of their responsibility towards the environment, companies need to take measures to reduce the environmental impact of their business and operations. It is imperative for companies to focus on reducing their carbon footprint without compromising product performance or customer comfort. This holds true especially for the chemicals sector, which can become a major source of pollution if the waste materials are not effectively managed.
India has a vibrant chemicals market that is rapidly growing in size and geography, while simultaneously demanding resources and energy. With such a drastic growth, there is a strong need for sustainable chemistry which can reduce the environmental impact. As a wide range of specialty chemicals gain traction in domestic and international markets and present a massive growth opportunity, it is crucial that specialty chemical manufacturers make sustain[1]able chemistry their number one priority.
Brands need to actively start looking at sustainability as an important component of their corporate strategy. They need to understand that it might not result in immediate tangible benefits but may have considerable positive effects in the longer term.
They need to be cognizant of the fact that their overall business goal should go beyond pleasing institutional shareholders, and thus building a strong brand reputation. With Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) becoming an important success parameter for investors and customers, growing a sustainable business can offer benefits like reaching out to attract a large pool of capital, build a stronger corporate brand and promoting a robust long-term growth, benefiting companies and investors.
Another benefit is improved brand reputation among today’s modern consumers. Modern day consumers are well-aware and want to invest in brands that resonate best with their values, thereby providing additional incentive to businesses to adopt sustain[1]ability to boost sales. A good product is not good enough to win over Millennials and Gen Z who are making buying decisions based on social responsibility, inclusiveness or environmental impact shown by a brand. Brands that are committed to a sustainable goal and their actions such as commissioning a greenfield manufacturing unit that ensures zero discharge of harmful chemicals are well appreciated by consumers.
SPECIALTY CHEMICALS COMPANIES CAN ADOPT SUSTAINABILITY
Over the years, sustainability has evolved from being fringe initiatives or merely complying with regulators and dealing with NGOs to becoming a much-discussed topic in boardrooms. This is mainly due to the customers and investors being more concerned about the need to protect resources and thereby grow in a sustainable manner. The specialty chemicals industry can imbibe sustainability at every stage through innovative design, creation, processing, use and disposal of substances. Embracing sustainability initiatives will help achieve environmental and societal needs without com[1]promising the future of our planet Earth.
A lot of specialty chemical companies make the mistake of causing severe wastage and pollution in the race to produce finished materials in the cheapest and fastest possible way. However, this is not sustainable from a long term environmental as well as business perspective. In order to bring about some real impact, sustain[1]ability needs to be made a strategic priority by specialty chemical companies. The objective should be to deliver tailor made, eco-friendly, and cost-neutral products, and penetrate deeper into new consumer segments and categories. The emphasis should be on providing chemical solutions that promote a cleaner, healthier and more efficient world, and ensure optimum eco-efficiency in everything they do.
To be successful, the industry needs to adopt a green ethos and focus on replacing legacy harmful products with environmentally benign chemical products and processes across businesses, products, and verticals.
Specialty chemical companies must also focus on being a contributor to the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) practices, which support the implementation of sustainable chemistry and best practices to protect the consumers, workers and the environment. They must be committed and steadfast towards adhering to ZDHC norms, ensuring zero discharge of harmful chemicals during manufacturing. The focus must be on harmonizing standards across supply chain by addressing proper chemicals management and promoting safer chemistry. In addition to this there is a need for application of sustainable chemistry in allied industries like textile, personal care, etc. in making their products sustainable and adding to the circle of green ethos.
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES ADOPTED BY ROSSARI
The company adheres to sustainable manufacturing practices and embraces sustainability and eco-friendliness across its business operations. Both their manufacturing units at Silvassa and Dahej use state[1]of-the-art technologies, thereby ensuring cleaner and efficient operations. Water consciousness remains at the core of the company’s sustainable manufacturing priorities.
Both their plants have been certified - Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Level-3, which reflect a higher confidence that a chemical product meets the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals MRSL conformance Levels. In addition, Rossari continues to implement green initiatives like plantation of trees in corporate offices and manufacturing premises, developing and maintaining gar[1]dens near factory premises and maintaining green bodies around its plants.
Overall, the company has begun actively monitoring ESG parameters and plan to assess the progress on a regular basis.
CHALLENGES FACED IN IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainable sources of energy are playing a critical role in meeting the world’s energy requirement, its role in the future will be a lot more important. Taking note of this fact, policies and standards are required now to ensure the sustainable development of alternate energy across energy intensive businesses. The implementation of sustainable practices comes with its set of challenges like lack of adequate policy frameworks, high initial cost of implementation, lack of funds, adoption of alternate resources etc. Leveraging sustainable energy is the future and the best way to create a more efficient manufacturing facility.
A robust energy setting is the one that uses both fossil fuels and sustainable energy as it poses large opportunities like better energy security, reduced emission of greenhouse gases, and improved access to energy, rural development and poverty eradication.
Sustainable energy options can range from either solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, bioenergy, etc. With a massive shift towards electrification and dependency on solar energy, the specialty chemical sector should adapt to the ongoing energy shift. The renew[1]able sources require one-time investment, are environment friendly and contribute to the “Green Economy”.
To ensure that the advantages offset the threats, leading companies should immediately develop and start adopting sustainability for economic, social and environmental considerations. One solution to this issue is developing a multi-stakeholder process that engages all parties - government, NGOs, farmers and industry leaders that can benefit from such an agreement. Given the regional variances of climates, agriculture and energy needs, regional standards should be developed and refined. Ideally, each level (international, regional, national and local) should introduce sustainability standards for use of renewable energy by means of regulations that are consistent with the other levels.
CONCLUSION
It is imperative to incorporate ESG factors into core strategy which can help deliver long standing value if not instantly, from a long-term perspective. Sustainability and profit[1]ability might not go hand in hand initially, but in the long run they prove to be beneficial, considering the finite resources of fuel and ever increasing input costs of ancillaries like power, fuel, etc. Environment and development are the two sides of the same coin and the focus must be on mutual growth of both elements, which will prove beneficial for future generations. The onus is upon us, at individual and organizational levels, to make necessary changes for the betterment of our economy and society.
India’s swift economic and industrial growth, along with urbanization, has come at the high cost of growing carbon emissions, rising demand for natural resources and increasing waste generation.
To overcome these challenges and minimize their effects, the manufacturing sector will need to adopt sustainable manufacturing aggressively. A number of areas within manufacturing can benefit greatly from the adoption of green manufacturing practices. While there are a few early adopters, more and more companies and the sector as a whole need to develop comprehensive plans to embark on this journey towards sustainable manufacturing across sectors to make sure that our growth does not have negative impact on our surroundings.