Though there is a rise in environmental awareness of Indian industry but it is not reflected in their practices.There are large number of regulations available for monitoring the industry' environmental activities, but not sufficient to motivate them to adopt environment friendly practices proactively.
Approach of Indian firms to environmental issues is reactive. The common belief is that these practices are cost driven and have no positive effect on firm performance.during my interaction with some senior mangers of large Indian firms, shows ignorance about the term green supply chain, green purchasing,design for environment etc.Based on the green efforts of Indian firms, three categories can be identified.
1. Have knowledge about environmental issues but are not considering it in their activities.these firms look environment as burden and are not willing to invest in it.Also these firms are not feeling pressure from their suppliers or customer.these firms are mostly 2nd tier or higher in supply chain.
2. Have knowledge about environmental issues and considering it in their internal activities under regulatory pressure only.These firms are using environmental protection technology rather than pollution prevention technology.Some are also considering changes in their design to accommodate regulatory requirement.Recycling and waste reduction are also prevailing in these industry.These firms have implemented environmental management system like ISO14000.
3. Have environment policy, Considering environmental issues in their supply chain through collaboration and monitoring of their suppliers as well working downstream with their customer to reduce environmental impact.Some large Indian firms and multinationals falls in this category.These firms has realized the benefits of these initiatives in the form of reduce cost, brand reputation, improve product quality, decrease in regulatory penalty and industrial accidents.
It is clear from the above discussion that there is growing need to create awareness about these practices and their economic and environmental benefits among Indian industries.Government and NGOs are doing lot to create this awareness but industry can play an important role by sharing their environmental achievements with others
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