Green & Sustainability - Introduction

Introduction: “Green”

Presenter: Ravi Teja Pabbisetty 1

Define Green !!


Meaning: Green

Money

New/Beginner
Environment Friendly


“Green” in today’s perspective

It’s used in a way which
portrays an
environment friendly
quality of an activity or
a product


The Way forward !!


Terms: Impact on the Planet


Ecological Footprint
 It is a measure of human demand on the
earth’s ecosystem.
 It’s a tool for estimating the consumption
(or) depletion of earth’s resources for our
day-to-day needs and activities
 It is a standard measurement of a unit’s
influence on its habitat based on
CONSUMPTION and POLLUTION
 Units: Global Hectares (gha)


Bio-Capacity

 Itis the earth’s capacity to
regenerate its resources
 The total amount of
productive area available


Ecological Overshoot
 It is the deficit created when the human footprint
is larger than the biocapacity
 It first happened in mid of 1980’s and kept on
increasing ever since
 In 2003,
 Total Biocapacity: 11.2 gha
 1.8 gha per person
 Ecological Footprint: 14.1 gha
 2.2 gha per person
 Demand exceeded supply by 25%
 Took 1.25 years for earth to regenerate the resources
consumed by humans in the year 2003.


Five Factors influencing Ecological Overshoot

 Population
 Consumption of goods and services
per person
 Footprint Intensity
 Bioproductive area
 Bioproductivity


Population

 Fewer offspring
 Offering women access to better
education, economic opportunities,
health care opportunities are
proven approaches
 These investments also enhance
the health and educational
outcomes of their children


Consumption

 Reduction of goods and services per
person
• Potential depends on the economic
situation
 People living below the poverty line
have to increase consumption to
move out of poverty
 The more affluent people can reduce
consumption without compromising
their quality of life !!


Intensity of the Footprint

 The amount of resources consumed
during production of goods and services
can be significantly reduced
• Energy Efficiency
• Manufacturing process and equipment
• Home appliances

• Minimizing waste generation
• Reuse and Recycle
• Efficient Transport
• Reduced usage of distance goods


Bioproductive area

 Lands which are degraded can be
reclaimed through careful
management
 Through Terracing and Irrigation,
marginal lands can be more
productive
 Good land management will ensure
that the bioproductive areas are not
lost


Bioproductivity
 The yield or productivity of an area
 Depends on the ecosystem and the way it is
managed
 Agricultural tech can boost productivity but can
also diminish bio-diversity
 Energy Intensive agriculture and heavy reliance
on fertilizer
• May yield results but at a larger footprint associated
with increased inputs
• Impoverish soil which leads to reduced soil fertility
 Climate change mitigation can also help maintain
yield !!


India’s Ecological Footprint (2003): 0.8 ghg per person
• Ranked 125 th out of 152 nations measured
• Despite this low average consumption per person, due to its large
population, India has the 3 rd largest total Footprint , exceeded by USA and
China

Global Ecological Footprint
1.5
Human Demand on Biosphere:
Ecological Footprint 1961 - 2003
Number of Earths

1.0

Humanity’s food, fiber, built-up land and nuclear Footprint
Humanity's food, fiber, built-up
land and nuclear footprint

0.5

CO2 Portion of Humanity’s Ecological Footprint
CO2 portion of humanity's Ecological Footprint

0.0
1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Source: Global Footprint Network, USA

Our Present requirement – 1.51 earths ! (2007)


Ecological debt
 India: An ecological deficit of 100% approx
• Ecological Footprint: 0.78 gha per person
• Biocapacity: 0.40 gha per person
 Debt due to: Rapid growth of population
• India’s per capita Footprint to decrease
• Increased per capita consumption of Fossil fuels
• Greater Carbon Footprint
• Decrease in India’s per capita biocapacity
• 1961: 0.7 gha per person
• 2003: 0.4 gha per person


Water Footprint
• India has the Largest Total Water Footprint of any country in the world
• 987 billion m3 per year
• India contributes
• 17% to global population
• 13% to global water footprint


Life Spans of people, assets and
infrastructure


India’s Ecological Footprint
India Footprint, Biocapacity and GDP

0.90 600
Footprint

0.80
500
Global hectares per capita

0.70

GDP per capita. constant 2000 US$
Biocapacity
0.60 400
Ecological Debt
0.50 Growing over time
300
0.40

GDP
0.30 200

0.20
100
0.10

0.00 0
1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Source: Global Footprint Network, USA


How to approach this deficit ?


Sustainability


Sustainability
 “Sustainable development meets
the needs of the present without
compromising the future
generations ability to meet their
own”
World commission on Environment and
Development, UN in 1983


Sustainability - Approach
 Triple Bottom Line (TBL) or (3BL)
• Captures an expanded spectrum of values
and criteria for measuring organizational
success
• Economic (or) Financial
• Social
• Ecology (or) Environment
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• Initiatives followed by firms demonstrating
their TBL approach and activities
• “People, Planet & Profit” (or) “The Three
Pillars”


People
 Human Capital
 Perceives on implying fair and beneficial
business practices towards labour, the
community in the region of their business
 Few issues like:
• No child labour
• Fair pay for its workers
• Maintain safe work environment
• “Give Back”
• By contributing strength and growth of its community
such as health care and education
 Quantifying this bottom line is subjective and
also problematic
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has come up with
guidelines to enable corporations and NGO’s to
comparably report on the social impact of a business


Planet
 Natural Capital
 Sustainable Environmental Practices
 Few issues like:
• No harm to the environment
• Operating at better SEC values
• Reducing Manufacturing waste generation
• “Cradle-to-Grave”
• Uppermost approach for Manufacturing businesses
• Conducting a “Life Cycle Assessment”
• Will determine the true impact of the manufactured
product on the environment/ecology
• No disposal of toxic and other harmful wastes into the
environment
 TBL approach: “ Ecologically destructive
manufacturing must not be given a free ride
in the society”


Profit
 Economic capital
 Within a sustainability framework, the
‘profit’ is seen as the real economic
impact the organization has on its
economic environment
 In TBL approach
• Traditional accounting profit + Social &
Environmental impacts, unless the profits of other
entities are included as social benefits


How to aware people of these activities of the
companies ?


Sustainability Reporting
 The trend of publishing Financial reports annually
or quarterly has been a practice
• Done for displaying the financial position of the firm
to the stakeholders
 As the awareness on the environmental issues
has risen, the stakeholders are required to know
the environmental impact of the firm
 This led to publishing “Sustainability Report”
 The key organization which standardized the
reporting format and ensures the quality of the
report is “Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)”
• Update: GRI G3.1 guidelines released on 23rd
march 2011


Application Level


Third Parties Involved with assurance for Sustainability reporting


Greenhouse Effect


“Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is just
right."

Reason – Green House effect !


A planet's climate is decided by its mass, its distance from
the sun and the composition of its atmosphere


"Venus is too hot, Mars is too cold, and Earth is
just right."
 Temperature depends on Green
House effect
 Mars has a thin atmosphere
 0.03 % of atmosphere is CO2
 Temp of (-) 50°C
 Lower than our deep freeze !
 Venus has a thick cloud
 95 % of atmosphere is CO2
 Temp of 420°C
 Bake a cake !


Green House Gases (GHG)


GHG Concentration levels
GHG Unit 1750 2007 GWP

1 CO2 ppm 280 384 1

2 CH4 ppb 700 1857 25

3 N2O ppb 270 321 298

4 CFC 12 ppt 0 541 10900

5 HFC 134a ppt 0 49 1430

6 SF6 ppt 0 6.4 22800

GWP – Global Warming Potential
* Effect of Man-made GHG’s : Equivalent to 1 % increase in power of
sun


Average temp of earth : 15 deg C
Without GHG : -17.8 deg C

What is Global Warming ?


Global Warming
 The Greenhouse effect helps sustain life
on planet Earth !!
• The Greenhouse Gases are responsible
• Warming is the output
 From the Industrial era, the amount of
Greenhouse Gases have risen
tremendously
• This is creating greater “Warming” than
required
• Effect: Rising Global Temperature


Global Warming – Stats !!
 Global Warming
• 1880 – 1970 : 0.4°C
• In 2008, the global average surface air
temperature was +0.44°C above global
mean for 1951-1980 baseline
• 10 warmest years have been recorded
between 1997-2008
• Average global temperatures for the
years 2005 & 2010 are rated the hottest
years ever recorded – NASA GISS


* NASA GISS data


Climate Change !


Climate Change
 Impact of GHG on climate change
• Proven beyond doubt
 Several countries
• Already impacted by climate change
• Business, agriculture, services, economy
affected
 Need to evolve a holistic approach
globally to combat climate change


Climate Change - Potential Impacts
 Sea Level
• Rise of 1-3 feet in the next 100 years
 Melting of Glaciers
• Threat for drinking water
 Health Impacts
• Increased disease (particularly
waterborne diseases)
 Climate
• Erratic monsoons
• Droughts
• Cyclones
 Agriculture
• Net Loss in world’s food supply


Effect on Glaciers


Himalayan Glacier
 Covers 17% of greater Himalayan region
 Largest area after polar regions

• 113,000 square km area
 9 largest rives serving 1.3 billion people
 Gangotri

• Rate of depletion is 3 times more than the 200
year depletion rate


Gangotri Glacier Retreat


Effect of sea level rise

6 Crore people have to shift in Calcutta and Bangladesh


How to tackle this at a global level ??


Albert Arnold “Al” Gore Jr
 45th Vice President of US (93-01)
served under President Bill Clinton
 Received a Nobel Peace Prize along
with IPCC in 2007
 Award winning, popular book and
documentary on “An Inconvenient
Truth” (06-07)
 Establishments
• Generation Investment Management
(founded 2004)
• The Alliance for Climate Protection
(founded 04-05)
 Author, Businessman, Congressman
and an Environmental activist


IPCC http://www.ipcc.ch/
 Intergovernmental Panel for
Climate Change
 Introduction
• Established by UNEP and WMO
• To provide the world with
knowledge on climate change and
its potential environmental, socio
and economic impacts
 A Scientific body
• 194 countries are a part of it
• Head quarters is located in
Geneva, Switzerland


UNFCCC http://unfccc.int/
 United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
 Introduction
• Various countries have joined hands
in the form of an International treaty
• Established with a focus on what can
be done to reduce global warming and
to cope with the inevitable rise in
temperatures
 Kyoto Protocol was framed on 11th
December 1997


Kyoto Protocol
 An International Agreement on Climate Change
• Adopted in Kyoto, Japan
• 16th February 2005 (entered into force)
 Introduction
• Set binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and
European community to reduce GHG emissions
• 5% against 1990 level over 5 year period (2008-2012)
• Established a mechanism to appreciate the nations
which have implemented it
• Emission trading
• Clean Development Mechanism
• Joint Implementation
• These mechanism stimulated the Green Investment
market !!!!


WRI http://www.wri.org/
 World Resources Initiative
 Introduction
• A Global Environment Think Tank
• Provides practical strategies for
putting research ideas into
implementation on environmental
fronts
 Work with government,
companies and civil society to
build solutions to urgent
environmental challenges


CII
www.cii.in/
 Confederation of Indian Industry
 Introduction
• Non-government, Not-for-Profit, Industry
led and Industry managed organization
• CII catalyses change by working closely
with government on policy issues,
enhance efficiency and expand business
opportunities for Industry
 Established 7 Centres of Excellence
on different fronts


CII – Godrej GBC http://www.greenbusinesscentre.com/

 Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre
 Introduction
• A Centre of Excellence
• 3rd Green Building in the world, 1st outside USA
• Offers advisory services to industry on
Environmental aspects in the areas of
• Green Buildings
• Energy Efficiency
• Water Management
• Renewable Energy
• Green business incubation and Climate Change
activities
 Works closely with various international
organizations like WRI, Global Footprint
Network, Climate Leaders, US AID, UNEP,
Asia-Pacific Partnership and many others


Few more Lectures on !!
 Energy Efficiency & Renewable
 New Concepts in the Green World
 GHG & Climate Change
 Industrial Ecology
 Introduction to Green Business
 Green Economy


Summary
Defined Green !
Terms
• Ecological Footprint
• Biocapacity
• Ecological overshoot & its factors
• Ecological debt
Sustainability
• Definition
• Approach: TBL
• Sustainability Reporting
Greenhouse Effect
Greenhouse Gases
• What do they do !
• Sector-wise emission figures
Global Warming
Climate Change and its Impacts
Few Organizations working on these issues


Thank You

Ravi Teja Pabbisetty
ravi546@gmail.com Presenter: Ravi Teja Pabbisetty 72

Green & Sustainability - Introduction

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