Sustainability (and SustainAbility) in India

10 Jul 2010 – Jean-Philippe Renaut

In early July SustainAbility’s work with one of Tata Group companies brought me to India, to the historical district of Bombay where the global headquarters of Tata are located.

Tata has shaped India’s economic landscape for the past century. A vast conglomerate, Tata Group’s activities range from car manufacturing, IT consulting, chemicals, airplanes and electricity production. Now publicly traded and employing hundreds of thousands, it is still very much driven by the founder’s original values.

As you enter the well-policed headquarters with its wood panels and marble floors, you might notice a few dogs hanging around, dozing off on the cool floor. “Pretty unconvincing security dogs” was my first thought, as I stepped over a heavily pregnant dog deeply asleep in front of the security booth. It turns out that these dogs are simply street dogs. The story goes that the current heir of the Tata empire, Ratan Tata, once petted a couple of these dogs on the steps of the building, as he exited his chauffeured car. Since then, no security guard dares kicking them out, testament of the strong “tone at the top” in this organisation.

This links up to the fascinating work we are doing there, helping one of their businesses to build the business case for sustainability, in line with our Developing Value model. We helped them understand how their different initiatives contribute to fundamental “value drivers” common to all companies. “It’s in our blood” is no longer a sufficient justification for well-run companies’ sustainability efforts. Even if argument is more applicable for Tata than for most companies I have worked for, companies need to be equipped with such a compass to guide their work.

For example, Tata does a lot of work in rural development, especially in communities close to production sites. This helps to raise the standard of living and makes a more vibrant, safe and enjoyable environment. This in turn helps attract a quality workforce to some of these remote locations – and quality of human resources is a strong contributing factor to the success of organisation.

Beyond this assignment, I found India (Mumbai and Delhi) to be especially challenging for a sustainability consultant. The sheer number of people, all driven by the same development ideals as the rest of the world, is putting tremendous pressure on the social and natural fabric. A few nights in a poorly insulated staff accommodation will make any light sleeper ponder the development challenges of this part of the world. And yet I also found inspiration in this cacophony, where a vegetarian can feast anywhere, where water conservation and water harvesting is mainstream, and where the traditional cost-benefit of sustainability are not even worth mentioning.

As SustainAbility is developing its on-the-ground presence there (Shankar has already been in place for a couple years, and another associate is soon to officially join the team), I hope to soon be back.