Assessment of sustainability strategies of 12 representative industry sectors
Student name: Ms Vidushi Bhatt
Guide: Ms Ranjana Ray Chaudhuri
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: Ernst n Young, Gurgaon
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Anindya Bhattacharya
Abstract: In today’s corporate world, sustainability has become a keyword. The spotlight is very much now on companies to act in an environmentally, socially and economically responsible manner. Gone are the days when corporate responsibility was restricted to a handful of philanthropic activities. Companies, more and more, are incorporating sustainability as a core component of business strategies in order to thrive in the market and be profitable in longer term. Hence it is no surprise to see leading companies across all industry sectors having well - defined sustainability strategy in place and implementing them to great success.
In this background, the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD), a wing under Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), has appointed Ernst & Young LLP to conduct a research study on sustainability strategies of different companies in twelve different industry sectors.
The broad objective of the study is to bring to light the different sustainability strategies that the companies in these sectors are employing and how that is helping them in addressing the key sustainability risks and challenges that exists in that particular sector. The knowledge base repository thus created by such kind of research study would be extremely useful in Sustainable Development capacity building and other training programmes, workshops, conferences and seminars, conducted by IICA.
For the research purpose, twelve key industry sectors have been identified and 120 companies have been selected in these sectors 1. The sustainability strategies of these 120 companies have been studied in details through information available on public domain and through inter actions with relevant personnel. This gave us relevant information regarding the sector-specific sustainability risks and challenges, best sustainability practices and best water management practices in the relevant sectors.
Keywords – sustainability, sustainability strategy, sustainability risks, industry sectors, public domain.
