Nilgiris Economic Dialogue: Businesses explore ways to improve sustainable practices

TIIC is embedding sustainability in MSMEs, emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and global supply chain integration.

The Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) is working towards embedding sustainability in the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) that it is funding, said Hans Raj Verma, Chairman and Managing Director of TIIC.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “Circular Alchemy : Transforming Resources into Sustainale Wealth”, organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tamil Nadu, on Saturday as part of its Nilgiris Economic Dialogue (NED) programme, Mr. Verma said if the MSMEs do not move towards sustainability, changes will overpower them. In order to be part of a global supply chain, these units should get into sustainability practices. “We are looking at low cost home grown solutions,” he said.

The TIIC has an ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) cell and any new project that it is funding, it looks whether sustainable practices are part of the project, he added.

In the session moderated by Ranganathan NK, member of the Curators Council of the Nilgiris Economic Dialogue, Ravichandran Purushothaman, Managing Director of Danfoss Industries, said MSMEs contribute to 60 % - 65 % of the GDP and awareness about sustainable practices among these units, innovations, social behaviour are all key to businesses transitioning to meet the sustainability goals. New funding models, changes in public policy, and encouragement to startups working in this space are also important, he said.

According to A.R. Unnikrishnan, Managing Director of Saint Gobain India - Glass Business, there should be a change to viewing the sustainability practices from the moral standpoint to economic standpoint. The changes should also be driven from the top.

Kapil Bansal, partner of EY Energy Transition and Decarbonisation, said resource pooling in areas such as use of renewable energy can be tried at MSME clusters. Access to funds is not a challenge, he said.

Earlier, Katja Larsen, Founder of Silver Spoon Consultancy, spoke on the importance of sustainable practices, recycling and circularity.