Storyboard18's Power of Purpose: People, planet and profit

The capital witnessed a gathering of purpose-driven minds debating how the young generation and business leaders are driving sustainability efforts in the country. The Storyboard18 and Network18 Group's Power of Purpose: Sustainability Edition held in New Delhi was graced by prominent industry leaders.

During a panel discussion, Ramnath Vaidyanthan, AVP & Head Of Sustainability, Godrej Industries, Ridhima Pandey, 16-year-old climate activist, Amar Nagaram- CEO and Co-founder, Virgio, and Saurabh Goenka, Director of Marketing, Pashupati Group discussed 'powering long-term sustainability and new bottom-line (people, planet and profit).

16-year-old climate change activist Ridhima Pandey whose sustainability journey began when she was 9 years old, said, "Most of my work has been in and around the perspective of young people; how we see the world and how we see what's been going on with different sectors. Being somebody who started at the age of 9, it was never a choice for me. I was conscious about the environment; my parents worked in the same field and I knew I had to respect it and conserve it, and be responsible."

"It was not a choice to be an activist. I saw the floods, felt it, struggled with nightmares and had this fear of dying someday due to a natural disaster. I am seeing a world where no one cares about future generations, more or less everybody has their own profit and agenda, most of the older generation, people responsible for majorly contributing to this crisis, never see what they are leaving behind for us. What's going to be left for me and the coming generations, when we become stakeholders and make decisions?," she added.

Pandey highlights the need for more transparency from the government and corporate sector, "to feel we are heard".

"Young people are given a voice at the table, but what we say, is it really considered?," she asked during the discussion.

Coming from Haridwar, Pandey has seen nature, abundance, and biodiversity, but she has also seen it getting destroyed for profit. "The thing is I am living in a country where I see my future getting torn into pieces. I don't have much power, the only power I have is my voice. We need to do more than just using our voice," she stated.

Ramnath Vaidyanthan, AVP & Head Of Sustainability, Godrej Industries talked about the integration of sustainability into business models and how that's influenced different aspects of business, "Godrej has been integrating sustainability into its business for about 2 decades. What started off as a good-to-do initiative has literally become front and center of our business strategy. Companies that aren't doing all that right now are already late to the party. It's not about doing the right thing, it's about surviving."

Talking about resilience and how businesses can adapt to a changing climate is important, Vaidyanthan shared, "It's sad that even today I keep getting asked if there is a trade-off between profitability and sustainability. Companies that are strong on sustainability outperform on the financial front than other companies.

"Investors have understood if you have not embedded it in your strategy, you are not prepared for a climate concern in the future."

"It is purely a matter of de-risking yourself. Unless we look at the entire value chain of our ecosystem, we are still at risk. Take water as an example. Water is one climate risk. The toughest stakeholder for us is the consumer because fundamentally we need to rethink capitalism. How do I produce less and still keep stakeholders happy?," he added.

While addressing the plastic and mindset problem, Saurabh Goenka, Director of Marketing, Pashupati Group said, "We have been recycling plastic for the past two decades. We recognize the fact that while recycling has its own benefits, the ultimate goal to achieve sustainability is to reduce plastic consumption overall. But we need to look at the alternatives. Basically, we do have two approaches to it. The conventional approach is to go towards other materials like aluminum, glass, or paper."

Goenka said it's a myth that these materials are more sustainable. "Metal and paper are more energy-consuming, and have more emissions than plastics."

He highlighted the second approach - bioplastic and states that it also comes with its own drawbacks. "To replace bioplastic, we need 5 percent of the global production. The most sustainable way to truly handle plastic is to handle it responsibly. We are looking towards maximizing plastic waste in the stream. We recycle them to replace them with polymers. The need for newer raw materials goes down this way. If we responsibly handle plastic waste, it contributes to a circular economy."

Amar Nagaram- CEO and Co-founder, Virgio talked about sustainable fashion and how consumers are reacting to this, saying, "There is a huge gap between life on social media and life in society, when it comes to choosing sustainable fashion. A consumer cannot be blamed for their choices because sustainability in fashion has been just namesake. It has been told over and over that polyester is bad and cotton is good as a sustainable fashion. If we just talk about the usage of resources, cotton is nowhere good in terms of pesticide and soil erosion although I am not saying polyester is the way to go."

Nagaram talked about meriting a mission of not touching virgin plastic. "We wanted our journey to make fashion the right way." While referencing N Chandrababu Naidu's quote, 'Why invest into picking up waste when you can avoid it in the first place,'Nagaram who hails from Tirupati shares that this has become the policy, at least in Tirumala premises."

"This also led us to think of it in our journey. Regardless of the fabric, when a pattern is cut, 25 percent of fabric is wasted. If you can save that, a lot of wastage is going away. This adds strength to my bottom line."

Pandey, who is also called the Greta Thunberg of India, also touched upon  sustainable fashion and said how the younger generation is cautious about it and concludes by saying, "We do campaigns, we speak out, we go on with petitions," while addressing the role of youth activism in holding corporations accountable for their environmental impact."

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