By Brian Pereira, October 1, 2009
Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth shows the horrifying outcome of global warming. Within years the polar ice caps will be gone, causing water levels to rise by several meters. Entire cities will disappear from the face of the earth, much like Atlantis.
At the recent Pittsburg summit, heads of G20 nations arrived at some agreement on climate change. In reality, it translates into little action or progress. There is an urgency to do something about this crisis now, at a quicker pace. We’ve had directives such as the Kyoto protocol and incentives like Carbon Credits. Yet, these haven’t brought about too much change, not at the pace we’d like it to happen. But here’s what some companies are doing to neutralize or mitigate the buildup of harmful green house gases.
- In the IT industry we have socially responsible companies such as Wipro and Infosys who have taken a number of initiatives, on their own. Refer to my colleague Srikanth’s story ‘In Economic Cloud, Infosys sees a Green Lining’
Infosys has pledged to become a carbon neutral company by 2012. It will invest in projects that mitigate or neutralize the level of carbon emissions. All new buildings coming up on its campus will be green; these will use intelligent building management systems with sensors and regulators to save power. The buildings will be specially designed to optimize usage of floor space; to use natural light and to keep out heat from the sun’s rays. Infosys also has corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives like car pooling.
- At a recent CIO roundtable in Bengaluru, Laxman Badiga, CIO, Wipro Technologies outlined some of the green initiatives undertaken by his company. Wipro has a water recycling system that can sustain a 45-day supply on its electronic city campus. Wipro also saves as much as 70 percent of power consumption by shutting off a majority of its systems during weekends. It reduces air conditioning by maintaining a room temperature within its data centers. Biodegradable waste from the canteen is converted into biogas which is used for cooking. Wipro also claims to have the largest number of green certified buildings in India.
I am sure there are scores of other institutions in India who have similar initiatives. Their sustainability initiatives have a two-fold purpose. Firstly, they save on energy costs and secondly, they are doing their bit to save the environment.
Enterprises, especially in the manufacturing industry, should follow Wipro and Infosys’s examples. Our government should encourage more companies to go green by offering incentives like additional FSI, tax sops, and carbon credits. A task force should be set up to initiate this and a neutral institution should be appointed to audit the level of carbon emissions and then certify organizations accordingly. There are standards such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for this purpose. We should have a mechanism that allows Indian organizations to trade carbon credits—at a national and international level.
All this is sure to mitigate the volume of green house gases in the atmosphere and save planet earth.
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