12 industry leading organizations including HUL, Marks & Spencer, Infosys, GSECL, Attero, Eram Scientific, ACC and Schneider feature amongst winners of the 2013 Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards

Over 250 sustainability leaders driving Indian businesses converged in New Delhi on October 17th at the Annual Summit of the Sustainable Business Leadership Forum to redefine customer engagement strategies and leveraging sustainability investments to shape ‘Sustainable Brands’. The summit also saw the announcement of the 2013 Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards.,
 
The Forum featuring several key figures from the country’s policy and business circles deliberated on the expected near-term consumer behavioral changes emanating from evolving sensitivity to environmental concerns and defined specific ways in which brand appeal and differentiation can be shaped while ushering in strategic change and unlock new value for the firms.
 
This year’s summit shaped around ‘Rethinking Consumption’ focused on three key themes: ‘Sustainability as an avenue for crafting marketing and branding success’; ‘Mainstreaming sustainability standards’; and ‘Finding Capital to drive sustainability’. Sustainability leaders from large businesses such as ITC, Nokia, TVS Motors, Essar and Kirloskar; from investors such as IL&FS, YES Bank and IFC; from PSUs such as GSECL, BPCL and NSIC; from catalyst organizations such as CDP, GRI, ICAI, UN Global Compact; and other voices shaping the dialog deliberated on ways of creating Sustainability-led advantage.
 
Speaking at the event’s plenary sessions, leaders such as Former Union Cabinet Minister Suresh Prabhu, Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency in addition to corporate captains like CEOs of Grundos, Danfoss, Sun Investment, Moser-Baer Solar, Tata Services, etc. highlighted the opportunity for the Indian industry to imbibe sustainability as a core aspect in their business planning and emerge as a differentiated lot in a rapidly changing resource constrained world.
 
Sharing his thoughts through a recorded video address, Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Chairperson of the National set the tone for the day’s deliberations by highlighting the challenge and opportunity in front of India’s business leaders as they straddle the balance between a resource constrained operating environment and an ever exciting marketplace seeking to grow at over 8~9% annually.
 
The day’s proceedings included a showcase of 35 select Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards finalists. Announced at the evening plenary of the Summit, the 2013 Annual Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards (http://www.ParivartanAwards.in), aimed at recognizing innovation and corporate leadership in sustainability, unveiled truly unique initiatives to transition toward sustainable manufacturing, infrastructure, energy management and closed – loop businesses systems, amongst others.
 
FMCG major HUL, Retail major Marks & Spencer, IT giant Infosys, Cement major ACC, PSUs GSECL and GAIL and upcoming innovative solution providers such as Attero, Eram and  Aspiration Energy were amongst the 12  large and small Indian corporates that were felicitated as the winners of the Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards for 2013.
 
The Awards also recognized and felicitated CDP for its efforts as a catalyst for advancing sustainability in India by being awarded in the Sustainability Compass of the Year category. Gujarat State PSU, GSECL was also awarded the Grand Jury special prize for exemplary initiatives undertaken for promoting energy infrastructure in Gujarat state. In addition, Dr. B.C. Jain of Ankur Scientific and young sustainability champions were recognized under the Sustainability Leaders of the Year.
 
The winners were arrived at after a rigorous 3 step review entailing an initial outreach of over 600 nominations and a shortlist of 60 finalists was judged by an eminent 6 member jury headed by Suresh Prabhu, Former Cabinet Minister; Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, Director General and CEO, Indian Institute of Corporate Affair; K.C. Mehra, Chairman, National Board for Quality Promotion; Dr. David Dornfeld, Chair Professor of Sustainability and Manufacturing, University of California at Berkeley; M. K. Venu, Executive Editor, The Hindu and Dr. Jahar Saha Former Director, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
 
Speaking at the awards event on behalf of the Organizing Committee, Upendra Bhatt and Pawan Mehra, Managing Directors of cKinetics stated, "We are extremely delighted to host the Sustainable Business Leadership Forum Summit and support the Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards. It is a matter of pride and priority for our company to strive for environmental sustainability and we are happy that our efforts are gaining recognition and support from rest of the Industry stakeholders.’’
 
Earlier in the day, several new initiatives aimed at further catalyzing the sustainability paradigm amongst India’s businesses were also launched at the Summit.
 
The winners of Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards 2013 across various categories include:
 
Corporate Sustainability Stewardship Awards
Manufacturing category: Hindustan Unilever Limited
PSU category: Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited
Services category: Infosys
Strategic Ecosystem Engagement category: Marks & Spencer
 
Sustainability Disclosure Leadership Awards
Corporate category: Tata Consulting Services
PSU category: GAIL
Most Improved Disclosure category: ACC
 
Sustainability Innovation Challenge Awards
Innovative material recycling solutions category: ACC - Geocycle
Resource monitoring systems category: Schneider Electric
Innovative recycling solutions and models enabling post-use recycling: Attero
Energy storage systems category: Greencon
 
Sustainable Brands of the Year Awards
Product Innovation category: Eram Scientific
Innovation in Business Model category: Aspiration Energy
 
Industry Sustainability Compass of the Year Award
CDP
 
Sustainability Trailblazer Awards
Sustainability Entrepreneur of the Year: Dr. B.C. Jain
Sustainability Youth Icon of the Year: Preethy Iyer and Ashwin Subramanian
 
Media Contact
Roselin Dey
SBLFSummit@SustainabilityOutlook.in
+91.11.4050.7277
 
About the Organizer: Sustainability Outlook
Sustainability Outlook is a market access, insight and collaboration platform tracking actions related towards Sustainability in the Indian economy. It proactively promotes dialogue and collates data to enable action by local, regional as well as global practitioners. Sustainability Outlook provides (a) in-depth business and policy analyses (b) updates on the market participants and latest trends on sustainability initiatives and (c) expert inputs on resource reduction and other abatement as well as adaptation measures being undertaken. It was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009 and is a division of cKinetics.
http://www.SustainabilityOutlook.in
 
 
About the Sustainable Business Leadership Forum
Sustainable Business Leadership Forum (SBLF) is an invitation-only Indian industry focused market development platform which  equips organizations, managers and industry stakeholders on the ‘how’ of sustainability through a unique programmatic approach comprising of round the year programs and ‘on-ground industry oriented’ work.
 
Instituted by Sustainability Outlook, the leading information marketplace on sustainability action, SBLF enables a unique exchange of thought leadership, business know-how and catalytic tools for enabling corporate transition towards sustainable business practices.
http://SBLF.SustainabilityOutlook.in
 
 
About Parivartan Sustainability Leadership Awards
Parivartan Sustainability leadership awards are an annual initiative to recognize and celebrate sustainability innovations in Indian businesses with a hope to further aid thought leadership and catalyze Indian industry’s move towards sustainability.
 
Instituted by Sustainability Outlook in 2011, Parivartan Awards have unveiled truly unique initiatives to transition toward sustainable manufacturing, infrastructure, energy management and closed – loop businesses systems, amongst others.
http://www.ParivartanAwards.in
 
 

Contact Information

Roselin Dey

Media Contact

Sustainability Outlook

(91) 1141051195

Info@SustainabilityOutlook.in