SIEMENS

What is your definition of sustainability?

Irani: Sustainability is more than just cutting CO₂-emissions. In industrialized countries, business is generally conducted by the private sector, while the government assumes responsibility for public services such as education, healthcare, and communications. This model provides fertile ground for sustainability in a broader sense. In India, however, the private sector must help to bridge the gap between what the government would like to do for the people and what its financial resources allow. You cannot be a spike of prosperity in a sea of poverty. You do have to share as a corporation.

How does Tata share?

Irani: Our slogan is: What has come from the people, will go back to the people. We help communities to build the infrastructures they need. In the long run, this fosters sustainability. This is not a marketing exercise. We regard this as an investment, not as a cost. In certain areas, we provide basic education, in others we build hospitals. Half of the population still does not have electric power, and coal is currently the most important fuel. Renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power have not yet been developed. This is one area where we can take a giant leap forward — by immediately developing clean technologies and thus completely avoiding many of the environmentally unsound technologies that have been prevalent in the industrialized countries.

That hints at the potential for leapfrogging.

Irani: Yes, India will be able to leapfrog in many areas; we will go for the most advanced processes and technologies right away, rather than imitating the path more developed nations have taken. The use of renewable energies is certainly a good example. We've seen what has worked well and what has failed in Western countries. One big advantage that latecomers have is that they can avoid many of the traps that others have fallen prey to.

What does Tata do as far as the environment is concerned?

Irani: First we have to make sure the mindset changes. We have come a long way over the past 100 years in catching up. Initially we had to get the quality of the products right; then we had to fix the processes; now we can dedicate our energies to mitigating undesired side-effects of our activities, like pollution. Frankly speaking, we used to be quite happy sending smoke up the stacks, as long as what we produced was successful on the market. We were not that concerned about the fuels we were burning, as long as our energy costs came down. However, nowadays, we go to great lengths to reduce our carbon footprint and we look at best practices. My membership in the Siemens Sustainability Advisory Board is one element of this learning exercise, which is meant to be mutual.

What are some examples of sustainable practices within the Tata Group?

Irani: Nowadays we are concentrating on using less and less coal and more and more gas, in comparison a relatively clean fuel. Some of this gas we generate in our own factories. So we now make use of a resource that was wasted in the past. Also, we expect our companies to be among the top three in their industry segment in India as far as their environmental track record and their carbon dioxide emissions are concerned. Drawing on the help of outside agencies, we determined the carbon footprint of each of our businesses. We are never shy about learning. And we have trained so-called champions who dedicate themselves to sending the message of sustainability to workers and officers throughout our company. Now there are 200 in the whole group and we are training 200 more.