This article was originally published on GreenBiz.
“…Tata group appreciates the inherent benefits that exist in measuring, assessing and valuing natural and social capital for managing business risks and opportunities. We recognize that if our businesses are to thrive for another couple of centuries (the Tata group will celebrate the 150th year of its existence in 2018), we must manage well the linkages between natural capital, economic activity, profit and society.
…Until now, natural capital (and indeed social capital) has for the most part been excluded from decisions and, when included, has been largely inconsistent, open to interpretation or limited to moral arguments. The coalition has since published Natural Capital Protocol to identify, measure and value impacts and dependencies on natural capital.
What progress have we made?
So far, a number of Tata companies have applied the Natural Capital Protocol to assess and value the impact of natural capital on their operations. The initial outcomes associated with doing so have been encouraging:
- Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals were able to get insights to prioritize their focus related to greenhouse gas emissions management and fresh water usage.
- Tata Power applied the Natural Capital Protocol to its hydropower business to understand the total impact of a hydro plant; it plans to apply this exercise to the appraisal of future projects.
- Tata Motors assessed its main products, namely passenger and commercial cars, in order to balance its product portfolio going forward.
- Perhaps, the most exciting outcome of the exercise was from Tata Coffee, which showed a net positive environment impact courtesy of the large coffee plantation it owns. Tata Coffee is contemplating how to use this information as a point of differentiation in a crowded marketplace…”
Read on at: GreenBiz.
