ENVIORNMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

INDIVIDUAL WRITE UP ON TCS

Submitted to: Ms. Deepa Bhaskaran

Submitted by: Ashima Narwal

PG20101054 2010-2012

"Sustainable development, in today's times, goes beyond environmental sustainability only. Good sustainable business practices, contrary to the popular belief, should be embedded into organizations regular activities rather than taken up separately. In fact, increasingly the corporate sector is also recognizing longer run profitability of such practices."

a. Do you agree or disagree with the above statement. Justify with appropriate reasons.

I agree with the statement as in today's time global scenario sustainable development is more than that of environmental sustainability. The organization takes many things from environment in form of resources therefore its an whole and soul responsibility of organization to return back to environment by planting more trees, judicial use of natural resources and energy, keeping environment clean and producing environmental friendly products. More research and development has to be done for creating a better synchronization with surrounding with environment and the organization.

Sustainability has become a mantra for the 21st century. It embodies the promise of societal evolution towards a more equitable and wealthy world in which the natural environment and our cultural achievements are preserved for generations to come. This promise touches upon elementary hopes and fears, which have both guided and challenged scores of scholars in the past.

There are several issues for all organizations to consider when looking at their environmental footprint: the use of energy within buildings such as electricity for lighting, running computers, heating or cooling systems and cooking transport both for work purposes and for staff travel to work

goods such as equipment, stationery and food products water consumption production and processing of waste Building design including cooling and insulation.

Sustainable development is development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In the extensive discussion and use of the concept since then, there has generally been recognition of three aspects of sustainable development: Economic: An economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt, and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production. Environmental: An environmentally sustainable system must maintain a stable resource base, avoiding over-exploitation of renewable resource systems or environmental sink functions, and depleting non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes. This includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability, and other ecosystem functions not ordinarily classed as economic resources. Social: A socially sustainable system must achieve distributional equity, adequate provision of social services including health and education, gender equity, and political accountability and participation. Clearly, these three elements of sustainability introduce many potential complications to the original simple definition. Benefits of environmental stewardship Good stewardship of resources by organizations has many benefits: CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES: limiting the use of paper, plastics, metal, and water helps to reduce depletion of natural resources.

COST SAVINGS: Where resources are used more efficiently and only when necessary (such as turning lights off when there is no one in the room),organizations could save substantial amounts of money that could be spent on projects instead. HEALTH IMPROVEMENTS: Buildings that are ventilated or insulated will stay cooler in high temperatures and warmer in colder temperatures, reducing the need for air-conditioning and heating. Staffs who work in well ventilated offices are likely to be more productive and stay healthy. IMPROVED PROJECTS: Organizations that take account of environmental issues are more likely to plan projects that have minimal impact on the environment and that take account of possible impacts from the environment. The effectiveness and sustainability of projects is therefore improved. REDUCTION OF CARBON EMISSIONS: Reducing the use of fossil fuels through conserving energy and using efficient methods of transport, will reduce carbon emissions and therefore greenhouse gases. ENHANCED REPUTATION: Better stewardship of resources improves the organizations reputation among donors, peers and the community who view the organization as caring and responsible. Organizations may also experience an increase in financial support as a result. MEETING NATIONAL GUIDELINES AND TARGETS: National governments are increasingly concerned about environmental issues, and they are now starting to be held accountable for their actions by international agreements, particularly in relation to climate change and carbon emissions. Governments will be putting pressure on industry, the public sector and citizens to contribute to the achievement of national targets. In the long term, the achievement of these targets should be good for everyone, so development organizations should seek to play their part. Good practice in office-based environmental stewardship.

Sustainable Business Practices:

Sustainability in business is about ensuring long-term business success while contributing toward economic and social development, a healthy environment and a stable society.As

part of their core principles, companies that are committed to sustainable business adopt high standards in areas that can include environmental protection, gender equity, working conditions, employee benefits, capacity development, community development and a set of transparent relationships between a companys management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders that fall under the term corporate governance. According to recent World Bank research, barriers to implementing sustainable business practices include

1. 2.

Lack of awareness of the concept. Production inefficiencies that are the result of implementing multiple codes of

conduct (CoC) at the same time . 3. Lack of financial and technical resources to implement such practices (particularly

true for SMEs). 4. 5. Confusion that arises due to differences between the national labor code and CoCs. National regulations that impede CoC implementation. b. Choose any Indian company that has adopted or is planning to adopt sustainable business practices. Evaluate the challenges that can arise in the process & suggest strategies that a practicing manager should implement to overcome the identified challenges. Established in 1968, TCS made revenues of $4.3 billion in 2006-07, an increase of 41 per cent on the previous years performance. Over 55 per cent of its revenues come from the Americas, close to 30 per cent from Europe, and about ten per cent from India. It employs over 85,000 people, covering 67 nationalities, across its operations in 47 countries and 148 offices. The business plans of various business units - drawn in the light of overall TCS strategy and corporate goals - require identifying the goals, customer/ stakeholder objectives, the constraints and risks to be overcome, and also the TCSs Corporate Social Responsibility to various stakeholders depending upon the applicability. These plans are finalised by the

Executive Leadership team of TCS and are followed through by monthly/quarterly reviews. TCS also operates on the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) which ensures the strategic fit of its sustainability efforts to business operations. The nature of TCS business does not contain highly polluting processes. However, the industry does have an environmental footprint that is worthy of reducing. Also, it can help other industries and overnments with technology-based solutions to tackle sustainability challenges. TCS identifies this as its greatest contribution to the environment in the potential its services and solutions in IT have to offer, in order to help its clients contribute to sustainable development. TCS has set a target to reduce its carbon footprint by 25-30 per cent in five years upto 2012 through a number of programmes worldwide. Some of the specific targets for its entire operations for the year 2008-09 are: Environment-friendly disposal of 100 per cent e-waste according to the Indian policy on ewaste Environment-friendly disposal of 100 per cent printer cartridges Ten per cent increase in recycled water Ten per cent increase in rainwater harvesting or ground water recharging Ten per cent increase in solar hot water capacity Five per cent decrease in power consumption Two per cent decrease in paper consumption 25 per cent increase in renewable cooking gas (methane gas) through bio-digestor plant.

25 per cent increase in manure generation through vermi-culture or biodigestor plant Two per cent reduction in water consumption. TCS covers four innovative products that address rural market connectivity, governance and sustainability management. Farmer's Application: Project mKrishi

TCS demonstrated that mKRISHI (Mobile Based Agro Advisory System), winner of Qualcomm Wireless Reach Funding Programme in the Mission 2007, provides up-to-date weather and pricing information through textmessaging on cell phones. The application can be prompted by text in farmers local languages or via voice functions, which is particularly helpful for those who are not literate in the agricultural community, which is the most important sector of Indias economy. Andhra Pradesh (AP) Online TCS developed an online portal in partnership with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to provide multiple services through multiple channels to the people, government departments and businesses within the state. AP Onlines innovativeness is its delivery model, through kiosks and other automated devices. AP Online franchisees have been given a hand-held device with internet connectivity to connect to various government departments. With over 600,000 users, the portal provides a range of services to the citizens. Services offered for a nominal fee include payment of utility bills, telephone bills, requisition for birth certificates and for purchasing pin numbers for pre-paid mobile phone cards. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) Solution TCS developed an online system for the Andhra Pradesh Governments Rural Employment guarantee Scheme, providing all required data about the rural unemployed, to facilitate a speedy and error free implementation of the scheme. Strategic Investment Planning System The Strategic Investment Planning System (SIPS) is a vehicle to introduce a paradigm shift in the planning approach for any asset intensive organization, such as the utilities industry, changing focus from managing assets towards managing service to customers and environment (issues like flooding and pollution). Major challenges of environment sustainability by the organization

Consistent maintaining in standards of quality product which suits the environment although there is scarcity of raw material, price hikes, higher fuel charges, government policy changes.

Existence of bureaucracy in every corner.

Growing demand for the products led to more demand and exploitation of environmental resources.

Depletion of valuable resources. Rapid Urbanization and deforestation is a devastating issue for the organization. Global warming is also a major concern for the organization. Growth in population. Access to the internet. Illiteracy.

As a manager I would like to apply the following strategies -

Creating and proposing environment friendly models and implementing it positively More emphasis on environment audit for knowing the exact stand of organization with relation to environment.

Outsourcing and hiring of expert knowledge can create a huge difference in environment support.

Rewarding the customer and employee as motivation for giving their services on environment through the organization so that other people also get an inspiration for it.

Bringing awareness about environment through training, seminars, conferences on time to time basis. Some environmental issues can be applied with other organizational activities like operations, finance to make it more interesting.

Conclusion It is a fact that the path to economic progress is ecologically unsustainable. Each one of us is a part of this. The impact and effect of this could range from serious disruption to society and economy as we know it, to global apocalypse and unprecedented global strife. It is going to be a very serious impact how serious, is a question of degree and time. If every one of us organizations and individuals i.e. the global society transform to ecologically sustainable progress, we have the best chance of shaping a secure and happy future.

AP Online and Mkrishi are innovative strategies which are elaborative and extensive in rural markets so far. Critical factors in the apparent success of the venture are TCSs extensive knowledge of agriculture, the effort tcs has made it easy to retain many aspects of the existing production system, including retaining the integral importance of local partners, the companys commitment to transparency, and the respect and fairness with which both farmers and local partners are treated.