march-april 2008 issue 02

a specialized csr journal

cover story:
tbl and eco-efficiency

the feasibility of renewable

energy in pakistan

leapfrogging past green:

can blue be the next
green in pakistan?

footprints in the air:

air pollution prizes?

the people-centered
model of business

the pakistani perspective on

sustainability reporting

business intelligence:
EIU sustainability-
business survey

green business sense?

energy conservation:
collective conscience

csr talk: advancement-

poverty paradox

Eco-Efficiency – Key TBL Driver

A Publication of Asiatic Public Relations Network (Pvt.) Ltd.
 contents
Editor-in-Chief
regulars Zohare Ali Shariff

Editorial Director
8 global briefs Khadeeja Balkhi
people - planet - profits Managing Editor
Rutaba Ahmed

28 csr talk Research, Distribution & Development

Raza Tahir
challenge of the 21st century: advancement-poverty paradox Faisal Siddiqi
Mehfooz Aleem
30 csr toolkit Creatives
PC-MoB Kamran Rauf
Shireen Lotia

Reprint
34 breather In line with our mission,
we encourage reproduction of
material, provided tbl and content
partners are given credit
39 social partnership Publisher
indus earth Asiatic Public Relations Network
(Private) Limited

46 book in focus Printed at

ethics incorporated Nikmat Printers, Karachi
Disclaimer
The views expressed in tbl are the
48 musings authors’ and not necessarily shared by
a second life tbl and/or APR
Declaration
From the office of
District Coordination Officer,
City District Government Karachi
features NO.DCO/DDO/LAW/CDGK/109/2007,
Karachi
Dated May 22, 2007

11 cover story
tbl and eco-efficiency

14 renewable energy
the feasibility of renewable energy in pakistan Subscription, advertising and
feedback at:
17 leapfrogging past green
can blue be the next green in pakistan? tbl: triple bottom-line

Address: A-7, Street 1,

19 footprints in the air Bath Island, Clifton,
air pollution prizes? Karachi, Pakistan.
Tel: (92-21)-5837674, 5823334
22 business intelligence Fax: (92-21)-5867103
EIU surveys sustainability impact on businesses E-mail: tbl@apr.com.pk
Web: www.triplebottomline.com.pk

36 sustainability reporting
the pakistani perspective on sustainability reporting
Subscribe to a full year of tbl
(6 issues) at the special rate of Rs.1,000 and
41 energy conservation save the cost of an issue.
collective conscience
If you wish to subscribe to tbl, or
unsubscribe, please write to us at
44 green perspectives tbl@apr.com.pk
green business sense?

2 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
welcome on board
The tbl Team is honoured to
introduce our editorial advisory
board. Comprised of diverse Ayesha Tammy Haq
leaders and practitioners, our goal Member

is that the board will steer our Corporate lawyer, legal and media consultant.
efforts to their highest potential. Concurrently a freelance journalist and host of a
weekly current affairs television programme. Based
in Karachi.

Anwar Rammal Habiba Hamid

Chairperson Member

Chairman of Asiatic Public Relations (Pvt.) Limited, Founder of Saracen Consulting, a corporate
Pakistan’s leading communications and PR agency, governance and responsibility consulting firm.
affiliated internationally with Hill & Knowlton. Also Currently articulating the Dubai Model of sustainable
Chairman of JWT, Pakistan. Based in Karachi. development. Based in Dubai.

Khadeeja Balkhi Abrar Hasan

Executive Member Founder Sponsor Member

Sustainability and CSR consultant and internationally Chief Executive of National Foods Limited,
experienced business and gender journalist. Based in Pakistan’s pioneering multi-category food company.
Karachi. Innovative businessman and industry leader. Based
in Karachi.

Khawar Masood Butt Vivian Lines

Founder Sponsor Member Member

Chairman and MD of English Biscuit Manufacturers President and Chief Operating Officer of Hill &
(Pvt.) Limited, Pakistan’s leading biscuit company. Knowlton’s Asia Pacific Region and concurrently
Entrepreneur and business visionary with a firm President and CEO Southern Asia. Based in
commitment to CSR. Based in Karachi. Singapore.

vision and
Vision: To steadily facilitate the germination of sustainable visions for
organisational growth, sharing specific triple bottom-line knowledge and tools

Mission Statement: To disseminate triple bottom-line knowledge to a

mission diversified group including corporate, social development and general business
groups primarily through a specialised journal, expanding in accordance with
organisational capacity and market readiness

march-april 2008 3

The term ‘Triple Bottom-Line’ (TBL), which translates
into “People, Planet, Profits,” captures an expanded
spectrum of values and criteria for measuring
organisational (and societal) success - social,
environmental and economic.
Through our masthead we personify the term TBL.
Essentially, our ‘bottom line’ is a grey bar with a
burgundy border which runs through the masthead,
at some points overlapping the letters and running
under them at others. Here ‘t’ stands for triple and is
represented through the three shades of the letter.
The ‘b’ stands for bottom and it sits below our grey
line with the line going through it - since this
magazine is a below the line activity, the two gel in
together. The ‘l’ stands for line and the letter sits
comfortably on top of the grey ‘bottom’ line.
acknowledgement
The tbl team expresses its profound gratitude to
the companies whose names appear below, for
their agreement to support this publication.
Bringing out a knowledge-based publication like
tbl involves considerable effort and costs. It may
not have been possible to bring out tbl in its
present format without the invaluable support
and contribution of our Founder Sponsors.
Through their support to tbl our corporate
sponsors have confirmed that they share our
Mission of disseminating triple bottom-line
knowledge to a diversified group including
corporate, social development and general
business groups. We believe that helping to
spread awareness of true CSR is in itself an
element of CSR. By becoming our sponsors, the
following companies have taken that vital first
step with us in our journey to facilitate awareness
and understanding of true CSR in our country.

mr tbl
National Foods Limited

Founder Sponsor

English Biscuit Manufacturers

(Private) Limited

Founder Sponsor
Mr. Tanveer B. Lone is indeed a busy man, laden with
his struggle for the truth in the Sustainability industry.
His first name, Tanveer, according to our wonderful
Ferozsons Urdu-English dictionary means
'illuminating'. We feel he is sometimes the seeker of Engro Chemical Pakistan Ltd.
enlightenment, and at others, the seemingly lone
bearer. Driven towards his destination – the true light ENGRO CHEMICAL PAKISTAN LIMITED Co-sponsor
of CSR – he sometimes feels like a lone voice buried
amidst the complex factors he confronts on the way.
Yet as he sets forth, oft-alone on this journey, he knows
he will meet companions along the sub-paths his
journey takes, merging at destinations common with
him. There will be occasions where we can all relate to
him. At times, though his capitalist-training-bred
financial focus may fluster us and his understanding
towards disseminating the true implications of the
triple bottom-line. Feel free to share ideas with Mr.
TBL that might help clear the oft-murky waters he'll
encounter in his expedition at tbl@apr.com.pk

4 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
editor’s note
beyond the basics
A
s businesses expand and become
more accountable, the crucial link
between higher levels of corporate
transparency, accountability and
sustainability performance of businesses
becomes more stark. Eco-efficiency must be
seen as a vital area for both improvement
and for reporting. Indeed, one can even say
that there is a direct co-relation between growth
(which invariably entails a larger environmental
footprint) and the need to leverage eco-efficiency. We
at TBL see eco-efficiency as a key driver of the triple
bottom line and hence have chosen it as the theme of
our publication's second issue.
Management Best Practices require recording and
reporting of various business functions. When
companies begin to pursue the triple bottom line - eco-
efficiency being one important aspect of this -
reporting must be a mandatory exercise.
One significant indicator of the growing importance of
CSR is the number of companies, even in our own
country, who have started bringing out an annual
report on their CSR activities. For some this may be
little more than a public relations exercise. There are
others who see this as an opportunity for introspection
and self-analysis, leading to improvements in systems
and practices for the growth of the company and for
delivering even better products and services to the
public. Whatever the motivation, the fact that
companies are increasingly willing to report on their
CSR or sustainability practices is a good omen. It
implies that there is an awakening in the corporate
sector to be accountable to their audiences.
The Global Reporting Initiative or GRI has emerged as
the world standard for reporting on CSR and
sustainability. A large multi-stakeholder network of
experts in dozens of countries worldwide participate in
GRI's working groups and contribute to the
development of the GRI reporting framework in other
ways - both formally and informally. Its vision is that
reporting on economic, environmental, and social
This publication is being sent complimentary to 1500 decision-makers and opinion-formers in the corporate sector, the government,
NGO sector, international institutions and academia. Recognising that your sphere of work has the potential to compliment and
reinforce the essence of our mission, we have taken the liberty to present tbl to you. It is also available at selected outlets.
We would love to hear from you. Please do contact us at tbl@apr.com.pk with your thoughts, feedback and input from your corporate
or social practices.
tbl strongly believes in knowledge dissemination and sharing. Please feel free to share tbl contents with your peers and teams - of
course we know you’ll give tbl the credit when you share our work.
performance by all organizations should be
as routine as and comparable to financial
reporting. Included in this issue is an article
especially written for TBL by Katherine
Miles Hill, Communications Coordinator of
GRI and entitled, Putting the Value of
Sustainability Reporting into Perspective in
Pakistan. It should serve as a tailor-made
introduction to reporting practices for those among
TBL readership who wish to tread this path.
We're also delighted to share with you Salman
Abedin's trail-blazing thoughts on the new corporate
colour, philosophy and change-catalyst. The People-
Centered Model of Business, in our CSR Toolkit
Section meanwhile gives thought-provoking insight on
a practical tool which organizations can use to examine
the reality of their markets by focusing on human
activity - written by the author herself.
We hope there will be plenty of food for thought (and
for action!) for our readers in the various articles in this
issue on eco-efficiency and other CSR subjects.
Finally, on behalf of TBL's Editorial Advisory Board
and the management, I would like to thank all of our
readers who gave us invaluable feedback on our first
issue. Taking this feedback into account we have
brought about certain improvements in the
publication's layout and design, which are reflected in
this second issue. TBL aims to maintain a high
standard in both presentation and content and your
continuing feedback will be invaluable and greatly
appreciated.
Sincerely,
Zohare Ali Shariff
Editor in Chief
march-april 2008 5
 letters to the editor
O I
verall I found the magazine
useful in helping to refine
an understanding of the
role of the corporate sector in
contributing towards the wellbeing
of a balanced society, which
includes improved social services
and the environment.
While I found the opinion features
such as the one about not using csr
as a superficial buzz-word very
useful, one would welcome a
section of the magazine dedicated
to share certain trend data analysis,
such as the number of private
companies registered under the ISO
14000 environment standard, the
number of companies producing
separate reports on their
environmental performance, and
the number of banks that have
signed up to the "Equator Principle"
environmental standards.
Wishing the magazine success for
the future.
Ali Habib
Director General
WWF-Pakistan
Lahore
T
hank you for sending me a
copy of the first issue of tbl. It
is indeed a very admirable
venture and initiative in
highlighting CSR as an
opportunity.
My congratulations to you for
taking the initiative and being
among the pioneers.
Fasihul Karim Siddiqi
Director & Board Advisor
Human Resources
Progressive Manufacturing and
CSR
Hinopak Motors Limited
Karachi
6 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
wanted to share with you my
excitement at receiving my copy
of TBL. It's finally made it's way
to me in Geneva, after travelling
through London and who knows
where else!
The publication looks fantastic and
I can see there was a lot of hard
work put into it by all of you. The
standard is very impressive and I
am very proud to be a part of such
work.
Flavia Thome
Programme Administrator
Trade Knowledge Network
International Institute for
Sustainable Development
Geneva
I
t is heartening to see the
realisation of profound social
and environmental impacts
businesses have and that is fast
catching up in a country like
Pakistan. The changing balance of
power between the political and
economical forces in the present
age of globalisation, with retreat of
traditional left, has put additional
responsibility on businesses to
assess their social and
environmental footprints and also
to improve upon them for the
greater good of society.
TBL can play a leading role in
creating awareness and offer
solutions to businesses in this
regard.
My felicitations to the TBL team for
coming up with this platform. It
would be nice to see some coverage
on various anti-capitalism
movements worldwide to better
understand the context of evolving
social accountability of businesses.
Favad Soomro
Karachi
Dear Readers,
Thank you for taking the time to
share your valuable input with TBL.
Mr. Siddiqi and Ms. Thome, thank
you for your warm encouragement.
The TBL journey has been a
rewarding, yet challenging one. Our
goal to add value to the knowledge
base of our diverse readership
remains an endeavour that will
require our concerted efforts and
we look forward to input,
suggestions and initiatives for
action from our readers.
Mr. Habib, you’ll be happy to see
that we have incorporated your
valuable suggestion and have
included in this issue a business
intelligence survey, which we hope
will be an informative and telling
read. We are also working with
local universities to do ground
research similar to the topics you
have shared and look forward to
your ongoing feedback, and
moreover support from
organizations such as WWF-
Pakistan.
Mr. Soomro, thank you for candidly
sharing your interests with us. We
are all keen to learn more about the
evolution that we hope will balance
and neutralize interests towards the
realization of an inclusive triple
bottom line approach - instead of
the traditional single bottom-line
foci that unregulated capitalist
environments often result in.
In the next issue, we expect to
publish material that would be
insightful to all our readers.
We hope that tbl will continue to
serve as a platform and change
agent through our readers’ active
participation and debate.
Editorial Team
global briefs
PEOPLE
Increasing Demand for CSR
Jobs Outpaces Supply:
CSR Job Report
A multi-year study on CSR jobs
was published by Net Impact, an
international nonprofit
organization which helps TBL-
minded companies connect with
top MBA talent, and the California-
based CSR Recruiting firm, Ellen
Weinreb.
The CSR Jobs study found that
there has been a growing interest in
MBAs looking for CSR jobs and
although there are more CSR jobs
available to business school
graduates now than ever before,
their supply (and hence serious
CSR implementation?) is not
enough to meet the demand.
Does this indicate a dreamier crop
of new capitalists, as the current
capitalist core may label them? Or a
more responsible group, ready to
tackle real world problems, with
real business solutions?
The study found that
environmentally focused jobs are
one of the fastest growing areas,
especially in clean-technology,
consumer products, and public
relations.
The survey found a 37% annual
growth in the number of CSR jobs
over the past 3.5 years, with specific
growth in positions combining
environment and business.
The study looked at 3.5yrs of 1,255
CSR job listings posted on two of
the leading sources for CSR-related
jobs: Business for Social
Responsibility's (BSR) jobs page
and CSR-Chicks, a listserve for CSR
professionals based out of London.
A survey conducted by Net Impact
in 2006 of MBA student opinions on
the relationship between business
and social and environmental
8 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
issues found growing interest in
CSR jobs. About 80% of students
surveyed wanted to find CSR jobs;
60% said they were interested in
finding them jobs right after
graduating. The submitted number
of resumes of interested MBA
students increased 46% since 2005,
to 1126 from 796.
Also, active membership of
business students and professionals
joining Net Impact to access career
resources has almost doubled to
about 5,000 in 2007 from 2,600 three
years ago.
As the demand for CSR
implementation expertise increases
at a rapid pace, graduate schools
are recognizing the need for both
environment and business expertise
and knowledge, and are focusing
on developing related programs.
An example: the recent $10M gift
from Dow Chemical to UC
Berkeley, to develop a Sustainable
Products and Solutions Program.
"An increasing number of MBA
students hope to find a career that
blends business acumen with
positive contributions to society
and the environment," said Karin
Cooke, Net Impact's Career
Program Director. "We advise
members to not only look for
traditional CSR jobs, but also look
for functionally mainstream
positions within companies with
strong CSR and environmental
values".
So do these numbers indicate that
true CSR practice in the business
world is not even sufficient to
supply jobs to meet the fledgling
demands of the limited business
education elite who can afford an
MBA? Or, do they simply indicate
that someone did something right
to inculcate this budding batch of
triple bottom-liners from elite,
capitalist education systems.
Annual Sustainability
Conference: Globe Forum
The Globe Forum 2008 business
conference will be held on May 7-8,
2008 in Stockholm. This year's
theme: Business Innovation for
Sustainable Growth.
Globe Forum brings together over
1500 European business leaders,
entrepreneurs, academics and
political leaders from dynamic
growing markets, including China,
India, Europe and the Gulf region,
all sharing a common goal: to do
sustainable business. The Forum
features such diverse leaders as
Yulia Tymoshenko, Prime Minister
of Ukraine who was named the
third most powerful woman in the
world by Forbes in July 2005.
This conference will address
technology and consumer
perspectives and the broader
energy areas, including energy
availability and usage, transport
and environmental issues. The
platform creates business
opportunities, develops clear
strategies and helps connect
multinational service providers,
growing companies and brilliant
minds.
The Globe Forum Business
Network, a hub for sustainable
business innovation in fast growing
markets organizes the event. The
network identifies trends and
captures sustainable and
prosperous business opportunities,
particularly between Europe and
fast growing markets.
Once More for Gore?
You might want to sit down for
this: Al Gore will announce his
candidacy for president this week,
knowledgeable sources tell our
content partner, Grist. Now there's
an inconvenient truth for Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama. Gore
believes the two Democrats and
Republican John McCain aren't
giving climate change the urgent
attention it deserves, so he's
decided to go for the job himself,
say Gore advisors anonymously. A
lifelong Democrat, Gore will run as
an independent this time around.
Gore's Alliance for Climate
Protection launched a new public
education campaign aimed at
convincing Americans that climate
change is both urgent and solvable.
We're guessing that will be the
thrust of Gore's presidential
campaign as well - if indeed he
runs.
Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

PLANET
Biofuels Boom Raises
Environmental Concerns
A recent UN Report states that the
biofuels boom is hurting poor
consumers in Asia by driving up
crop prices. It is hurting the poor
rural farmers who have not seen
the benefits of biofuel production
and have not been able to adapt
their production to cash in on the
boom.
Small rural farmers lack the means
and resources to extend their lands
and adapt to new crops. "The
impetus for large-scale farming can
push the poor off their land,
excluding them from biofuels," a
United Nations report said.
The rise of biofuels has raised
considerable criticism against
countries like the United States for
diverting farm products to produce
biofuels, saying this had led to
soaring global food prices. The
United States is the world's biggest
producer of biofuels, derived
mostly from corn. "Several
questions have arisen on even the
emissions implication of that route,
and the fact that this has clearly
raised prices of corn," said Mr.
Rajendra Pachauri, Nobel Peace
Prize winner and climate change
scientist.
There is a growing controversy
over using food crops to make
biofuels as an alternative to fossil
fuels; some environmentalists and
politicians assert it has raised food
prices, distorted government
budgets and also led to
deforestation in South-East Asia
and Brazil.
The world must take care when
developing biofuels to avoid
perverse environmental effects and
higher food prices.
Supporters claim that biofuels are
the only renewable alternative to
fossil fuels and do generally result
in greenhouse gas emission
savings. Scientists say some kinds
of biofuels generate as much carbon
dioxide as the fossil fuels they
replace, and a lot of caution is
needed when coming up with
biofuel solutions that have a major
impact on production of food
grains and an implication for food
safety.
Uniform Carbon Pricing is
Crucial: IMF Report
The International Monetary Fund
said in a report released today that
sharply reducing the world's
carbon emissions will cost
relatively little economically if a
carbon-pricing scheme is adopted
soon that includes all the major-
emitting countries.
The report didn't endorse one
specific pricing mechanism, but
said that either a carbon tax or a
cap-and-trade system could work if
it gradually increased the price of
carbon. "There are significant risks
from climate change; damages
could be severe," said IMF
economist Natalia Tamirisa. "The
costs of mitigation could be
moderate provided that policies are
well designed."
Meanwhile, at the ongoing United
Nations climate conference in
Bangkok, the IMF's partner
institution (and fellow predatory
lender) the World Bank floated
proposals to combat climate change
that proved unpopular with
developing nations. Instead of
funneling cash through the U.N.
climate program to aid developing
countries, the World Bank
suggested it should administer a
$10 billion clean-technology fund,
and possibly other such funds.
Critics of the proposal said the
World Bank is too closely
controlled by G8 countries and has
a shady history of shafting poorer
nations.
Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine
Clean Wave Technology
has Potential for Wider
Applications
Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie set
sail for Japan from the Hawaii
Yacht Club in Honolulu on March
17, 2008 on his latest solo adventure
at sea, on what he says will be the
world's longest voyage in an
innovative wave-powered boat. He
will travel nearly 4,000 miles
aboard a 3-ton, 31 foot-long wave-
powered catamaran, the Suntory
Mermaid II, at a speed of up to 5
knots. The journey, which would
take a diesel-powered boat about a
month to complete, is expected to
take Horie two to three months.
This voyage aims to prove that
wave propulsion is viable. Whereas
oil is a limited source, there is no
limit to waves as a power source.
Wave energy, the greenest nautical
propulsion system since the sail,
has high development potential
and wide commercial viability.
The vessel is made of recycled
aluminum alloy and has fins
mounted side by side beneath the
bow, which generate dolphin-like
kicks that propel the boat forward,
making it the world's first boat to
be powered by the motion of
waves. “The Suntory can transform
wave energy into propulsive power
regardless of where the wave
comes from,” says Yutaka Terao, an
engineering professor at Tokai
University in Japan who designed
the boat’s propulsion system.
Marine energy is still in its early
stages. According to Roger Bedard,
ocean energy leader for the Electric
Power Research Institute, U.S.,
“widespread use of marine energy
is about a decade away”. Several
projects have been launched mainly
in the U.S. and Europe to harness
marine power and convert the
ocean or river movements into
electricity - to create the world's
newest form of renewable energy.
march-april 2008 9
PROFITS
Value-based Approach
Measures Sustainability
Performance of Automobile
Manufacturers
A recently published study
"Sustainable Value in Automobile
Manufacturing” is the first in the
world to assess the corporate
sustainability performance of 16
automobile manufacturers
worldwide using the Sustainable
Value approach. The study
examines the sustainability
performance of the companies
BMW Group, Daihatsu,
DaimlerChrysler, FIAT Auto, Ford,
GM, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu,
Mitsubishi, Nissan, PSA, Renault,
Suzuki, Tyota and Volkswagen
Group over the period 1999 – 2005.
This project was undertaken by
researchers working at the Institute
for Futures Studies (IZT) and
Technology Assessment in Berlin
and Queen’s University Belfast
This is the first value-based method
that links corporate sustainability
performance and the value-based
approach that is traditionally used
in management practice and
company financial analysis. This
method establishes whether a
company is successfully using its
economic, environmental and social
resources to create value, in relation
to its peers. For example, the report
found that, in 2005, Toyota
generated an absolute Sustainable
Value of €6.5 billion, followed by
BMW with a Sustainable Value of
€2.93 billion, i.e. Toyota generated
€6.5 billion more profit than the
average automobile producer
would have achieved with the same
set of resources.
So far the debate has mostly
focused on the usage phase of
automobiles and related CO2 fleet
emissions, rather than the
environmental burden created
during the production phase. This
10 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
study closes this gap as it enables a
company’s efficiency gains to be
expressed in monetary terms
through benchmarking a
company's production resource
efficiency against its competitors.
The Sustainable Value approach is
a practical and significant tool for
generating an in-depth, transparent
assessment of corporate
sustainability ratings and
performance trends in the
automobile industry.
Recycling and other
Measures Undertaken to
Reduce Waste: Japan
"Japan is home to the
overwhelming majority of the
world's incinerators", which is a
major source of dioxin, according to
The Japan Times. The amount of
garbage produced in Japan is
increasing every year.
About 90% of the dioxin released
every year is created during waste
incineration - 2,900 grams in 1998,
according to a government study.
Nearly half of this is believed to
come from municipal waste alone,
almost 80% of which is incinerated.
Stores in Japan use plastic and
paper bags, and elaborate gift
packages and wrappings.
Furthermore, disposable wooden
chopsticks are widely used in the
country.
By 2015, Japan aims to reduce the
total amount of garbage produced
by industries and individuals to 23
million metric tones - 40% of the
amount produced in 2000. The
government target for individuals
is a reduction of 20%. Japan aims to
achieve this target through
recycling and other measures such
as less packaging.
A set of plans to promote recycling
and halve the garbage it produces
was launched by the Cabinet
recently. Japan will urge citizens to
avoid using disposable chopsticks
and instead carry their own, and go
shopping with their own bags
instead of using plastic ones. The
adopted plans also encourage the
obvious: that people use public
transportation and ride bicycles.
Office Equipment Eco-
Impact Calculator
A new sustainability calculator
developed by Xerox can help
companies calculate the
environmental impact of office
devices and reduce the energy
wastage of printers, copiers, and
other newfangled technology. The
calculator is designed to consider
factors including type of print
cartridge, print colour, speed,
number of pages printed per
month, and Energy Star rating, and
creates bar graphs demonstrating
energy consumption, greenhouse
gases, and solid waste produced
from use of the office device.
The "Sustainability Calculator" uses
proprietary algorithms and
research to suggest ways to reduce
energy and paper consumption
from office devices, regardless of
manufacturer. The calculator has
two sets of fields. After the first
basic set, an office manager can
describe how he would like to see
the machines perform in the
second. The calculator shows bar
graphs covering energy
consumption, greenhouse gases
and solid waste produced by the
machine. Defense manufacturer
Northrop Grumman decreased the
number of printers and copiers in
one of its divisions from 2,000 to
1,100 after using the calculator,
Xerox states. As a result, the
company’s energy consumption fell
27%, greenhouse gases by 26% and
solid waste by 33%.
There is an increasing awareness of
the eco-impact of office devices. On
the lighter side, a American
education institutions have
observed a strange, contagious
disease striking photocopy
machines. Symptoms of this disease
include “a propensity to chew up
trees at an amazing rate, all while
using tremendous amounts of
energy in the process.” This has
raised great concern in several
schools in New York and Florida,
for instance. A national day of
action will be observed on April 17
to stop global warming by putting
copiers under quarantine.
Compiled by Rutaba Ahmed
cover story

tbl and eco-efficiency:

where to start?
by khadeeja balkhi
for tbl

T he spirit of eco-efficiency? To combine economic value creation or enhancement

while continuously mitigating environmental resource usage and impacts.

Eco-efficiency is a key driver for overall business performance because it helps

companies understand that they can produce better goods and services while using
fewer resources, and lowering ecological impact: Thereby improving both, their
environmental performance and their bottom line.

The World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) coined the term
in 1992. The idea of eco-efficiency as a major driver of corporate excellence, according
to them, was perhaps introduced by Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny in the
same year, through his book ‘Changing Course’.

This article aims to introduce the eco-efficiency concept, some of its key
manifestations, and perhaps most importantly, how companies can become more eco-
efficient.

Identifying the positive link between environmental improvements and economic

benefits, is eco-efficiency's first base and taps the potential for enhancing savings
from environmental improvements.

march-april 2008 11
 Key Considerations for
Eco-Efficiency
At the heart of eco-efficiency is
creating -or delivering- more, with
less. And at the heart of CSR or the
triple bottom line is creating,
instead of perhaps simply re-
locating, honest value addition.
The Geneva-based WBCSD, a
coalition of about 125 leading,
international companies that share
commitment to the environment.
economic growth and sustainable
development has identified a
handful of key action-areas of a
basic eco-efficiency mandate.
Perhaps most relevant to
companies functioning in
economies such as Pakistan's is the
combined gist behind the
components: that businesses must
harness their creativity to deploy
new technologies, initiate
improvements along the entire
value-chain and bring new, value-
added products to the market.
Eco-Efficiency Along
the Value Chain: LCVA
The eco-efficiency concept has now
expanded to include the
exploration of business
opportunities to be gained from
sustainable development strategies,
an idea which gained popularity
with Harvard Professor, Prahalad's
Bottom of the Pyramid (popularly
called BoP) theory. The BoP
movement is now in full-swing
with everyone clamouring to serve
the billions of 'consumers' at the
bottom of the income pyramid.
This, in a country often perceived
to be sliding towards the BoP, is old
news.
Eco-efficiency though, can work
throughout the supply chain, end-
users included - hence an increased
focus on minimalistic packaging
that is driven by the understanding
that post-consumer processing is a
part of the cost of production. In
developed markets, companies are
already developing products and
services that allow customers to cut
12 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
their consumption of resources and
reduce their individual and
collective environmental impact.
All while satisfying their needs
often more effectively, and at a
better price.
Budding entrepreneurs from
developing countries can offer all of
the above - but the catch sometimes
is that quality becomes a victim.
Without consumer demand for
rigorous standards, why supply
them? This is where downstream
consumer empowerment in the
form of information is vital for
leading companies who have firm
faith in the value chain that went
into producing their products. They
must help consumers understand
and demand ethically produced,
quality goods.
It is a tough line to walk - but only
if a company's business strategy
lacks ingenuity. (Please note: the
existence of a robust, long-term
business strategy is assumed).
However, companies that have
invested their time and energy into
honest creativity towards value-
addition are already reaping the
benefits.
For instance, offering services in a
manner that meets the
environmental, economic and social
(triple bottom line) expectations of
all stakeholders will create a solid
foundation for increasing
shareholder value over the long
term. Not rocket science.
Canada-based Suncor Energy for
instance, uses the Life Cycle Value
Assessment tool to facilitate
"integrated decision making that
takes into account long-term triple
bottom- line benefits and impacts,
not just short-term paybacks".
Managers or business unit heads
can often become too focused on
cost-cutting measures, which can
actually hinder both the realization
of the triple bottom line and the
long-term financial bottom line.
Proactive application of triple
bottom line or life cycle based
thinking, claims Suncor, makes it a
more sustainable energy company
that continuously improves the
performance of its operations and
products. Like many companies
who've treaded these warm waters,
Suncor believes that this thinking
specifically enables more
rewarding decision making given
its triple bottom line parameters
such as societal concerns and
priorities as they impact project
design and implementation,
including safety and community
perspectives. It also facilitates the
development of an eco-efficient
"design of processes and operations
based on opportunities to reduce
costs and environmental impacts
and improve net value".
The benefits? A reduced risk of
unintentionally shifting the burden
or environmental impacts created
by company decisions in direct
operations to upstream or
downstream activities - for starters.
Want more? A "reduced business
risk from hidden socio-economic or
environmental liabilities, and/or
regulatory or stakeholder
expectations" - now for a traditional
energy company that is not only
serious baggage potentially
unloaded but a massively enhanced
'license to operate'.
Private Sector: Living
the Wake up Call
The good news, at least from the
perspective of the eco-efficiency
journey, is that the corporate sector
has woken up to realize that eco-
efficiency is the only way forward.
Although many may have different
names for it, several companies are
in fact rigorously implementing
measures towards their own eco-
efficient future.
For instance, over a 15-year period,
Engro Chemical has actually
reduced its energy intake by 32%
per ton of urea produced - while
production has actually increased.
Within this period, the plant's
production capacity increased more
than two-fold in 8 years: to 850,000
tons per year in 1999, from 268,000
tons per year in 1990.
Additionally, the company also
consistently improves its feed: fuel
ratio, producing more urea, with
less natural gas input. This means
that by streamlining its plant and
power operations, the company has
been consistently able to shift its
main operational input: natural gas,
towards actual urea production as
opposed to consumption in the
shape of power generation.
Evolution of Layering
Concepts: Industrial
Ecology
One of the most promising
manifestations of the eco-efficiency
movements is that of industrial
ecology (IE). Sweden's Royal
Institute of Technology, for instance
defines it simply as an
interdisciplinary study of
technology, society and ecology.
"Industrial Ecology sees industrial
systems (for example a factory, an
ecoregion, or national or global
economy) as being part of the
biosphere," says Dr. Getachew
Assefa of the Institute's Department
of Industrial Ecology. "It considers
such systems as a particular case of
an ecosystem, but based on
infrastructural capital rather than
on natural capital," Dr. Assefa adds.
It is essentially the shifting of
industrial processes from open loop
linear systems to closed loop
systems, meaning that no outputs
are considered waste, they become
the inputs of another industry -
hence an ecology emerges. Instead
of resources and capital
investments moving through
systems to become waste, IE shifts
to systems where wastes become
inputs for new processes.
Dr. Assefa asserts that natural
systems have no waste - hence
proposes modeling human-made
systems after natural ones, thus
rendering them sustainable. He
calls this a form of biomimicry,
using the biological organism as a
basis for designing industrial
systems, thereby closing the
material cycles.
But, these zero-waste targets
require intensive, proactive and oft-
wrinkled cooperation between
industries. The basic tools he
recommends include tools such as
the life cycle assessment tool
described above. For industrial
ecology, a life cycle energy analysis
to assess the environmental impact
is more meaningful still.
He also outlines four key
considerations to Sustainable
Design, which he defines as "the art
of designing physical objects to
comply with the principles of
economic, social, and ecological
sustainability":
1. Energy efficiency: this mainly
entails lower overall energy
usage in manufacturing
processes
2. Low-impact materials: non-
toxic, recycled sustainably-
produced materials usage
3. Quality and durability: better
quality and long-lasting
products, lengthening positive
product life cycles
4. Design for reuse and recycling:
design for performance in a
commercial 'afterlife'
The fourth is a venture that
developing countries seem
especially well-positioned to
explore. Our indigenous, informal
recycling systems catalyzed by
BoP-based entrepreneurs are a
living example of this in fact. For
instance, the organic waste of a
food company becomes input for a
cattle feed company; the waste
steam of its plant air conditioning
units is channeled to power its
industrial cooking appliances and
so on.
Ways to Become Eco-
Efficient?
The hope is that this article has
helped unravel how eco-efficient
measures are among the highest
impact ways to live the triple
bottom line. In the language of six
sigma, the 'low-hanging fruit' are
here; this is where creativity and
commitment combined with oft-
miniscule financial input synergize
to offer almost immediate financial
gain can be realized.
The WBCSD and Dr. Assefa
reinforce the following starting
points below for companies to chart
eco-efficiency into their business
strategies - as many are already
forced to do given dizzying fuel
costs. So while we still have room,
let's try to be proactive by:
reducing the material intensity of
goods and services - using less to
make a product or deliver a
service;
reducing the energy intensity of
goods and services;
enhancing the recycling
possibilities and options of all
materials used;
choosing a TBL-criteria based
method for production, service,
disposal or recovery;
increasing mineral recovery,
using fewer inputs such as
energy and water and recycling
more while reducing emissions;
using new technology, fewer
inputs per unit of product such as
energy and water;
recycling more and reducing
toxic emissions;
maximizing the use of renewable
and recycled resources,
particularly strategic
geographical resources - for
instance, in Pakistan, wind and
solar energy are abundantly
available - and wasted.
The bottom-line of eco-efficiency?
Fully and honestly integrate it into
your business strategy (and
national strategies to neutralize
your own competitiveness in the
short term) - before it integrates its
own way in as natural resource
prices sky-rocket. And continue to
advocate and support policy
measures which reward eco-
efficiency, as Pakistan's National
Conservation Strategy so wisely
recommended, way back in 1992.
march-april 2008 13
 renewable energy
the feasibility
of renewable
energy in
pakistan
by miriam katz
for tbl
O
ver the last thirty
years, Asia has
become a major
player on the global scene.
Many economies have
become tigers while China
and India are developing
more rapidly than anyone
had expected. Because of
these developments,
electricity demand is
expected to increase 8%
every year until 2015. As
the world wakes up to the
reality of climate change,
electricity will increasingly
have to come from
renewable sources such as
wind and solar. Pakistan is
in a good position to exploit
these because it has
abundant wind and sun.
This article will look at this
potential, the barriers that
exist to further
development - and of
course reasons why it must
follow the course to a
greener energy future.
14 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
Origins of Wind
Power
Many people do not realize that
wind energy first came about in
Asia. Between 500 and 900 AD, a
vertical axis turbine was
developed in Persia to grind
grain and pump water. These
wind turbines were made from
bundles of reeds or wood.
During the 11th century, the
Crusaders brought back the
concept of the windmill to
Europe where it was first used by
the Dutch to grind corn and to
drain wetlands in order for
people to settle and build homes.
In recent years, Europe and
North America have led in terms
of installed wind capacity.
Asia is now -again- making its
presence felt. India and China
currently have the fourth and
fifth largest number of wind
turbines installed, respectively.
It is interesting to note however,
that while India has 45,000
megawatts (MW) of wind energy
potential and a much larger
surface area, Pakistan has at least
50,000 MW of potential.
The Viability of Wind
Power in Pakistan
Pakistan is fortunate to have
something many other countries
do not, which are high wind
speeds near major centres. Near
Islamabad, the wind speed is
anywhere from 6.2 to 7.4 metres
per second (between 13.8 and
16.5 miles per hour). Near
Karachi, the range is between 6.2
and 6.9 (between 13.8 and 15.4
miles per hour). Pakistan is also
fortunate that in neighboring
India, the company Suzlon
manufactures wind turbines,
thus decreasing transportation
costs. Its turbines start to turn at
a speed of 3 metres per second.
Vestas, which is one of the
world's largest wind turbine
manufacturers, has wind
turbines that start turning at a
speed of 4 metres per second. In
addition to Karachi and
Islamabad, there are other areas
in Pakistan that receive a
significant amount of wind.
In only the Balochistan and
Sindh provinces, sufficient wind
exists to power every coastal
village in the country. There
also exists a corridor between
Gharo and Keti Bandar that
alone could produce between
40,000 and 50,000 megawatts of
electricity.
Given this surplus potential,
Pakistan has much to offer Asia
with regards to wind energy. In
recent years, the government has
completed several projects to
demonstrate that wind energy is
viable in the country. In Mirpur
Sakro, 85 micro turbines have
been installed to power 356
homes. In Kund Malir, 40
turbines have been installed,
which power 111 homes. The
Alternative Energy Development
Board (AEDB) has also acquired
18,000 acres for the installation of
more wind turbines.
In addition to high wind speeds
near major centres as well as the
Gharo and Keti Bandar corridor,
Pakistan is also very fortunate to
have many rivers and lakes.
Wind turbines that are situated
in or near water enjoy an
uninterrupted flow of wind,
which virtually guarantees that
power will be available all the
time. Within towns and cities,
wind speeds can often change
quickly due to the presence of
buildings and other structures,
which can damage wind
turbines. In addition, many
people do not wish for turbines
to be sited near cities because of
noise, though these problems are
often exaggerated. Wind
turbines make less noise than an
office and people comfortably
carry on conversations while
standing near them.
Solar Energy - a
Feasible Alternative
for Pakistan
As is becoming painfully evident
with summer around the corner,
Pakistan is an exceptionally
sunny country. If 0.25% of
Balochistan was covered with
solar panels with an efficiency of
20%, enough electricity would be
generated to cover all of
Pakistani demand. In all
provinces the AEDB has created
100 solar homes in order to
exploit solar energy.
Solar energy makes much sense
for Pakistan for several reasons:
firstly, 70% of the population
lives in 50,000 villages that are
very far away from the national
grid, according to a report by the
Solar Energy Research Centre
(SERC). Connecting these
villages to the national grid
would be very costly, thus
giving each house a solar panel
would be cost efficient and
would empower people both
economically and socially.
In many Pakistani villages, wood
and animal dung is used for
cooking fuel; however, this is
causing widespread
deforestation. Women are also
forced to walk for many miles
each day to gather wood. Then,
their health suffers from the
smoke emitted from cooking on
wood fires. The AEDB
completed a project whereby
villagers that received solar
panels were also given solar
cookers. During the project,
deforestation decreased by 80%
near the villages and the cookers
were also made in Pakistan,
which generated local economic
growth.
Coal Power and
Hydroelectricity
In addition to wind and solar,
Pakistan has the fifth largest coal
deposits in the world. However,
the negative impacts of coal have
been well documented. When
power is produced from coal,
sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxides
are produced as well, which
cause an increase in smog, ozone
depletion and acid rain. Nitrous
oxide is also a very powerful
greenhouse gas. Even before the
power is produced, the
transportation of coal also
impacts health due to the coal
dust and the emissions from the
vehicles. Lastly, the heavy
metals from coal mine waste can
seep into groundwater and
rivers, of which there are many
in use Pakistan.
Pakistan also has some deposits
of natural gas in the Potwar
Plateau region and near the
border between Balochistan and
Sindh, but these are likely to
disappear within 20 years.
Because of the presence of many
rivers and lakes, it may be
tempting to go down the route of
large hydroelectric dams, but
this may not be the answer for
Pakistan. There are many
examples of hydroelectric
projects in India and China that
show the detriments of
hydroelectricity. In China, one
million people are being
march-april 2008 15
 relocated as part of the Three
Gorges Dam project and 62,000
acres of farmland will be
flooded. The reservoir for the
dam will contain one billion tons
of sewage, states Diana Biggs in
her case study on the Three
Gorges Dam. In Pakistan, the
Kalabagh dam was put on hold
for environmental reasons in the
1980s and since then, there has
been very little activity in this
area. Due to the publicity that
large dams have gained in recent
years, it looks unlikely that
Pakistan will take this route.
Financial and Policy
Incentives
Despite the fact that Pakistan is
so well endowed with wind and
solar potential, only a few
projects such as those mentioned
above have been completed. One
of the reasons why this has
occurred is that Pakistan does
not have major financial
incentives available for those
who want to install wind
turbines or solar panels. Let us
look at the case of India,
Pakistan's neighbour. Despite
having less potential for wind,
India now has the world's fourth
largest number of wind turbines
installed at 7,093 MW, according
to ‘India: Renewable Energy
Market’ report. In front of India
are Germany at 21,283 MW,
Spain at 13,400 MW and the US
at 12,934 MW. In Germany,
Spain and India, those who
install wind turbines and solar
panels are guaranteed a certain
rate per kilowatt hour. In India,
this varies according to the
technology and the area. The
Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy, India reports that in
most areas, between 2500 and
4800 rupees are guaranteed for
solar panels, and for wind
turbines, between 250,000 and
300,000 rupees are awarded.
Because of the above incentives,
the cost of wind in India is
between 2 and 2.5 cents per
16 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
kilowatt hour while in Pakistan,
the cost is 7 cents. In December
Conclusion
2006, President Musharraf
announced a national renewable
It is starkly evident that
energy policy. This policy means
Pakistan is a suitable
that small projects do not need
country for the installation of
approval and that any person
wind and solar: due to high
can put up their own project.
winds near cities; the
However, there are no financial
presence of rivers and lakes
incentives for doing so. At the
as well as the availability of
moment, all renewable energy
wind turbines from nearby
equipment has no sales or
India. There are also other
income tax and is free of custom
reasons for installing
duty, but these incentives do
renewable energy.
very little to stimulate growth in
the renewable energy market
In 2006, the government
where RoIs and other financial
reported that Pakistani
ratios have a long gestation or
economic growth reached
breakeven period.
8.4 percent and will most
likely grow for the
foreseeable future. It is
1. Diana Biggs, "Three Gorges Case Study" quite normal for power
http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/sijpkes/arch374/win-
ter2001/dbiggs/three.html outages to happen on a
2. GLOBE-Net, "India: Renewable Energy Market" daily basis in the country,
http://www.globe-net.ca/market_reports/
but this cannot continue if
index.cfm?ID_Report=1069
the Pakistani economy is to
3. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources, "CFA
Provided Under Various Renewable Energy Schemes/ grow. In March 2007,
Programmes" http://mnes.nic.in/cfa-schemes-
President Musharraf stated
programmes.htm
that renewable energy
should be part of the push to
increase energy supplies by
about the writer 10 to 12 percent every year.
The government has also
Miriam Katz is a freelance writer set a target of 10 percent of
based in London. She currently energy to come from
writes for the Environmental renewables by 2015. If it
Peace Review. Her areas of does follow through with
interest include environmental aggressive capacity
issues, renewable energy,
enhancements, Pakistan
biofuels and climate change. She
could be an Asian leader in
holds a Bachelor of Arts in
Political Science and renewable energy given its
Environmental Studies from the strategic endowments.
University of Toronto. She can be
reached at m.il.katz@gmail.com
leapfrogging past green

can blue be the next green

in pakistan?
by salman abedin
for tbl

paint factory catches fire. All the city's fire

A brigade is involved in trying to put out the

fire. Still, the burning chemicals continue to
burn throughout the night. The firm puts out an ad
in the papers soon after telling the world that they
are back to business as usual. An insurance
company puts out a press release telling the world
that they have made the insurance payment in
record time.

Life moves on in Pakistan. Was any question

asked as to who will bear the environmental cost?
Did any spokesman for the company even verbally
accept the company's shortcomings - perhaps in
the shape of shoddy standards of safety that
resulted in the inferno?

This seems to be a perfect example of a company

that is solely and soullessly treating profits as their
only motive to exist. No higher goals here. No
triple bottom line considerations. HSE? Green
practices? Stakeholder analysis? These seem like
high flying ideals in the world where black and red
seem to be the only colours we can see.

International Context
This concept was introduced by international advertising firm
JWT, as one of their predictions for 2008.

Blue is the New Green: Climate change has quickly become the
driver of Environmentalism 2.0, and people worldwide
understand that climate is all about the seas and the sky-both blue.
Our effluents, our emissions, both impact these blue bodies.

Trend Alert: Watch for "green" to become a subset of "blue,"

which is coming to denote the much larger emerging spirit of
good-citizen ethics. Back to basics we learnt in our KG primary
colours art class.

march-april 2008 17
 How to leap frog ahead to blue?
Pakistan today The world in
The developed
the 90’s
world today

"The key driver of
Environmentalism 2.0 is the
climate, and most people
understand that the climate is all
about the seas and the sky, both
of which are blue," shared Ann
Mack, Head of TrendSpotting at
JWT. Mack who goes so far as to
claim that blue will overtake
green as the environmental
movement's main hue: "Blue is
the new green."
The Blue>Green
Equation
With CO2 emission capping now
may be able to leapfrog ahead to
the Blue Zone. Although it seems
quite unlikely. Both because an
ill-informed populace cannot
begin to demand its own rights,
much less its rights in relation to
the integrity of the environment
it lives in. Also because
regulations are tightening:
developing countries after all,
are being punished for the acts
of the developed world, or so the
argument swerves.
Companies, irrespective of the
government's stand on the issue,
can start with the following:
'the price of a petrol tank'
(depending on where you live of
course).
Thirdly, Sustainability, which
used to be a word bandied
around by a group of 'tree
huggers', is now the buzz word,
and since corporate entities need
buzz words, let the new Word -
with ensuing policy and action,
of course- be…: Bluing(!)
1. http://www.jwt.com/pdf/news/trends2008.pdf)
2. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-
0124blueisgreenjan24,0,2901237,full.story)

being a global priority, blue is As a first step, companies must

easily more important than
green in terms of generating
hype and action towards the
environment. This is now being
seen in a whole gamut of steps
that companies are taking,
including calculating and
reducing their carbon footprint.
Countries are also being
cornered by activists for being
slow on carbon reductions.
Interestingly enough blue is also
the colour of power and
strength, and hence, the
corporate world's reluctance to
turn green may be finally
overcome (with a subliminal
start at least).
Turning Pakistan Blue
Having missed the whole
"green" part of the
developmental cycle, Pakistan
to take a longer term view -
which some do, and many don't,
particularly regarding the about the writer
external environments.
Corporate entities generally take Salman Abedin is currently
the view that they are passive Executive Director at Contract
participants in the larger
Advertising. He welcomes input
and discussion on the model
environment. However, this is briefly inserted for TBL
not always the case, and through readership and can be reached
industry groups, and other at salman.abedin@gmail.com.
forms of lobbying, they can
influence policy on a much
larger scale.
Secondly, companies need to
make an assessment of the CO2
or other greenhouse emissions
they are responsible for. This is
easily begun by using a website
like liveneutral.org, which has
calculators for individuals,
companies and communities -
with the journey beginning for

18 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
footprints in the air
air pollution prizes?
I
t is now a well known fact
that we, humans, are
systematically ruining our
planet by disregarding the
damage done by industrial
pollution and our wasteful life
style.
An average car, with a 1000 cc
petrol engine, produces about
160 grams of greenhouse gas
carbon-di-oxide (CO2) per km,
besides many other pollutants.
Our inefficient power plants
tend to ensure that we produce
more than 1 kg of CO2
whenever we use only 1 kW
(power) load for one hour
(typically, a single 1.5 tons air
conditioner uses 3 kW). And this
by ainul abedin
for tbl
is not taking into account the
very high line losses of our
utilities which would increase
CO2 and other pollutants further
by 30%. (Line losses are power
transmission and distribution
losses mainly due to overloading
of power cables and
transformers)..
In November 2006, the then-
Government had taken a bold
step in approving Energy
Efficiency and Conservation
Laws, by acceptance of the fact
that energy efficient applications
would be given priority when
sanctioning our heavily
subsidized Sui gas supply. Even
though these were approved in
the Economic and Co-ordination
Committee of the Cabinet
(ECNEC), no notice was taken
by anyone and the authorities
continued to sanction gas for
extremely inefficient
installations.
We cannot remain oblivious to
the basic need of reducing our
CO footprint, especially when
emitted from industries and
commercial buildings.
Concerned publishers on the
other hand are printing books
(even Harry Potter) on certified
paper made from well-managed
forests while large stores are
asking suppliers to reduce
packaging material.
march-april 2008 19
 Our entrepreneurs cannot afford
to continue to ignore even the
most basic, common-sense
approach to environmental
awareness. We use the world's
most polluting sources, furnace
oil and coal as an economical
source of energy, without
calculating in the real costs to
ourselves and the society we live
in. Though coal is basically used
by most cement plants, furnace
oil is used by most
WAPDA/PEPCO and private
power producers, accompanied
by some industries that have not
been able to get gas supply.
Worse still, these highly
polluting fuels are used in
extremely poor efficiency
processes, thus compounding
the problems of environmental
degradation - and resulting in
considerable health costs and
loss of production due to poor
health and absenteeism.
Biggest Polluters:
Furnace Oil Power
Plants?
The biggest polluter prize could
perhaps be given to power
plants fired by furnace oil. Most
of our local furnace oil based
power plants are of a low-
efficiency type with high CO2
emissions, in addition to other
pollutants. Most of our furnace
oil in use is imported, which
often has a high sulphur content.
However, in Pakistan, these
plants tend to lack
desulphurization units.
The result is enormous damage
to the environment, with really
no solution in sight since these
power plants have been
designed with a disregard of
even minimum environmental
protection.
All low-efficiency furnace oil
power plants will have to be 're-
powered' to accommodate a
combined cycle design, with a
change of fuel to gas if the
20 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
pollution levels are to be
controlled in the long term (and
short term).
This gas, in turn could be
sourced from our nation's
planned pipeline gas or future
'coal-gas' from Thar coal.
Thar: Must Be Pivotal
Point of Our Energy
Planning
The solution to our energy
dilemma has been with us for
many years but various lobbies
with seemingly vested interests
in the import of furnace oil have
ensured that till now our own
vast coal deposits at Thar are
ignored.
As a side - had Thar coal been
developed with sensible
technologies, all talks of huge
hydel power projects (involving
enormous environmental
complications and very high
costs) would have become
redundant.
Now that Thar must become the
pivot of our future energy
planning, we have to be careful
how we use our low-quality coal
since both coal mining and coal-
based conventional steam power
plants could very well
materialize into a nightmare for
anyone concerned with the
ensuing high pollution levels.
Real progress towards energy
security and environmental
protection can come only when
both the government and private
investors confirm the
development of environmentally
acceptable coal-bed methane for
power plants. For those aware of
the gas supply network in the
UK in the 1960s (when North Sea
gas fields had not been
discovered), the base was "coal
gas" - which met their
requirements for many decades.
The advantage of coal-bed
methane for power plants is that
they provide energy security
from our own vast energy
source, early initial power plant
installation at the best location
with minimum requirements of
water (very scarce resource in
this area at present) and a
possible up-gradation to
combined cycle power plant
operations when an on-site
economic water source becomes
available.
Second Place:
In-house Power
Plants Average at 1/3
Utilization
Not lagging behind in
environmental damage are the
hundreds of in-house power
plants being operated by many
industries and large commercial
buildings, all over Pakistan.
Although it is difficult to
estimate the number of in-house
generators installed in various
industries and large commercial
buildings throughout the
country, the writer believes it is
safe to state that these are
producing around 1000 MW of
power. Almost all of these power
plants are, again, low-efficiency
types, with only one-third fuel
energy being utilized. To top
that off, they spend further,
considerable energy and scarce
water to get rid of the remaining
two-thirds of waste heat.
How can an energy-deficient
country and its struggling
economy sustain these power
plants? The results are there for
everyone to see: exorbitant costs
of production despite heavily
subsidized gas supply, making
our products uncompetitive.
Just as importantly, they cause
serious environmental damage,
which again in turn begets
significant health-related costs.
Third Runner Up:
Industrial Steam, Hot
Water Production
Installations
Similarly, inefficient production
of steam and hot water in
industries and large commercial
buildings is another major
source of air pollution - and
increased costs. The American
Society of Heating, Refrigerating
& Airconditioning Engineers
(ASHRAE) estimates that a
typical gas-fired fire-tube boiler
for a 10 ton-per-hour steam
output consumes the same
amount of gas as a Cogeneration
System would use for the
production of a 10 ton-per-hour
steam output - but, with an
additional 3 MW of power
generated, 'free' of any extra fuel
costs. Since no data is available
specifying the availability of Sui
gas to conventional boilers for
steam and hot water production,
it is difficult to quantify how
much total power (free of
additional gas, and thus free of
additional pollution) could
become available, but this figure
could be estimated at around
1000 MW. Investments for
additional power (free of gas
costs) would normally have a
simple payback period of 3-4
years. In some cases, especially
in composite textile units
operating 24 hours, 7 days a
week, this period could be as
low as 2 years.
Our latest grandiose living
philosophy has resulted in
acceptance of chilling indoor
environments in summer as
opposed to perhaps sensible
airconditioning in essential areas
only, resulting in a magnitude of
wastage which even rich
countries can not afford. Even
the country-of-plenty is ensuring
energy and water efficiency.
Moreover, green buildings are
often the norm for new
industrial construction in
developed economies, based on
basic feasibility analyses.
However, almost all Pakistani economics and environmental
air-conditioning applications are protection were addressed,
based on inefficient technologies. perhaps beginning with
This applies to industrial process commitment at the highest
requirements or large corporate level. While soaring
commercial buildings for offices, energy costs were arrested in
hotels, hospitals, airport terminal these examples, the consequent
buildings and so on. Most of pollution and social costs were
these airconditioning mitigated simultaneously: the
applications use very low inherent, big-picture harmony
efficiency systems and these that CSR is all about.
cause environmental havoc,
besides exorbitant costs of
energy - costs that are still rising,
about the writer
beyond currently unacceptable
levels.
Mr. Ainul Abedin has over 46
years experience in Building
All is not lost though; there are Engineering Services and is
some examples of responsible presently an Engineering
environmental behavior that can Consultant specializing in
match the very best anywhere. Energy Conservation. He holds
When a major car assembly plant two international Engineering
in Karachi decided to add indoor Patents. He is Fellow, ASHRAE
and the co-author of the
environment temperature and
Cogeneration chapter in
humidity controls in their paint ASHRAE Systems Handbook for
shop, they did not follow the the last 12 years, as well as a
"norms" by adding over a contributor to ASHRAE
thousand tons of cooling, using GreenGuide 2006. He has been
inefficient chilling and heating teaching Green Building
processes which would have Concepts at the Indus Valley
wasted considerable Sui gas College for 8 years.
supply, besides resulting in
increased pollution levels and
costs. They insisted that the
entire indoor environment
conditioning should be achieved
through utilization of waste heat
from the planned power
generators and this cogeneration
system should ensure CO2
depression in considerable
quantities compared to
conventional KESC supply and
gas-based central air-
conditioning system.
Similarly, a large Pakistani bank
chose to install an efficient
cogeneration system in their
main office in Karachi to ensure
economic generation of power
and production of chilled water
for central airconditioning in an
efficient manner and thus
considerably reduced their CO2
footprint.
These are excellent examples of
CSR since both positive
march-april 2008 21
business intelligence

EIU surveys sustainability

impact on businesses
report by
The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)

conducted a wide-ranging survey of over
1,200 executives worldwide to investigate
and assess the impact of sustainability on
business. EIU conducted numerous in-
depth interviews with leaders of business
and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) as well as other sustainability
experts. A georgraphically diverse sample of executives.

S
ustainability is a change in attitude that aligns financial,
social and environmental goals. Fortunately, businesses
rarely need to establish clear values for themselves.
Instead, they need to apply the ones they have. In practice,
companies are defining sustainability widely, looking at a range
of relevant environmental and social goals. The specific form
that sustainability policies take, however, will inevitably be
shaped by differing drivers and needs-economic and regulatory,
as well as environmental and social- around the world, leading
to a bewildering range of activities involving every function
within business.

Although a few companies have a long history of addressing

sustainability issues, business as a whole is still, as Mr Potter of
Coca-Cola puts it, at the "baby steps stage", scrambling to
address the issues and experiencing the pains inherent in
learning to master a new area. Four key areas currently
receiving too little attention within business are: leadership;
supply chains; reporting and metrics; and the transformation of
values into processes. At present, weaknesses in one or another
of these will condemn too many companies to poor performance
in this area. This presents more than a social or environmental
problem. The financial benefits of sustainability remain unclear,
but an understanding of where the economic advantages are-in
particular cost reduction and a range of untapped market
opportunities-can be very helpful to profits. Perhaps more
important, as the social and environmental forces driving
sustainability reshape the global economy, an inability to
understand and perform in this area could be fatal for
businesses.
A diverse group of industries.

C The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008

22 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
 Neither business, nor
government, nor any other
stakeholder, can meet these
challenges on its own. If they are
to be addressed, however, it will
be through a messy period of
redefining, among other things,
business's relationship with the
world around it, as well as the
legal and regulatory framework
in which it operates. Companies
must, at the very least, be part of
that debate, for their own sakes
as well as for that of society as a
whole. Businesspeople have long
realised that the image of an
immoral private sector
motivated only by greed is a
caricature, and a poor one at
that. Most think that their
economic activity serves the
public good. Moreover, the
executives interviewed for this
study held that corporate values
were not window-dressing, but
at the core of what their firms
did. The innovation that
sustainability demands is to
integrate these values into the
structures, processes and
incentives that mould behaviour
inside companies. Social and
environmental initiatives should
become a central part of the
strategy for corporate prosperity.
This report suggests that
companies are at an early stage
in developing such an
understanding. While 53% of
firms worldwide surveyed by
the EIU claim to have a coherent
sustainability policy, only half of
these extend this beyond internal
operations to encompass their
supply chains.
Key findings from the study
include the following:
Business Knows that
it Needs to Raise its
Game…
Out of a list of 16 sustainability
policies, encompassing issues
ranging from energy
consumption and carbon
emissions to diversity and
C The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008
governance, companies
surveyed for this report had
implemented an average of just
4.8 globally. Quantity aside,
many executives also rated the
quality of their company's efforts
poorly. More respondents say
that their organisation's
performance has been poor in
individual areas of
sustainability, than those who
believe their firms are doing
well. Just 6% rate their
companies as outstanding when
it comes to the reduction of
greenhouse gases, waste and
pollution, compared with 15%
who describe themselves as
poor.
…But is Often
Confused by Such
New and Poorly
Defined Demands
The research shows that
companies have difficulty
devising useful targets, and
aligning social and
environmental objectives with
financial ones. Moreover,
management frequently lacks an
understanding of what
sustainable development means
for the organization.
"Sustainability, at different
times, can mean all things to all
men," says Dr James Suzman,
Director of Corporate
Citizenship at De Beers.
The Supply Chain is
the Weakest Link
Extending sustainability policy
to suppliers is the area where
companies gave themselves the
worst marks: about one-fifth say
their companies have performed
poorly in setting stronger
supplier standards on both
environmental and human rights
issues. About the same
proportion have only
implemented supplier controls
in the last five years. The
problem is not new, and
examples of disastrous
consequences from socially or
environmentally damaging
supply chains abound. "This is
not charity: it is pure business.
We create a better long-term
relationship with suppliers, have
better products, and better
control over volume and price,"
says Roland Waardenburg,
Director of Corporate Social
Responsibility at Ahold.
A Lack of Clear
Leadership on
Sustainability
Tony Juniper, an Executive
Director at Friends of the Earth,
says "senior management or
chief executive buy-in to the
agenda is absolutely crucial" for
real change to occur. Most firms
understand that senior
leadership is critical here. But at
many other firms sustainability
responsibilities are dispersed
throughout the organization.
"Sustainability needs a strong
seat at the table like procurement
and finance," argues Francesca
DeBiase, VP for Worldwide
Supply Chain Management at
McDonald's. "It is the way
everyone should be thinking."
TBL Reporting Needs
More Work
Although companies rate their
performance on communication
highly, efforts regarding formal
reporting are less advanced.
Only 22% of executives say their
firms have formal Triple Bottom
Line reporting, although a
further 40% say they will adopt
it within five years. There is, in
Mr Juniper's words, "a huge
level of disengagement" from
sustainability reporting.
Sustainability Pays
Most executives (57%) say that
the benefits of pursuing
sustainable practices outweigh
the costs, although well over
eight out of ten expect any
change to profits to be small.
Specifically, sustainable practices
can help reduce costs
march-april 2008 23
 (particularly energy
expenditure), open up new
markets and improve the
company's reputation. The costs
of implementation, however, are
not to be ignored: respondents
view this as the most formidable
barrier to expanding
sustainability practices.
Strong Link between
Corporate
Sustainability and
Share Price
Performance
In our survey, companies with
the highest share price growth
over the past three years paid
more attention to sustainability
issues, while those with the
worst performance tended to do
less. The companies that rated
their efforts most highly over
this time period saw annual
profit increases of 16% and share
price growth of 45%, whereas
those that ranked themselves
worst reported growth of 7%
and 12% respectively. In general,
these high-performing
companies put a much greater
emphasis on social and
environmental considerations at
board level, while the poorly
performing firms are far more
likely to have nobody in charge
of sustainability issues.
Business Leaders are
Open to More
Regulation on TBL
Issues
Executives in our surveys are
often opposed to increased
80% respondents report that in the next five years, board-level meetings will allocate almost 10%
more time on the company's social and environmental impact.
24 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
regulation. Not here. Forty
percent of those in our survey
believe additional regulation is
necessary to tackle social and
environmental challenges.
Another 50% say that voluntary
action is generally more
effective, but that additional
regulation may be required in
some areas. However, this
openness to new rules is
combined with the desire for
clearer guidance about what
government expects from
business.
The social and environmental
issues facing companies today
are not going away-and are
likely to involve a redefining of
relations between business and
society. This often involves
fundamental political and even
moral questions. A good
sustainability policy needs to
know when, and why, to say
"no" as well as "yes" to
stakeholders' innumerable
demands.
Companies need to adjust by
Eco-efficiency alert: More than half of the sample has
integrating best practices in implemented policy changes to reduce energy consumption,
these fields into their operations and to improve governance in relation to the organization's
and by joining the broader environmental and social performance.
debate on the responsibilities of
business, government and
individuals in addressing these
challenges. If firms do not get
involved in the latter, it will hurt
their own finances, as well as the
environment and social
conditions worldwide.
The TBL-adoption impact on financial performance: Over
30% believe that among the biggest benefits of sustainable
practices is manifested in shareholder value and profitability.
C The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008
 43% of the respondents agree that it is critically important that a corporate sustainability strategy meets the company's
objectives of increasing revenues. Enhancing brand reputation and compliance with regulatory and legal obligations also rank
highly among the defined criteria.

More than half of the respondents report that their companies formally report on philanthropic activities, at least.

Interesting to note: Almost 60% correspondents adopt different standards for working hours and pay, given local laws.

C The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008 march-april 2008 25

 Half of the respondents say voluntary business action is
more effective, but additional government regulation may be
required in specific areas.

Reinforced: It is critical that the top management, especially

CEOs take interest in sustainability performance of the
organisation.

The need for consumer education highlighted: Repondents believe that almost 40% of customers would not pay more for ethical
sourcing, carbon offset schemes or SRI practices.

Less than one in three executives (29%) say their company

has a coherent strategy that covers the whole business and
its supply chain. Only 22% of executives say their firms have formal Triple
Bottom Line reporting.

26 www.triplebottomline.com.pk C The Economist Intelligence Unit 2008

csr talk

challenge of the
21st century:
advancement-
poverty paradox
HUSSAIN DAWOOD
Chairman
The Dawood Group

by khadeeja balkhi
for tbl

n your opinion, what is The key challenge of sustainable With developments like the FTSE

I true CSR? Or what is an

understanding of
sustainable practices
within your sphere?
CSR has been made synonymous
with corporate philanthropy (CP)
in peoples mind whereas it is about
sustainable development in the key
areas of social, environment and
economic well-being of
organizations and societies at large.
As economies globalize, new
opportunities to generate
prosperity and quality of life are
developing but these positive
improvements are accompanied
with new risks to the stability of
our environment and the
continuing burden of poverty and
hunger on millions of people. This
paradox of advancement and
poverty is the challenge for the 21st
century.
development is that it demands
new and innovative choices and
ways of thinking.
While developments in knowledge
and technology are contributing to
economic development, these
developments also have the
potential to help resolve the risks
and threats posed to the
sustainability of our social
relations, economies. New
knowledge and innovations in
technology, management, and
public policy are challenging
organizations to make new choices
in the way their operations,
products, services and activities
impact the earth, people and
economies.
These emerging challenges are
forcing organizations to maintain
transparency in their operations.
Sustainability Index, language
which 'corporate types' understand,
will, in time lead to people
rewarding companies with their
purchasing power.
The investor of the future will look
for companies who, besides giving
them profit, are also transparent in
their operations and plan to grow
in a sustainable manner.
What is the logical / valid
connection between
corporate philanthropy and
strategic CSR, in your
opinion?
Corporations can use their
charitable efforts to improve their
competitive context: for example
the quality of the business
environment in locations where
they operate.

28 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
Using philanthropy to enhance
competitive advantage aligns social
and economic goals and improves
long-term business prospects.
Attending to surroundings enables
a company not only to give money
but also to leverage its capabilities
and relationships to support
development causes.
What specific examples
can you share from your
companies of successful
CSR implementation? In
these examples, what are
some ways, creative and
otherwise, that ROI's
(returns on investments) on
CSR initiatives have been
measured?
Under our business-integrated,
corporate philanthropy banner, we
are now integrating CP into new
businesses, at their inception.
Also, we've developed a water
conservation system through the
use of PVC lining and drip
irrigation initiatives that are linked
to Engro Polymer's core products.
In the same category, related to
Engro Foods' core business, we are
developing the capacity to enhance
milk production in rural Sindh
through extension services that
focus on improving hygiene, and
animal health initiatives.
Under our environment-based
initiatives, at the Engro Chemical
plant for instance, we have a
continuous effort to reduce our
environmental footprint.
Additionally, we have developed a
2015 sustainability vision for
reducing water use, waste
generation and reduction of green
house gases emission. We have
eliminated the use of CFC's in
compliance with the Montreal
protocol. We are also actively
working on carbon trading
opportunities under the Kyoto
protocol.
As part of our economic
transparency and efficiency drives,
our project implementations are
open to public scrutiny through
environment impact assessment
studies.
As far as the ROIs are concerned;
for the economic and environment
initiatives just shared, the
investments are business decisions,
and are strictly ROI-based.
What might be your input to
the community on effective
ways to implement result -
oriented CSR programmes On the other hand, it is the social
that are aligned with a environment that prompts and
company's core business? educates acceptable corporate
If CP has to take roots in corporate
Pakistan, the alignment with core
business is a must. Businesses have
to see a gain from the initiatives in
the form of expanded markets,
brand build-up, supply chain
strengthening and so on.
Microsoft and CISCO offer clear
examples of integrating CP with
their core businesses by investing
into human capital through
training and development in core
IT skills not only to become
product users but also to develop
skills to sustain themselves in
emerging job markets.
I can share a few examples for
instance, from Engro on what
business alignment could entail.
Engro Chemical is investing in agri-
extension services and balanced
fertilization initiatives. Or Engro
Energy is exploring energy
conservation projects.
Our challenge as a conglomerate:
we are now evaluating how all the
above can be combined in a single
initiative for synergistic
intervention in rural areas.
As chairman of the PPAF,
how do you think CSR is
viewed (in similarity and in
opposition) by the
development sector, and by
the business sector?
I think trends relating to Social
Responsibility are coalescing, but of
course, the business and the
development sector are
approaching it from different
directions.
For the development sector, social
responsibility is an end in itself. It
sees its role as one of reacting and
responding directly to human
conditions. Development sector
organizations are therefore at the
vanguard of bringing about change
in society's attitude and (in the
West) have an acute understanding
of the power of the media and
celebrities to accelerate social
change.
behaviour. Trend-setting
corporations now view CSR as a
way of differentiating themselves
from the competition and are keen
and proactive participants in it.
They use the media to validate their
social responsibility credentials.
Hence, what began as a movement
to ensure that corporates managed
risk adequately and thus had a
license to operate -after catastrophic
incidents like Bhopal and Exxon
Valdez- is now about attracting
human resources and
discriminating customers who
value social responsibility.
The process is similar in Pakistan as
well but is not as advanced or
evident on a large scale. There is
greater understanding of the issues
and hence learning on both sides,
which gives rise to collaborative
efforts towards the common good.
To me, examples of some of the
emerging similarities include:
the need for implementing
change in a sustainable manner;
the use of micro credit as a
developmental tool;
the use of technology to impact
development: telemedicine, and
so on;
a more 'business like' attitude
towards accountability and
efficiency in social interventions,
and;
a greater orientation towards
results.
about the writer
As a Sustainability Consultant, Khadeeja
Balkhi helps organisations embed and
document sustainable practies into their
core business models.
march-april 2008 29
csr toolkit

the people-centered
model of business
by ramla akhtar
for tbl

30 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
 "Our way is not of feats of action,
but feats of perception."
E Schuitema, author of "Intent" & "Leadership."
Teacher of the "Care & Growth Model"

The Four Life Zones

1. Spiritual (S) Zone

This Life Zone deals with
The Dilemma people's beliefs, ideologies,
Sometimes, we refuse to change not and life outlook - or the lack
because we don't want to, but because we of them. Closely related to
don't know how to - and what to change to. the faith system of
Consider the dilemma of contemporary individuals is their heart,
corporations within which kind souls wish to their intellectual mind and
create a better world through business - but free will. To understand a
are caught in a world-view where business person or culture, it is
is equated with "not doing good." Business important to understand
is based on economics, and that, at its their belief and spiritual
crude core is based on price and quantity. system. A belief can be true,
No wonder businesses only factor in Profits false, completely wrong, or
- not People and Planet. absent. S zone is the primary
PC-MoB zone, as it
What if we had a model that looked at the determines a person's
bigger picture? behavior in the respective
life zones.

PC-MoB: See The Big Picture

2. Personal-Familial (PF) Zone
The People-Centered Model of Business The family is the basic unit
(PC-MoB) is a practical tool through which of society. A person will
organizations (businesses and others) always be an individual, in
examine the reality of their markets by the context of their family -
focusing on human activity. It has multiple whether it's joint, nuclear, or
application modules including: Market dysfunctional. Personal
Insight, Trend-Forecasting, beliefs shape family
Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Organizational dynamics and families shape
Leadership, and Social Business - the last society. In Maslow's terms,
is detailed in this article. the PF zone is where a
person seeks emotional and
physical security and
stability. This determines the
level and quality of peace in
society, and its creative
energy.

march-april 2008 31
 3. Socio-Economic
(SE) Zone
A person interacts with the
larger community for
economic and social
purposes. This is where a
transaction occurs between
personal-familial values of
individuals and household
units as they begin to
interact with one another. A
shared vision that governs
these social contracts is
created out of those
dynamics. These in turn
determine society's collective
behavior.
In the SE zone, a person rises
above the self-development
and family care needs to
communicate with society at
large. Help is given and
taken. A person is both an
employer and an employee
in the economic system.
Information is traded;
people earn, save and build;
and money becomes a
medium of exchange.
Technology emerges to
facilitate the speed and
beauty of transactions
between people and
resources.
A person chooses their SE
zone behavior in line with
how they have developed in
the S and PF zones. Societies
that have accessible
information and open
communication, where
transactions are facilitated,
and social contracts are
honored become creative -
and foster open opportunity.
Else, they are unfair and
transgressive. The latter are
marked by confusion,
resentment, violence and
warped employment
dynamics - as the case of
Pakistan could be
interpreted.
32 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
4. Ecological-Political
(EP) Zone
Finally, a balanced human
being, or society, progresses
enough to participate in the
larger universe - of law,
politics, ecology, and cosmic
philosophy. "Balanced"
describes experiencing,
learning, and evolving from
the previous three zones.
Some groups try to short-cut
the first three zones, and
jump into the universal zone
perhaps as a means to avoid
their duties and
establishment of rights in the
S, PF, and SE zones. That
results in a perpetual futile
conflict between these
wishful idealists and society,
which rightfully needs able
persons.
In mature societies, the EP
zone represents universal
love, art, entertainment,
travel, and discovery. Media
is the child and the lifeblood
of this zone - because by
definition, media is media
between the real products
and people who already
exist. A media that exists out
of harmony with its own
society heralds its own
disabling through
frustration. The institutions
of charity, establishment of
good and prevention of evil,
collective prayer, the judicial
system, defense, foreign
affairs, and struggle are in
the EP zone. These are
higher level societal
institutions that cannot be
imposed on/by immature
people.
The Cyclic
Relationship of the
Four Life Zones
The Four Life Zones are not
strictly separate. Some roles
overlap boundaries, others can
fit into other zones. In a way, the
four Life Zones are connected in
a cycle: "The Circle of Life".
When each zone reinforces the
other, it's a progressive cycle.
When each zone leads to
spillover, ill effects on the next,
it's a vicious cycle.
Business = Busy-ness
Picture the Four Life Zones in
movement. Where an ill person
is being treated, a household
manager is preparing food, one
is building homes, or requires
safety, travel, or learning - it is
"the busy-ness of life." Since
these actions require a deep web
of "helpers" who are paid in
money, business is created.
Business is thus a part of the
society, if it is based on the real
needs and understanding of the
society. Whoever was trying to
sell refrigerators to Eskimos was
a true conman, and died
unpopular.
The key is that our businesses
cannot prosper without adding
true value to their own
consumers: an issue that is easily
skirted -and hard to tackle- in a
society as oft-ill-informed as
Pakistan's.
PC-MoB: The Social
Business Module
"Social-izing business" is one of
the most profound emerging
global trends of the 21st century.
This concept has various
meanings, one referring to
businesses whose primary aim is
to serve social needs profitably.
Business thinker C K Prahalad
has built a case for doing
profitable business for "bottom
of the pyramid (BOP) markets" -
which are the over 4 billion
consumers of the world with
modest but real spending
powers. They represent a largely
untapped market which can be
served - and profitably so. Using
PC-MoB to study the lives of the
BOP market would reveal a
multitude of niches that can be
filled by small local businesses and
create tremendous employment
opportunities. This role has been
typically relegated to NGOs and
charities. We need a new construct
that balances people + planet +
profits; the imbalance of one shakes
another
Application Scenarios
In Pakistan, food stock
fluctuations can be better
managed by improved
warehousing and transport -
leading to decrease waste in
produce, and hence market
prices. [SE-zone]
Tele-medicine services have
seen an opportunity in sending
mobile medical teams to
otherwise inaccessible areas.
[SE-zone]
In India, Unilever has a
program called "Shakti" -
literally meaning "power" -
that empowers poor women by
turning them into Unilever
sales representatives - which in
turn gives the women better
lifestyles and expands the
company's reach. [PF-zone]
Business Realizes Human
Potential
Business is not a cancer. It is an
integral, legitimate part of a healthy
social organism. The condition is
that the business is empathetic to
the society/societies it operates in
and helps legitimate "busy-ness".
The entrepreneur affects change
when s/he accepts the society as is,
and does not create products and
markets for a make-belief group.
Then the entrepreneur is in a very
powerful position to mobilize
change. A business cannot
effectively live in denial of the
society and environment around it.
Understanding this fine point will
save many businesses a lot of
heartache and headache.
The PC-MoB makes it simpler to
understand the fabric of society -
and hence the dynamics within
which all organizations function. It
also establishes the social context of
the business so that unnecessary
conflict is avoided. In fact, business
becomes a pleasure - both for the
markets being served, and for the
entrepreneur who can use their
innate potential for issues that are
relevant to their own environment.
Characteristics of the
PC-MoB
Questions, Not Answers
The PC-MoB is a template. These
roles are questions, not answers.
The role of "ill," for instance, asks
the studier: what ailment does this
group of people suffer from? For
instance, poor people suffer lesser
from heart disease (often the result
of overindulgence), more from
infection (the product of filth).
Thus, North American markets
need obesity control as Africa or
Pakistan might need disinfectants.
Realistic, Not Fictional
The PC-MoB demands reality, not
fiction or desire. Facts lead to
insight. How will we know the
answers to these questions? With
research. With unstoppable
curiosity and fact-finding. With
determination to really know the
people we market to. To envision
their needs, so needed solutions can
be served and waste is prevented.
That's the higher purpose of
business.
Empathetic
Empathy is elicited as a reader
identifies the truth of the people
being studied. It also gives
perspective to consumer study and
consumer insight.
Accommodates Diversity
There is a strong implication that
one consumer group's life profile
cannot be projected reasonably
onto another's - owing to the
variety of human nature and
culture.
Drawing up a PC-MoB profile for
each group of markets will lead to
rich insights about their unique
lives, tastes, aspirations.
Welcome Back Home!
The PC-MoB is an integral tool; it
puts things together into the "big
picture," where one thing is related
to another - as is the case in our
daily lives. This is the reality of life
that traditional single-disciplinary
models could not perceive nor
incorporate. The simple PC-MoB
liberates organizations from the
guilt of feeling "external" to the
human life by weaving them back
into the social fabric where they are
active, healthy participants in
human activity. This ends the
fictional divide between "the good"
and the necessity of "just doing my
job/ business." This, in short, is the
beginning of the end of secluded,
incomplete thinking patterns which
is the root of why modern
businesses compulsively act solely
profit-centered as if there's no other
way.
about the writer
Ramla Akhtar runs a consultancy,
"NEXT>". She works with emerging
ideas, global change agents and
organizations and enjoys creating
intra-disciplinary, technology-neutral
designs for the realization of innate
human potential.
Ramla has experience in talent
management, television media
management and brand strategy.
http://nextbyramla.blogspot.com
march-april 2008 33
breather

34 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
march-april 2008 35
sustainability reporting

the pakistani perspective on

sustainability reporting

t's true that with 73 percent of the population living on

I below US$ 2 a day and 17 percent of the population living

on less than US$ 1 a day (UNDP), the sustainability
performance of Pakistani businesses is not the primary
concern of the majority of the country's population.

by katherine miles hill

for tbl

36 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
But it should be a concern of the
business community, especially
those who want to compete on
the international market or
tempt multinationals to choose
them as suppliers boosting the
economic development of the
country. At the same time it
should also be the concern of
those who want fairer, more
sustainable development both
within Pakistan and throughout
the wider world.
Awareness of sustainability has
significantly changed in recent
years. Sustainability is rightly
now high on the international
agenda. It is in part due to the
dawning reality of climate
change but also as a result of
unprecedented economic growth
of emerging economies such as
China and India. Driven by the
desire to alleviate poverty, this
amazing growth has successfully
reduced poverty levels but
resulted in severe unintended
consequences. This has caused
the global community to sit up
and address the tension between
the need for development and its
negative impacts.
In this context, there is a
growing understanding among
the international community that
a different approach to
development is needed, a
sustainable approach, an
approach that allows the needs
of the present to be met, without
compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their
own needs. As such, financial
performance is no longer the
exclusive driver for businesses.
Economic, environmental and
social factors are now recognized
as also playing important roles.
Consequently the competitive
international marketplace
increasingly rewards those that
go beyond the legal
requirements in terms of
managing their economic,
environmental and social
impacts. This recognition has led
to companies being encouraged
by internal and external
stakeholders to demonstrate
their performance in these areas,
which has resulted in the
emergence of sustainability
reporting.
Internal forces (such as
employees, investors, senior
management) within
organizations have also begun to
recognize the value of
sustainability reporting and the
business case behind
communicating their progress
towards reducing their social,
economic and environmental
impacts, and innovating around
new opportunities provided by a
commitment to a more
sustainable future.
Sustainability reporting is
sometimes also called triple
bottom-line, non-financial, or
corporate social responsibility
reporting and it refers to
organizations formally
disclosing information on their
social, environmental and
economic impacts. For example
disclosing how much water they
use as part of their operations,
whether they respect the human
rights of their employees, and if
they pay them fairly.
It is about a company making
clear the positive and negative
effects of its operations on the
local community and
environment, how it intends to
enhance those positive aspects,
and how it will endeavour to
eradicate or improve on the
negative aspects of its business
on the community in which it
operates. In essence, it's about
reporting on how the
organization is contributing to
sustainable development.
Within Pakistan, sustainability
reporting is in its infancy but
steadily growing. Current
Pakistani reporters include the
likes of Engro Chemical Pakistan
Limited (winner of the ACCA-
WWF Best Sustainability
Reporting Company in 2007), the
Pakistan Tobacco Company and
the Pakistan Refinery Limited.
The question is what is the
benefit of reporting for
companies like these?
Besides reducing the
organization's sustainability
footprint, there are many reasons
for reporting. Already touched
on is the competitive advantage
in the international marketplace,
whether that be Pakistani
companies investing overseas,
directly selling their products
abroad or supplying
multinational companies.
Customers, particularly those in
European markets, increasingly
reward companies which
disclose their sustainability
impacts. Consumers buying
from Pakistani companies want
to be sure that they do not
contribute in exacerbating the
widespread poverty and instead
contribute to eradicating it.
Reporting using a standardized
framework is a way to show that
a company is transparent and
accountable and so can build
trust between the customer and
the business or the purchasing
company and the supplier. If
companies disclose information
following a standardized
approach, it enables the
comparability between
organizations both within
Pakistan and internationally.
Customers can use this
information to evaluate the
performance of one company
against another with respect to
certain indicators, such as the
total number of employees by
age which shows a company is
not relying on child labour. They
can also use this sustainability
information to benchmark
organizations' performance with
respect to laws, norms, codes,
performance standards and
voluntary initiatives. Disclosure
can also improve a company's
access to capital because the
march-april 2008 37
 investment community trusts
companies who openly present
sustainability information.
A sustainable approach to
business can also enhance the
brand value of the company. It
develops an association with
good virtues and values,
attracting customers in whatever
shape or form, as well as
talented employees. A study
conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers of 3000
graduates in the UK, US and
China found that 87 percent of
respondents said that they
would deliberately seek to work
for employers whose corporate
responsibility reflect their own
ethics and values.
There are also internal benefits
as the process of gathering
sustainability data is a useful
internal management tool. The
process of producing reports
enables businesses to internally
identify operational
inefficiencies, cut waste and save
money for the company. For
listed companies this helps
deliver shareholder value. Just as
an external stakeholder can
benchmark company
performance from the
information disclosed in these
reports; this benchmarking
information can also be helpful
for the internal management of a
company and driving improved
performance.
But sustainability disclosures are
only useful for all parties in as
far as companies disclose
information that is relevant to
the organization and their
stakeholders. If companies,
based in Pakistan or elsewhere,
fail to present comprehensive
and comparable information
about their economic,
environmental and social
impacts, and gloss over the
material issues, then it's not
much use to internal as well as
external stakeholders.
38 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
What is needed is a global
standardized framework for
disclosure and the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI), a
multi-stakeholder network and a
collaborating centre of the
United Nations Environment
Programme, has pioneered just
that. The GRI's Sustainability
Reporting Framework facilitates
transparency and comparability
among companies that use it and
play a vital role in enabling a
standardized approach to
disclosure. First issued in 2000,
then 2002, the third iteration, the
G3 Guidelines, was released in
2006.
The GRI Guidelines set out the
principles and indicators that
organizations can use to measure
and report their economic,
environmental, and social
performance. In order to ensure
the highest degree of technical
quality, credibility, and
relevance, these guidelines have
been developed and are
continuously improved through
a consensus-seeking process
with participants drawn globally
from business, civil society, the
labour movement, and
professional institutions. A cross
section of global stakeholders
who share the vision that
reporting on economic,
environmental, and social
performance by all organizations
should become as routine and
comparable as financial
reporting develop this standard.
The resultant G3 Guidelines are
a free global public good and
have been translated into many
languages.
In addition to the universally
applicable core guidelines, the
framework also contains Sector
Supplements. These are
specialized reporting guidance
for companies in a range of
industry sectors - such as mining
and metals, automotive, and
retail and apparel, which caters
to the unique sectoral
sustainability challenges. This
guidance is also created using a
balanced group of geographic
and sectoral representatives
including Pakistani nationals.
Over 1250 companies in over 60
different countries have self-
declared the use of the GRI
Guidelines as a framework for
their sustainability reports, while
a multitude of other companies
use the GRI Guidelines on a
more informal basis without self-
declaration. The benefits of
reporting outlined are clear to
these companies, including the
likes of Engro Chemical Pakistan
Limited. As more businesses and
other organizations in the
country start to recognize the
benefits of sustainability
reporting and the contribution of
this practice to the Pakistani
population's economic and social
development, sustainability
reporting in the country is set to
increase.
The GRI Guidelines can be
downloaded for free at
www.globalreporting.org
If you are interested in supporting
the translation of the GRI Guidelines
into Urdu, please contact GRI at
info@globalreporting.org
about the writer
Katherine Miles Hill works in
communications for the Global
Reporting Initiative. She has
over five years experience in
communications and strategy,
she began her career at
international healthcare
company BUPA. Katherine holds
a MSc (Cum Laude) in
International Development with
a specialism in Education and
Development, from the
University of Amsterdam and a
BA (hons) Anthropology, from
the University of Durham.
social partnership

the challenge of poverty

alleviation in the coastal
areas of pakistan

by uzma taimoor
trustee, indus earth
for tbl

I
n a small fishermen village, at nightfall, off the
coast of Sind, children gather around a solar
powered LED light pole to read; women gather
to sow; and men gather to discuss the day gone by.
This is a village which has never seen electricity.

In the same village a wind turbine harnesses the

coastal breeze to produce electricity that powers a
motor that pulls up potable water. This is a village
where women would dig a well themselves - often
at great risk to their lives - and then wait for hours
for their turn to gather water.

In the same village women, dressed in colourful,

traditionally embroidered kurtas learn the art of
masonry and of low-cost construction for a school
of bamboo and mud for their children's education.
Their children observe their mothers as they learn
to use newly acquired tools to lay the foundations
for the bamboo structure of the school.

Later this same school served as a life-saving

shelter when a cyclone hit their village and tore
down their thatched huts. The newly constructed
school was the only structure in the village to
survive the gale force.

Pit latrines for men and women are constructed at

the corner of the same village for greater hygiene.
A green patch nearby, using drip and clay-pot
irrigation techniques, demonstrates how fruit trees
and other vegetation can grow with the least
amount of sweet water - a scarce, essential
resource.

This village is Abdullah Goth, Kemari Town,

Karachi District, Sindh with a total population of
1,200 inhabitants where the founder and CEO of
Indus Earth, Shahid Sayeed Khan drove me in his
Suzuki jeep at dawn. There are many other villages

march-april 2008 39
 - in hundreds - like Abdullah Goth
along the coastal areas of Sind and
Balochistan in Pakistan. Each has a
community organization that
works together with Indus Earth in
an effort to improve the quality of
life for their people.
Financially supported by partner
institutions such as PPAF [Pakistan
Poverty Alleviation Fund], WWF
[World Wildlife Federation], CIDA,
and the Japanese government,
Indus Earth took up the challenge
of poverty alleviation for the
poorest of the poor in 2001 with the
simple, and matter-of-fact slogan:
'It needs to be done!' and a mission
statement "To facilitate a movement
to raise living standards by
enhancing the quality of socio-
economic conditions through an
integrated development approach."
Other than the Village Rural
Development Programme, Indus
Earth is involved in other projects
which include building check dams
for irrigation, drought mitigation,
technological innovations and
smokeless stove project among
others. The programme of using
alternative irrigation techniques in
a water-starved area is an
interesting example of Indus
Earth's participation and
contribution in fishermen
communities.
Income from the sea is on the
decline owing to over fishing and
pollution. Indus Earth suggested
40 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
that as an alternative source they
should look to the land. For
example just by growing a coconut
tree, an income of
Rs. 5,000 can be achieved after the
tree bares fruit. However,
understandably, they were
reluctant to undertake this exercise
as the sea has for generations
provided for them. So the Indus
Earth team built a "demonstration"
farm on four different locations of
one acre each, planting chico, baire
and coconut trees. Chico and baire
began to bear fruits after three
years. Coconut trees typically need
two years to mature and bear fruit.
All of the above used a drip
irrigation system to minimize water
utilization.
Pitcher irrigation is a very old
method used mostly throughout
areas where water is scarce. A clay
pitcher, before it is finally prepared
for carrying water, is buried in the
ground. This 'immature' form
allows water to pass through its
porous sides, thus keeping the
ground moist all around it for a
radius of 3-4 feet. Any plantation
within this moist ground will grow
prolifically. The great advantage of
this is not only its simplicity but
also that "dirty' water can be used,
such as washing up soapy water.
The pitcher allows only moisture to
go through thus acting as a filter.
In a country like Pakistan such a
mission is nothing short of a
daunting challenge. Political
instability, rising costs of living,
and religious strife are just some of
the factors that create hurdles in the
achievement of Indus Earth's goals.
Nonetheless it is a challenge that
has been taken up with a spirit that
says there is no other option.
Shahid Khan, an architect by
profession, returned to Pakistan
around fifteen years ago after
having lived in the United
Kingdom for most of his life. He
came back with the dream of
setting up such a development
organization. Having been
involved with developmental work
in Africa, he had strong conviction
that the same can be done for the
poor of Pakistan. With steely
determination and perseverance,
and a hands-on method of working,
Shahid divides his time between
soliciting funds for Indus Earth,
catching up with his team, and
overseeing project delivery on the
field. Working round the clock, the
Indus Earth team is looking to
focus on the coastal areas of
Pakistan and thematically focus on
potable and clean drinking water
while also working with the
fishermen community to help them
build a better quality of life for
themselves and future generations.
Indus Earth has also developed
low-cost housing options for the
earthquake affectees in Kashmir in
2007 in collaboration with other
international organizations. They
also distributed essential food and
clothing to the cyclone affectees in
Sind and Balochistan in the same
year.
Indus Earth is also a member of the
International Union for the
Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources (IUCN)
Pakistan, where Shahid Khan is
currently the honorary Pakistan
National Committee Chairperson.
All its projects are environmentally
friendly and promote a greater
awareness of environmental issues.
In an age where people aspire to
afford a ticket to the next shuttle to
the moon, the poorest of the poor in
Pakistan are being given a chance
to overcome paucity of resources to
give themselves and their children
the basic necessities of life,
appropriately.
For more details, please visit
www.indusearth.org. or visit the office in
Karachi, Pakistan.
energy conservation
collective conscience
by fouzia ishaque
for tbl
C
hances are you may
have been reading
about conserving
energy in the wake of
prolonged load shedding
exercises by the
government. Blame the
think tanks for overlooking
this critical utility for
business and households
alike and curse the KESC
for coming up with power
cut plans every now and
then. To top it all, you must
be wondering why the
summers become hotter
every year.
The Ministry of Water and
Power maintains that "the
power crisis in the country
was primarily a crisis of
investment and not a rises
of planning." While we are
at it, there is no denying
that we are hit by the worst
power crisis ever.
Electricity shortage, natural
gas resources depletion and
looming increase in
petroleum prices calls for
collective careful efforts by
all stakeholders.
With capital investment, we can
develop new dams, nuclear
power houses and adopt
alternate bio-fuel technologies.
The subject matter is too vast to
be discussed here, however, to
sum it all up the United Nations
says: "Human activity -
particularly the burning of fossil
fuels - has made the blanket of
greenhouse gases around the
earth thicker." The resulting
increase in global temperatures is
altering the complex web of
systems that allow life to thrive
on earth, such as cloud cover,
rainfall, wind patterns, ocean
currents, and the distribution of
plant and animal species. It is
crucial to use our resources
conscientiously as fuel and
energy technologies have
multitude effects on the climate.
Global warming and climate
change are a rising threat to
everyone.
The Australian government plans
to gradually phase out
incandescent light bulbs and
replace them with more energy-
efficient compact fluorescent
bulbs across the country.
Environment Minister Malcolm
Turnbull says that this could help
reduce carbon emissions by 4
million tons by 2012 and cut
household power bills by up to
66%.
march-april 2008 41
 Shared by Philips, Pakistan
A commercial Jumbo Jet has
recently been tested by Virgin
Atlantic to fly on a mixture of
bio-fuels extracted from the nuts
of babassu tree and coconut oil,
in an effort to reduce their
carbon footprint. The initiative
has been praised by some
analysts as a potentially useful
experiment. It takes great
commitment and perseverance
to launch such an experiment
amidst contradicting views by
environment experts and
scientists about the
environmental benefits of
biofuels. Nonetheless, such
experiments and initiatives give
a big boost to efforts to find
environmentally- friendly
energy and fuel resources.
One might argue that countries
such as Australia and companies
like Virgin Atlantic can afford to
engage in such experiments
because they are a part of the
developed economy. However,
let us not forget that Cuba's Fidel
Castro launched a similar
programme whereby youth
brigades were sent into homes to
switch off regular bulbs in an
effort to save energy and help
battle electrical blackouts around
the island.
42 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
The responsibility of sustainable
development does not lie
entirely with the government; it
requires collective efforts and
collaboration to bring about a
significant positive change and
the state plays a key role as a
facilitator to organizations and
other stakeholders. The
corporate sector, with its
resources, has an important role
to play by adopting eco-friendly
ways of doing business.
Lighting accounts for 19% or
nearly one-fifth of all electricity
usage in the world. That is
because much of the lighting
currently installed is technology
that dates back over a century.
On March 29th, 'Earth Hour', an
annual event to symbolise
collective efforts to make a
positive impact on climate
change, was observed. ABN
AMRO bank, Pakistan observed
the day by sending out prior
email communication to all
employees to shut down their
PCs, monitors and all office
lighting except for critical lights,
across all branches and
departments.
Shaiza Aslam of ABN AMRO
bank says, "This is a great cause
and effort, and if as a bank we
can make a difference towards
the safety of our environment,
then we can do wonders as a
nation. Hence, a message for all
professional and working
people: we can, and should
promote such initiatives and
actively participate as a team,
group or an industry."
Irfan Saeed, who works at a
technology firm in Maidenhead,
UK says, "When I was in
Pakistan, I never knew such
initiatives existed. When I
received a communication from
my office that some of the
servers and lights would be
switched off, I was taken by
surprise. In fact, my colleague
was telling me that she had been
anxiously waiting for this event
to train her daughters about
conserving energy and she made
them switch off all the lights in
their house. I now realize the
importance of such initiatives as
being critical to spreading
awareness. I hope that more and
more organizations back home
participate in such much-needed
initiatives."
With inefficient lighting, 95% of
energy is wasted in heat, with a
mere 5% generates light. Some
75% of all lighting is used in
professional applications like
street lighting and buildings,
while 25% is used in homes. The
initiative taken by the
government to promote the use
of "Energy Savers" and to
educate the masses through
media campaigns about proper
utilization of electricity is a step
in the right direction. The 'Turn
the Tide' project of the New
America Dream captures this by
replacing four standard bulbs
with CFLs; one can prevent the
emission of 5,000 pounds of
carbon dioxide and reduce
electricity bill by more than $100
over the lives of those bulbs. If
only a thousand of us each
replace four standard bulbs with
CFLs, collectively we can
prevent the emission of five
million pounds of carbon
dioxide and reduce our
electricity bills by more than
$100,000 over the lives of those
bulbs.
Having said that, most people
are unaware of the precautions
which need to be taken for the
disposal of CFLs.
CFL lighting fixtures, like all
fluorescent lamps contain small
amounts of mercury. Broken
CFLs pose a threat to health and
environment as they release
mercury content in the
environment. That is why it is
critical that these bulbs are
properly disposed of and
recyclyed. The Environmental
Protection Agency, United States
maintains that landfill and
"disposal methods can lead to a
release of elemental mercury
into the environment through
breakage and leakage and
ultimately contaminate the food
chain".
The good news is that virtually
all parts of a CFL can be recycled
after its commercial usage life.
Its metallic end cap, glass tube,
mercury and phosphor powder
can be separated and recycled.
The metallic portion can be used
as scrap metal, glass can be
reused for making other glass
products and the mercury can be
utilized for new bulbs or other
devices. The need however, is to
create a recycling mechanism
through which domestic and
commercial users can easily get
rid of the diffused bulbs. One
thing that comes to mind
instantly is utilizing the
'raddiwalas' (junk and
wastepaper collector). An
incentive discount scheme
should be launched by the
companies to promote purchase
of new CFLs for a deposit of
used CFL bulbs. The corporate
sector makes bulk purchases and
should liaise with vendors for
proper disposal of used bulbs.
Organizations should train their
maintenance staff about proper
handling of CFL's. If a CFL bulb
breaks, it is important to follow a
proper procedure to avoid
inhaling or being in contact with
the mercury.
The lighting solutions have
improved with tremendous
energy savings. Philips Pakistan
gives an overview of the
solutions available to buyers for
making sensible purchase
decisions (see illustration).
Energy conservation goes
beyond just lighting solutions
with longstanding environment
effects. Organizations as
responsible citizens have a major
role to play by being the early
adopters of eco-friendly
technologies and standards
which have a positive impact on
the environment. A solid
commitment by organizations to
environmental standards can go
a long way in benefiting the
organizations and sustaining the
environment.
At present, the Pakistani market
offers ENERGY STAR® products
to buyers. These products use
less energy and prevent
greenhouse gas emissions by
meeting strict energy efficiency
guidelines set by the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency and the Department of
Energy. While buying electrical
appliances for offices and homes,
one should consider and support
products that offer the ENERGY
STAR® rankings. Philips
Pakistan offers a range of green
products in Pakistan, including
lighting solutions and televisions
built with Eco-Design and
Sustainable Technology at
subsidized rates to encourage
consumers to buy products
bearing environmental labels.
Initiatives to conserve energy
have merit, but they only
address the tip of the iceberg. To
begin with, companies must
invest in the development of
human resources with the
necessary set of skills and
development of long-term
strategies to encourage research
and development of efficient,
environmentally-friendly energy
alternatives.
about the writer
Fouzia Ishaque works with Habib
Bank Limited (HBL) in HR & OD.
As a Project Manager, she has
participated in crucial change
initiatives of the bank. She
began her career at an
international software company
Clarus Technologies, gave it a
new brand identity and
strengthened strategic alliances.
Fouzia has a diverse educational
background with a BCS in
Software Engineering and an
MBA in Finance from SZABIST.
march-april 2008 43
 green perspectives
green business sense?
by glenn schloss
for tbl
B
usiness is turning green
globally. From cars to
credit cards to light bulbs,
and even potato chips,
environmentally-friendly
versions of products and services
loved by consumers for decades
are hitting the market. Driving
the trend are two key factors:
consumer demand for green
alternatives and increasing
stakeholder scrutiny of
companies' environmental
footprints.
Recent examples include Toyota's
stunning success with the Prius
hybrid car which has prompted
all major automotive
manufacturers to launch plans
44 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
for green cars, HSBC's green
credit card launched in Hong
Kong made from recyclable
plastic and donating a portion of
purchases to an innovative
programme providing schools
with green rooftops, and
Walker's potato chip packets
stamped with Carbon Trust logos
indicating the company is
working to reduce its carbon
emissions. Every major light bulb
brand now offers an energy-
efficient alternative.
These products and services are
underpinned by a nascent yet
budding green awareness among
consumers, at least in developed
market segments. It is a
movement which is in full bloom
in developed Western markets
such as the US, Europe as well as
Australia and already shifting
into wealthier developing
economies in Asia such as Hong
Kong, Singapore and even
China. In the next phase, over
coming years the "green as a
lifestyle" trend will transition
and take firmer hold in South
Asia including Pakistan. The
trend is important because
consumers are making
behavioural changes based not
only on responses to growing
environmental threats but
because it is developing a
fashionable appeal, making it
hip to be green. Already leading
Hollywood celebrities such as
Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad
Pitt are championing
environmental issues in a serious
but sartorially-appealing manner
- not to forget Mr.
Schwarzenegger with his
hydrogen-powered Hummer. It
won't be long before more
Bollywood stars take up the
green cause.
It all makes good business sense.
Green products are often sold at
a premium, both for the added
value cycle and to compensate
for the higher costs associated
with mitigating environmental
impact and complete life cycle
considerations. Market research
suggests that consumers are
willing to pay a higher price for
socially-responsible products;
however, this can only be
quantified through in-market
testing. A BBC poll of 22,000
people in 21 countries (of which
Pakistan was not one) found that
people in developed economies
are willing to make lifestyle
changes to support green
products and green taxes to
tackle environmental problems
such as climate change. The
survey, carried out by
GlobeScan, found high levels of
support for green taxes.
Furthermore, the survey found
that "83% of respondents accept
they will definitely or probably driving investments in energy
have to make lifestyle changes to efficiency, and innovation
help tackle climate change, while towards the path of creative
a majority in US and Europe are solutions.
resigned to increased energy
costs as a primary means of Awareness of the need for action
limiting global warming". Such is strong but when it comes to
attitudes are increasingly eco-efficiency there is much
effecting consumers purchasing work to be done. A Hill &
decisions, due to the rise in Knowlton survey of 420 senior
public concern and activism executives from China, the US,
around climate change. Canada and the UK in 2007
found that while a majority of
Companies must proactively senior technology leaders from
adapt to these blatant realities - around the globe (82%) closely
the sooner they do, the more monitor the issue of global
competitive they become. warming, most do not have a
defined energy strategy to deal
With this ever-growing focus on with it (65%). The risk is clearly
climate change, consumers are evident and winners will be
also examining energy efficiency those who seize the opportunity
as a product attribute or as a while it remains an opportunity -
factor in their purchasing it is already an undeniable risk
criteria. According to a for many players.
ReputationZ study conducted by
Hill & Knowlton and market
researchers Millward Brown in
late 2006, climate change headed
the list of issues consumers in
the UK have heard a lot about
recently. It is in this environment
that companies and brands
recognise the opportunity in
seeking to build or enhance their
bonds with green consumers. about the writer
The greening trend is not just Glenn Schloss is Hill & Knowlton's
occurring at the brand or Regional Director of Corporate
product level, it's increasingly Communications, Asia Pacific.
being viewed by companies as a Glenn.schloss@hillandknowlton.com
responsibility - and an
expectation of stakeholders,
including a growing group of
financial investors. Amid
concerns about global warming,
NGOs, media, the public and
some governments even are
putting pressure on corporations
to reduce their carbon emissions.
At the same time, executives are
realising that a green corporate
positioning can actually be good
for the bottom line. The benefits
are twofold: long-term cost
savings from lower energy
consumption and increased
goodwill among stakeholders
including consumers and
government. This trend is
march-april 2008 45
book in focus

ethics incorporated -
top priority and bottom line
by fariha rashed
for tbl

G
lobally, Business Ethics
has been a much talked

“ Business
Ethics is quite
simply applying
the basic
about term recently and
efforts have been made to even
incorporate it in the syllabus of
business administration courses.
What is the concept behind
Business Ethics? It is a practice
which should be perceived by
employees as something which
principles of they can incorporate in their
everyday routine - it should not
ethics in the be constituted as a means of
realm of control by management. When a
company stresses on conformity
business rather than principles, it does
more damage than healing.
where profit is
These are some of the underlying
the key concepts explored in detail in the
book "Ethics incorporated - Top

”
consideration Priority and Bottom Line"
authored by KPMG's Dr
Dipankar Gupta. It demonstrates
By Dipankar Gupta how ethical business practices
Publisher: HarperCollins India are not only good for the bottom
216pp. Rs. 395 line, but also for employee
morale and productivity. This
book inspects business ethics
from an organizational
perspective and will do well as
an introductory book on the
subject for students, executives,
managers and leaders.
The author, Dr Dipankar Gupta,
heads the business ethics and
integrity services practice of
KPMG in India and has been
associated with the practice since
its inception in 1999. Dr Gupta
has been influential and active in
setting up business ethics
systems in domestic and
multinational companies in
India. He has also taught at the
Jawahar Lal Nehru University
and Delhi School of Economics.
Dr Gupta has also been a
researcher and teacher abroad.
He acted as the Visiting
Leverhulme Professor at the
London School of Economics and
as the first occupant of the
Visiting Asia Chair at Institut
D'Etudes Politiques de Paris in
2004. Dr Gupta has written over
10 books on various social and
political issues and is also the
author of articles that have been
printed in scholarly journals in
India and abroad.
His book "Ethics Incorporated -
Top Priority and Bottom Line"
gives a keen insight on the basic
principles of corporate
accountability and ethics. It
carries practical and interesting

46 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
examples drawn from European,
U.S and various Indian companies.
Dr Dipankar Gupta has done a
praiseworthy job in discussing
issues such as corporate
governance, corporate social
responsibility, as well as the
connection between business ethics
and social reform. Even though he
writes specifically for Indian
companies, the lessons that surface
are globally relevant.
In general, elevating the standards
of business and bringing business
ethics to the forefront is what books
such as Gupta's will help do in the
long run. The book speaks in depth
about the strains of contemporary
competition that make it vital for
top executives to secure popular
acceptance to norms and practices
within an organization. Several
useful guidelines are also included
in the book, to help executives on a
number of significant issues
ranging from how to design a
mission and vision statement, to the
making of a Business Ethics
manual, as well as to the mapping
and calibration of existing attitudes,
feelings and values of co-workers
within the organization.
The book emphasizes that the
context of corporate leadership has
altered enormously in modern
times. Leadership in today's day
and age requires skills which were
not standard in the past. Thinking
in terms of ethics is equal to
thinking leadership and therefore it
is vital that business ethics
programmes be driven from, and at
the top level. KPMG's support to
this book shows their commitment
towards incorporating strong
ethical values within their own
organization as well as in
organizations on a global front.
This book strongly promotes that
Business Ethics be clear and
effective - there are illustrations on
how norms and values can and
should be made practical and
usable on an everyday basis. Dr
Dipankar Gupta, explains,
"Business leaders today need to
actively give thought to the content
and operational aspects of their
ethics programmes. Ethics
programmes need to be 'live' and
not be weighty and cumbersome
pieces of paper behind which their
purpose is lost." Gupta further
adds, "A corporate unit is not just a
site where profits are made and
jobs are performed, it is also a
culture producing unit."
"Ethics Incorporated - Top Priority
and Bottom line" is a valuable read
for decision-makers in
organisations of any size wanting
to design and implement a business
ethics programme based on global
standards. The book highlights and
extends on the fact that business
ethics helps organizations to run
cohesively by substituting
surveillance and fright with
leadership and contribution.
However, it would have been
helpful if the book would have
been slightly more user friendly in
terms of its structure and pace. The
reader is overwhelmed by an
abundance of information right
from the start.
The author argues in favor of
Business Ethics at two levels in this
book. The first is the analytical and
conceptual one, and the second is to
show how Business Ethics can be
put to work as a standard and
lasting device for business
executives. Ranging from the
creating of an ethical manual, to the
resolution of ethical dilemmas, to
corporate social responsibility and
governance, to questions of vendor
monitoring and child labour, the
book reveals how Business Ethics
can help in every circumstance to
add to corporate efficiencies and to
the bottom line.
The importance of the stakeholder
perspective has been well explained
and it has been rightly stated that
the most admired companies today
have swung their concern from
shareholders to stakeholders.
Comparing ethics in sport to that in
business is another interesting and
clever insight. The author says that
we would do better if our business
was run like sport - an easy
admission of one's error usually
slides away without leaving
distasteful recollections.
Transparency has been stressed
upon in making the practice of
ethics effective.
The "red flags" as the author terms
it, are early warnings useful in
detecting problems. The only way
citizens can protect themselves
from corporate frauds is to be able
to read red flags when they spring
up.
Ethics does best when it is initiated
at home, at the workplace, and with
colleagues - business leaders are
team leaders who recognize that
talent is not located just at the top.
The book illustrates how if top
management has a clear focus on
ethics, it instigates more
competitiveness, creativity,
cohesion and direction in business
practices.
At times it seems as if the author is
a little too cynical and comes across
as someone who believes that
adopting corporate ethics will solve
all business problems. This
perspective may be slightly naïve.
Corporate Ethics is just one aspect
that could certainly lend a hand at
making the business environment
more effective.
The author finally concludes that
having little ethics is a hazardous
thing and an organization should
go the whole way. Appealing
subtitles and eye-catching
highlights in bold print make the
book easily readable. Carrying a lot
of direction on ethics, the book is a
bit short on illustrations. The
language is simple and easy to
understand. Students and
practitioners of management are
likely to find the book useful in the
current context.
march-april 2008 47
musings
a second life
by praetor
for tbl
I
f one was to be given a second
life with all the experience of the
first at one's disposal upon re-
birth, would one live differently?
And if so, how differently? There
would perhaps be a handful of
people who will say that they
would live the second life no
differently. Fortunate beings who
had it all in the first life and are
ready to have it all again given the
chance. A huge number, probably
the vast majority of people on this
planet would come up with a
thousand things they would want
different the second time round.
Then, possibly there would be a
precious few who too would want
it different; but more in terms of a
more holistic lifetime achievement
than in terms of worldly wealth or
material comfort alone.
Now apply this second life
possibility to countries instead of
individuals and see what comes up.
The countries who would perhaps
want it no different might mainly
be from the northern hemisphere -
countries in Scandinavia, Western
Europe and North America. And
may be Australia and New Zealand
in the southern hemisphere. Then,
an overwhelming number of
countries who would want it quite
different in every which way,
would probably come from Asia
and Africa mainly. South American
and Eastern European countries
would possibly opt for some
changes, although not as many as
the Asian and African ones. Then
you will have to look very hard to
find countries who too want it
different the second time, but in a
spiritually uplifting sense. To live
the good life themselves and at the
48 www.triplebottomline.com.pk
same time do good for others.
One can argue that indeed such
countries do exist and the grants in
billions of dollars that some
Western countries pour into the
third world every year is evidence
of the altruism we speak about.
This is a fact that is difficult to
deny. While aid, governmental or
institutional, bilateral or multi-
lateral, invariably has strings
attached, grants need to be taken at
face value. Grants at the country
level are akin to corporate
philanthropy at the company level.
Cynics will doubt the purity of
motive and attach any of a number
of possible hidden agendas for the
philanthropy, both at the
individual and at the country level.
But who are we to say whether
such philanthropy is inspired by
some sense of guilt or atonement,
or inspired by true compassion and
a finer sense of justice? If Warren
Buffet can just wake up one
morning and give away to charity a
sum of about $ 37 billion in one
stroke (that's about our total export
revenues for 2 years), must we be
insecure enough to doubt or
question his sincerity?
Let's go further and apply the
second lifetime opportunity model
to the corporate sector. Things
change dramatically here. One
would be hard pressed to find a
company who would want it no
differently a second time round.
Even the biggest multinationals
with assets more than those of
dozens of countries accumulated
would probably want to change
several things in the second life, to
be even bigger and even more
powerful. Certainly most middle-
tier companies would relish a
second chance to avoid making all
those mistakes they did make or
avoid losing all the opportunities
they lost, stunting their growth and
perhaps even driving some into
irreversibly into the red. Would
there also be companies who would
use a second chance to do better for
themselves and for the larger
society at the same time?
I believe yes, there would be such
corporate entities. More so later
than now. A herald to this belief is
that while still in the first life, so to
speak, the phenomenon of
corporate philanthropy is present. I
believe this is an indicator even if
the surveys tell us again and again
that corporate philanthropy is in
large part driven by certain
individuals in companies practicing
philanthropy, rather than because
of a strategic company policy.
And like most other aspects of
doing business today, corporate
philanthropy too is evolving.
Evolving for the better, from pure
charity (that often may or may not
be good for the recipients or even
for the company itself) to true CSR
or corporate social responsibility.
This, is the good news. If the
corporate world was to be given a
second life, there will be a larger
number of companies who will use
the opportunity to do better for
themselves, and do better for
others. These will be the companies
who have awakened in the second
life to the pursuit of the triple
bottom line of people, planet and
profits as the logical, the ethical and
the profitable way forward.