- 48 minutes ago
India is leading the global shift towards sustainable manufacturing! At the GreenCO Summit 2026 held at Bharat Mandapam, Delhi, industry leaders discussed groundbreaking solutions in clean tech, blended financing, and circular economy practices. From energy-water-food security to green buildings and material circularity, India’s model is inspiring South Asia, Africa & Latin America.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The lessons that we see emerging from India matters well beyond India's border.
00:07What India is building, the blended financing mechanism, the cluster-based delivery and
00:12architecture, the clean tech innovation pipeline, the amazing initiative that we see today
00:18is relevant to dozens of developing economies navigating the same transition, the same challenges,
00:24but with fewer resources and less institutional capacities. India has already demonstrated solutions
00:31that work under conditions comparable to those faced by manufacturers across South Asia, Africa
00:38and Latin America. It is an evidence already generated, already available. And the channels to share it
00:51as is it now. We have the industrial deep decarbonization initiatives co-led by India
00:59and United Kingdom and supported by UNIDO or through other framework established by the
01:05BLM declaration on industrial decarbonization adopted at the COP30. There is a new global architecture
01:12through which India's experience can be structured and then transferred. This is not a side benefit.
01:19I believe this is an opportunity for leadership. India's sustainable journey, I believe, is one
01:26that the world is watching and the one that the world stands to learn from. Let me close with where
01:36this
01:36leaves us. I mean, the question whether sustainable manufacturing makes business sense, I believe,
01:42has been answered. The debate we feel at least at UNIDO is a bit over. The only question remains of
01:49scale and speed.
01:51How quickly we can make sustainable manufacturing the default logic for all industries. Across every sector,
01:59across every geography, every scale of operation from the smallest to the largest firm. And the scales will not happen
02:06by accident.
02:06It will happen when the three forces are pointed in the same direction. The incentives that drive the industries,
02:13the instruments that drive the finance, and the standards that govern how good are made and traded across
02:20borders. When those three are aligned, the pace of change don't need to be pushed. It becomes self-reinforcing,
02:28each piece accelerating the others, the way it always does when a system finds its own logic.
02:36We do believe that India's industrial weight, the policy ambition, and increasingly the demonstrated
02:42experience also to lead in this process. The opportunity is significant and we believe the ecosystem is well
02:50in the first place to seize it. I look very much forward to the discussions and the deliberation I had,
02:58and I wish this summit every success. Thank you very much.
03:13Thank you, Dr. Cristiano Passini, for emphasizing on speed, scaling up and international engagement.
03:20UNIDO, as I said, has been a very close partner to CII and Green Business Centre. It's a privilege to
03:24have you here.
03:25Ladies and gentlemen, it's my privilege to welcome Mr. R. Mukundan, President, CII and Managing Director and CEO of Tata
03:32Chemicals Limited,
03:33at a very special address. I may request all of you to join me in welcoming Mr. Mukundan.
03:42Thank you, Venkat Giri. Firstly, my thanks to Mr. Jamshed Godrej for inviting all of us here,
03:50and also Vikram Kasbekar and Vaishali for making us part of this summit, and also for the words from
03:57Cristiano Passini in terms of what we should be doing ahead. So I'll be rather brief in my
04:02comments, but I just want to start by saying the context within which we live in today.
04:07We are actually gasping a sigh of relief on the Iran war ending, the strife in the Middle East.
04:16But I just want to say it only heightened the need for some of the things which we,
04:20which the Green Co is trying to do, the summit is trying to do. At the center of it is
04:24what I call
04:25energy security. But this war also heightened the one issue, which is there is an issue of food
04:31security which is connected with energy security through fertilizers. It's become very, very clear
04:36to all of us. On top of that, I think we are sitting in a year where El Nino is
04:41on us, so water security is
04:42again a big issue. So if at all you really want to say what are the few problems the world
04:47has, it's only three,
04:48food, energy and water. All three are at the intersection of what we have to do today. What a better
04:55reminder of the importance of this summit than it ever can be. And I want to compliment Green Co.
05:01Please join me in complimenting the GBC for putting up this for 15 years. And I think it has been
05:07a
05:07relentless effort by them to raise the consciousness of everyone. And I will come back to this word
05:14conscious, because we all need to be conscious firm. And I will come back to that a bit later.
05:19But not just the current context which we live in, which I spoke about arising out of the intersection
05:25of three forces. But I think there is a greater need for us within India. And let me highlight what
05:31is the greater need. The greater need is fundamentally this country is going to urbanize more.
05:37Give or take, it is going to urbanize more.
05:40This country is going to have greater needs in terms of what its citizens need. So it means more
05:47resources being consumed. And on top of that, we all know that energy intensity of everything we do
05:53is increasing. In fact, for example, the latest energy crisis around the world is led by AI itself,
06:00the compute power and the need for green power. So clearly, the future is even more,
06:07it is expedient on us to focus on this and build green companies. So before saying we need to get
06:15back to green companies, you know, there are various techniques, various processes people will talk
06:19about. I'm not there. I just want to focus about what is the philosophy behind it. India is truly a
06:26place
06:26where we have inspired movements, inspired movements to take a leap and go beyond what we are.
06:34I just want to highlight to you three names. I don't know how many of you remember these three
06:38names. Gaura Devi, Bachani Devi and Sudesha Devi. Rings a bell to any one of you?
06:48Have you heard about the first green movement in India called Chipko movement?
06:53Where and the picture of these three women hugging trees, I think should inspire all of us. We should
07:00put that picture in every boardroom saying that we want a company to get inspired by what these three
07:07women did to save Himalayas, to save our precious natural resource. And that movement was led by
07:15none other than Sundarlal Bahuguna. I want all of you to go and read about this movement because
07:19it will truly inspire you when you think through things like, is it profitable for us? Is it
07:24expedient for us? Do we want to move in this direction? It will clear all your doubts. And Sundarlal Bahuguna
07:30wrote a book called Ecology is the Permanent Economy. If ecology is the permanent economy,
07:37green company are the permanent companies. You want permanence, I think you need to go green. And I think
07:42I am really delighted that 1600 companies have certified themselves to go green and more power
07:48to GBC to move this direction in terms of driving this change within India. In future, I think there
07:55are going to be three types of companies and I would say that because I come from an engineering background,
08:00I have to put them in buckets. Otherwise, I cannot think. So that is the way I think about it.
08:06There are companies whose business is green.
08:09So they have to excel. When I talk about companies whose business is green, it is fundamentally things
08:14like renewable energy. They already have become green. Electric vehicle is already green. So
08:19they have to excel in what they do, which means they have to raise the standards,
08:23which means energy conversion from sun has to increase, energy conversion from wind has to increase,
08:28the longer distance of vehicle has to increase. The technology has got to work there.
08:32Then there are companies which have to embed green in them.
08:36These are what we call them as hard to abate or whatever. But I think we have to embed green.
08:41And those companies will think how do they change themselves to become green.
08:46Then the third type of companies are embracing green. These are companies which have the entire
08:50value chain behind them. For example, I keep talking about the tea, coffee companies.
08:55They have to make their plantations green. They have to make their supply chain green. They have to make
09:00their packaging green. So the whole process which companies need to do. So as you embark on this
09:05journey, think about your own firm, whether your firm is the excel category where you are already,
09:11your business itself is green, or you are embedding green, or you are embracing green. At times,
09:17you may be doing all three. And I really want to say that it is a fantastic journey for all
09:22of us.
09:24So my closing words would be that every day be inspired by those three women. Three women who embraced the
09:32tree up in Himalayas to change the narrative. And one person who said, ecology is the only permanent
09:39economy. Think about what you will do within your company. And I think more power to GBC and more,
09:46you know, this is a room full of believers. This is a room full of people who believe in this.
09:51Our job
09:52also is to be evangelist, which means, are we speaking to our customers? Are we speaking to our
09:56supply chain? Are we speaking to government to make this change happen? And I think when we truly make
10:02this change, India would be a permanently growing economy, not having to stutter about impact of
10:09Middle East, impact of that. And we would have broken free from the shackles of what holds us back.
10:13Thank you all and wish you all a great day of deliberation. And hopefully, many of you will go
10:19back to your firm with some lessons which you can implement and make the change we all want to see.
10:31Thank you, sir. Thank you for your inspiring address, mentioning about how ecology is a prominent
10:36economy, how the prominent company is a green company. Thank you. Thank you very much.
10:41Ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to welcome Mr. Jamsit Godred, Chairman of CI,
10:46Saurabji Godred Green Business Centre for his special address. Please may I request all of you to join me in
10:50welcoming Mr. Godred.
11:10Thank you, sir. I am particularly grateful for the President of CI, Mr. Mukundan, to join us here this morning.
11:20And you just heard his very passionate and inspirational address.
11:26I am also very pleased that we have now Mr. Vikram Kasabekar to chair the Green Co movement and the
11:36Green Co summit. I want to also record that the previous chairman, Mr. Pradeep Bhargava, did a lot over these
11:46last 15 years to bring this movement of Green Co up to this level.
11:51And he is not unfortunately with us today, but he is quite a leader in this movement. And I do
12:00want to recognize that.
12:02I am also very pleased that Dr. Cristiano Passini, the director and representative of UNIDO office in India, is here
12:11and made a very important point about the role of international business and especially the SMEs in that.
12:22I am also very pleased that I am also very pleased that Vaishali Surabhar has taken over as the deputy
12:29chair of the Green Co movement.
12:32Well, I think most of you know the fact that the Green Business Center of CII, which was set up
12:4125 years ago, was essentially set up to transform Indian industry and create a situation where industrial activity really becomes
12:56green.
12:57In that process, I think CII has a very long history on energy conservation, and that has moved to something
13:08called Green Power Movement, and we have a council for that.
13:12The meeting in Chennai happened a few days ago, which I was present for.
13:18It is amazing how much we have moved on putting green power on the ground, both solar and wind.
13:27I think the unfortunate part is that the speed at which green power is put on the ground is not
13:34the same speed as the grid.
13:37And so, unfortunately, our grid has to catch up quite a bit, and we have not been able to actually
13:44use all the power, green power, that has been generated by solar, etc.
13:50And this is really important because I think, as it has been pointed out by many of my previous speakers,
13:59I think the crisis that we are seeing today in the Straits of Hormuz, etc.,
14:06You know, the only way you can insulate yourself from a carbon economy is to decarbonize.
14:15And I think that this movement that we have in CII of converting businesses to green in their own operations,
14:26to encourage more green businesses, such as renewables, etc., but also move into other areas, which are heavy on energy.
14:37One of our newest initiatives is on cooling.
14:43As you all know, cooling takes up a huge amount of energy.
14:48And with the development and promotion of artificial intelligence and data centers, I think we are going to see much
14:58more of this.
14:59Also, Mr. Mukundan and others talked about water.
15:04I think the water situation, again, we see when a warming planet, El Niño and others,
15:14I understand that there is only 10% capacity left in the reservoirs in Mumbai.
15:20And so this does create a huge problem.
15:25Our water policy needs a huge change.
15:28I think it is not just the supply of water.
15:31It is the reuse of water.
15:33It is how we treat wastewater, how much of it we discharge, how much of it we use.
15:39I think these are all part of a larger picture that CII has been presenting through our centers of excellence,
15:51essentially.
15:53So the Green Business Center really has focused in a number of areas, especially green buildings.
16:02Green buildings have, you know, in India, the movement on green buildings has been dramatic.
16:10We have now have the second largest stock of green rated buildings in the world.
16:19We are just a shade behind the U.S. in terms of number of square feet.
16:24If I just say that the actual amount is around 16 billion square feet, you can't visualize it.
16:31But the fact is that I think the way that the speed at which we are growing on green buildings,
16:39we will definitely be the largest in rated green buildings in the world very soon.
16:45And we have had many, many leaders who have contributed to this.
16:54And so it is green buildings, it is green power.
17:00We also have a green product rating system.
17:04The green product rating system is really, came out of the green building movement.
17:11But now it covers, you know, close to 20,000 products.
17:16I think that's a great opportunity for companies to specify buying green products.
17:22And I think that with your support, the green product movement will become also maybe one of the largest in
17:30the world.
17:30I mentioned green cooling.
17:33And today we are launching heat pumps council.
17:37So I think what industry has to do is to get transformed.
17:43And really speaking, the transformation is going to take place only when every industrial unit in India imbibes the importance
17:53of going green.
17:54And that's where we have looked at supply chains.
17:58We want every major industry in India to green their own supply chain.
18:04And I think if we do that, we bring in thousands and thousands of units, small and medium sized units,
18:11even tiny units.
18:12I think if we can achieve 80% buy value in every industry to be green core rated companies, I
18:25think that will be a huge contribution in India and the world.
18:29And so I do want to recognize that we've had many, many wonderful leaders in this movement.
18:38I think the industry is extremely receptive, very much different from some other countries where I think all they do
18:47is to fight the government on regulation.
18:50But I think we want more clarity.
18:53We want more transparency in regulation.
18:56And I think Indian industry will really step up to it.
18:59So thank you for being here today, for promoting the Green Core movement.
19:06And I look forward to this movement accelerating over the next few years.
19:25Thank you, sir.
19:27We have a few publications and launches of a few of the movements.
19:31The first one is the release of the Green Core Coffee Table book.
19:35This is an edition which is brought out every year on the Green Champions of India.
19:39The present coffee table book showcases 37 manufacturing case studies which have achieved Green Core rating over the year.
19:46And these represent diverse sectors.
19:48And they have demonstrated leadership and resource efficiency, renewable energy, circularity and climate action.
19:55These inspiring journeys illustrate how Indian industry is accelerating its transition toward net zero and circularity.
20:02I may request that the dignitaries on the dias to release the coffee table book.
20:07As they release the coffee table book, this has been, the Green Core movement has been anchored by all the
20:13Green Core leaders.
20:15May I request the Green Core Forum chairman and co-chair to accompany them at the stage, please.
20:21May I request Mr. P.S. Narayan, Ms. Monica Agarwal, Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Mr. Santosh Kumar Singh, Mr. Shrikan, Mr.
20:30Sunil Beloshe and Mr. Milind Bagley to kindly join the stage, please.
20:53I request all of you to join me in thanking all the chairs and co-chairs for their leadership.
20:59Please.
21:06I request the chairs and co-chairs to continue to stay.
21:10We will now have the release of the CII Green Core material circularity guidelines.
21:14Material circularity guidelines have been developed with stakeholder consultation and provide with a practical unit level framework.
21:23The CII PM tab is captured very weekly and funciona.
Comments