Environment Sustainability

Intended learning outcomes

• Develop a comparative statement capturing environment
sustainability standards as per GRI and actual sustainability
performance for the selected company, and identify critical
areas of development.

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 Group Project Work

• Develop a green index for a company (other than HUL &

L&Tmindtree) covering six verticals.
• Desirable – a publishable paper in a peer reviewed journal
• Last year project that won a award - HUL

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 Business Ethics -
ESG/ CSR Poverty, Pollution, Disease

169 Targets ►
248 Indicators
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 Link between SDG & GRI

SDG GRI

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 Global Reporting Initiative

• By Bob Massie of CERES and Allen White of Tellus Institute in 1997 to

promote global environmental sustainability reporting standards
• 1st sustainability guidelines in 2000, became a nonprofit in 2002, and
started the establishment of global offices in 2007
• In 2016, GRI introduced global sustainability reporting standards and
has since expanded its standards.
• In 2022, GRI marked its 25th anniversary by releasing sector standards
for various industries.
• Three series of interconnected Standards - economic, environmental
and social issues
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 Activities

• Download sustainability/ ESG report of a company

• Catalog environment performance in the GRI-300 series
• Generate insights for maintaining/ improving performance

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 Sustainable Development►

• Development that meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs
World Commission on Environment and Development's
1987 Brundtland report 'Our common future’

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The Funnel
Metaphor Sustainable
Systems and Restoration
Organizations

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 Cycles of Nature

Open system with

respect to energy
Closed system with
respect to matter
1) Nothing disappears
2) Everything disperses

« Photosynthesis
pays the bill »
Sustainability is
about the ability of
our own human
society to continue
indefinitely within
these natural
cycles

Slow geological cycles Slow geological cycles

(volcano eruptions and (sedimentation and
weathering) mineralization)

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 How we Influence Cycles

Physically inhibit
nature’s ability to
run cycles
Create
barriers to
people
meeting their
basic needs
worldwide

Introduce persistent
compounds foreign to
nature
Extract large flows of
materials from the
Earth’s crust

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 The Natural Steps Framework
Four Sustainability Principles

4
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 Morality and Environment

• Moral obligation to obey the law, avoid intervening in the

political arena to defeat or weaken environmental legislation
– Excess use of natural resources
– Externalities of production (pollution)
• Obligations in an ascending order of difficulty in carrying out
– Avoiding harm → preventing harm → doing good►

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 Capital:
Natural and Human Made
• Natural Capital
– Naturally occurring organic and inorganic resources, including not
just physical items but also genetic information, biodiversity, life-
support systems
• Human-made Capital
– People, their skills, intelligence, virtues, institutions ►

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 Environmental Performance

• An organization’s impacts on living and non-living natural

systems, including ecosystems, land, air, and water.
• Indicators cover performance related to inputs (e.g., material,
energy, water) and outputs (e.g., emissions, effluents, waste).
• In addition, they cover performance related to biodiversity,
environmental compliance, and other relevant information
such as environmental expenditure and the impacts of
products and services

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 GRI 301: Materials

• 301-1: Materials used by weight or volume.

• 301-2: Recycled input materials used.
• 301-3: Reclaimed products and their packaging materials.

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 GRI 302: Energy

• 302-1: Energy consumption within the organization.

• 302-2: Energy consumption outside of the organization.
• 302-3: Energy intensity.
• 302-4: Reduction of energy consumption.
• 302-5: Reductions in energy requirements of products and
services.

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 GRI 303: Water and Effluents

• 303-1: Interactions with water as a shared resource.

• 303-2: Management of water discharge-related impacts.
• 303-3: Water withdrawal by source.
• 303-4: Water discharge by quality and destination.
• 303-5: Water consumption.

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 GRI 304: Biodiversity

• 304-1: Operational sites in or adjacent to protected areas or

areas of high biodiversity value.
• 304-2: Significant impacts of activities, products, and services
on biodiversity.
• 304-3: Habitats protected or restored.
• 304-4: IUCN Red List species and national conservation list
species affected.

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 GRI 305: Emissions

• 305-1: Direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

• 305-2: Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions.
• 305-3: Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions.
• 305-4: GHG emissions intensity.
• 305-5: Reduction of GHG emissions.
• 305-6: Emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS).
• 305-7: Nitrogen oxides (NOX), sulfur oxides (SOX), and other
significant air emissions.
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 GRI 306: Waste

• 306-1: Waste generation and significant waste-related impacts.

• 306-2: Management of significant waste-related impacts.
• 306-3: Waste generated.
• 306-4: Waste diverted from disposal.
• 306-5: Waste directed to disposal.

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 Environmental Compliance & Supplier
Environmental Assessment
• GRI 307: Environmental Compliance
– 307-1: Non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
• GRI 308: Supplier Environmental Assessment
– 308-1: New suppliers screened using environmental criteria.
– 308-2: Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and
actions taken.

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 What we have learnt?

• Concept of sustainable development

• The funnel metaphor
• The cycles of nature
• Four principles of sustainability – TNS framework
• GRI indicators
• GRI-300 series: 8 aspects and 32 indicators

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 Next Session

• Social Sustainability

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