Essays written from thirty years of environmental and sustainability consulting: governance, regulation, institutional failure, and the everyday gap between what a policy promises and what actually gets built, funded or enforced. Many of these pieces are openly sceptical of the industry they come from, questioning fashionable language, weak accountability, and the distance between sustainability as spoken about and sustainability as practised.
One of the reasons why the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) introduced the Notification on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in 1994 was perhaps to create new business avenues for environmental consultants to monitor laboratories and related assignments. In fact, as per the Notification, EIA reports were required for projects listed in a Schedule based on certain thresholds (the logic of which is not known…
Read the full post →You walk in a supermarket in the section of green products and often get intrigued why the prices are a wee higher from the equivalent" "brown" products. For some, this price hike is justified as these products have a "brand" so to say. Sporting an Organic T shirt in a party or serving an Organic Coffee post a celebrity lunch has that "distinguishing" feature that…
Read the full post →Sustainability’ is a buzz word that has spawned industry-wide interest and led to the emergence of several corporate sustainability initiatives in the recent times. However, many enterprises struggle to achieve significant tangible outcomes from sustainability based initiatives. Sustainability is perceived to be more of a branding strategy and many skeptics look at sustainability as just a green wash. While some say that sustainability pays, it…
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