On the occasion of World Environment Day, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) organized a webinar on “Making collective efforts to build a Greener and Sustainable tomorrow”. With the presence and participation of large number of renowned speakers from designated fields, the session primarily deliberated on the roadmap of achieving the ultimate goal of conserving the environment for the present and future generations. The keynote address was delivered by Hon’ble Mr. Suresh Prabhu, India’s Sherpa to G20 & G7 and former Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Government of India. In addition to that, the webinar witnessed presence from Ashwath Ram, Chairman, SIAM Sustainable Mobility Group & Managing Director, Tata Cummins Pvt Ltd & Cummins India Ltd, who started the session with the opening remarks.
The session also was graced by K S Pannu (IAS), Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Deepak Jain President, ACMA, Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM, Dr Shruti Rai Bharadwaj, Additional Director, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Rajendra Petkar, Co Chairman Sustainable Mobility Group of SIAM & President & CTO, TATA Motors Ltd, C V Raman, Chairman, SIAM Emissions and Conservation Group & Senior Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Sridhar V, Senior Director – Purchase, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.
Green Business Models
The event also highlighted the commitment of the automobile sector towards the environment through the various achievements. For instance, despite facing myriad of challenges in terms of technology, time and resources, the industry had demonstrated outstanding achievements in cleaner fuels and BS VI emission norms, since 1st April 2020. Addressing the environmental concern, Suresh Prabhu, said, “Over the last few decades, the exploitation and the degradation of the environment have gone up at an alarming rate. The opportunity cost of environment degradation is huge & cannot be quantified. Businesses have a possibility of finding solutions to make our environment better, climate change is a human action. We need to focus on protecting the environment & working together for improving the ecosystem for our future generations.”
Speaking on the topic K S Pannu said, “We feel extremely grateful towards SIAM for joining hands with us through Sukh Da Saah, an initiative to mitigate crop residue burning in the farmlands, as a step towards reducing air pollution. Along with CII, we have already adopted 100 villages till last year, and now I would like to take the opportunity to urge SIAM to further adopt at least 1000 new villages.”
While addressing the speakers, Deepak Jain said, “ACMA drives special cluster programs for resource efficiency. Infusion of digital technologies has helped us streamline our work and the eventual increase in sales figure as a result, will have a multiplier effect on the Industry. Industry must integrate sustainability and conserving biodiversity in its business plans as it progresses ahead. Together we can achieve the goal of sustainable and greener environment.”
Sustainable solutions
While talking about the current situation and future opportunities, Rajan Wadhera, said “Indian Automobile Industry has made significant progress on the Environmental front, both at an Industry level, and at the organisation level. On this day, I assure you, that the Indian Automobile industry is committed to work closely with all stakeholders towards our vision of sustainable mobility in the country.”
He further added, “Carbon Neutrality’ in the manufacturing process is being obtained by OEMs through large scale adoption of Solar and Wind power. Factories are also reducing their dependency on fresh water and are increasingly becoming ‘Water Neutral’, apart from undertaking Bio-diversity conservation through plantations.”
As a matter of fact, SIAM has taken up several responsible initiatives to work in a more environment friendly way, and its members, partners, and dealers have dedicated themselves to environment-friendly measures, such as planting of saplings, conducting free pollution checks and dry wash of vehicles. Additionally, there is a greater emphasis on the judicious use of resources at every stage of the product life cycle.
Monitoring systems have been put in place to ensure zero discharge in order to meet all the compliance issued by the Pollution Control Boards. Vehicle owners are also being sensitized to support these initiatives and contribute to building a sustainable future. SIAM as a responsible organisation has been conducting multiple mass awareness campaigns over the years among commuters to drive sustainable development, and it has also adopted some villages in Punjab to reduce stubble burning in the last two years. But this year, pandemic has hit industry hard with their operations coming to halt, SIAM decided not to break the chain, and host a webinar inviting their members to present their valuable thoughts for action.
At the webinar, President SIAM announced that SIAM would launch a series of 20 interactive lectures, focusing on environment and other issues of the automobile Industry, within the course of the year 2020.