Releasing the first ever survey of corporate India’s environment consciousness, Dr RK Pachauri, chair of the Nobel prize winner Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change, said on Friday, “If we want to succeed economically, we have to move towards low carbon emitting technologies.” The pioneering survey is a joint venture between The Financial Express (Fe) and Emergent Ventures India (EVI).

“The adverse impact of climate change is the greatest challenge of this century and the industry has to rethink its water usage strategy so that less water-intensive industrial techniques are adopted across the country,” Dr Pachauri told a distinguished gathering of industry leaders, academics and students at TERI University.

The FE-EVI survey covers the top corporates of India as tracked by the FE 500. Releasing the result of the survey ‘How Green is your Business’, Pachauri stated that one of the ways industry could take the environment agenda forward was to be more discerning of the usage of water. His comments triggered an exciting panel discussion among the CEOs of some of India’s leading companies. Naina Lal Kidwai, group GM & country head, HSBC India, said adherence to green financing norms ought to occupy more space in discussions between companies and financial institutions for financing projects.

The discussion created an immediate rapport with the large audience in the winter afternoon whose questions kept the session going way beyond the scheduled time for wrapping it up.

Besides Kidwai the panel included Subir Raha, former ONGC chairman; Samir Modi, MD, Colorbar Cosmetics; Rajdeep Sahrawat, V-P, Nasscom; Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric; Harshpati Singhania, MD, JK Paper; K Ravi Kumar, CMD, BHEL; Mark Runacres, senior visiting fellow at TERI; Kamal Meattle, CEO, Paharpur Business Centre; and Vinod Kala from EVI.