SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
Approximately 2
billion people around the world sleep hungry or are undernourished when, at the
same time, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is being wasted annually. The pie is
limited, top consumers consuming it irresponsibly leave the rest of the world
to starve for it. 3% of the earth’s water is drinkable, and humans at the
current rate of consumption are using it faster than nature can replenish
it[1]. Similarly, our planet consists of limited and finite resources that need
to be utilized and consumed sustainably, so that the upcoming generations are
not devoid of the planetary resources that we enjoy today.
Economic growth and
sustainable development can be ensured only by modifying our existing ways of
production and the means of consumption. Globally, the major resources that
have to be consumed responsibly are water, food, and land. Agriculture is the
major consumer of water worldwide, accounting for close to 70% of all
freshwater use[1].
The land use is
another concern in major developing countries, toxic waste and pollutant
disposal methods, construction activities, and unsustainable housing projects
add to the pressure on existing resources.
Also, the food and
nutritional distribution across countries are not equitable, a large share of
the population is still consuming below the minimum required standards, while
some of these countries are also the ones with high per capita global food
waste at the consumer levels due to lack of proper storage infrastructure and
inefficient warehousing practices. As per FAO estimates, the food losses in
India averaged about 40% of the produced food grains like pulses, meat,
sugarcane, etc. Also, the global annual average Food loss averages 30% of
cereals, 40 to 50% of horticulture crops.[2]
Relevance of SDG
SDG 12 is quite
significant as it is inclusive of every other Sustainable Development Goal,
which aims at removing poverty to ensuring international peace and justice.
However, it creates lots of resistance in implementation as it poses a
significant threat to existing structures and requires radical improvements in
existing structures and a strong political will to monitor and implement the
changes. Its importance is unparalleled, a further increase in current times as
the global material consumption reached up to 92.1 billion tons in 2017,
increasing from 87 billion just two years back and a 250% increase from what it
used to be in 1970 whereas the change in the population being approximately 100
percent. The material footprint of the resources extracted to satisfy per
person increased from 8.1 tons in 1990 to 12 tons in 2015 [3].
The condition is bound to be
grave in the decades to come if actions are not taken today. Several
initiatives are being taken both by the governments and the corporates in this
domain especially after the formation of the SDG 12.
Indian Govt. : Actions and plans
The problem with India in terms of food security is the carriage of food, as there is a serious lack of infrastructure; refrigerated trucks, and cold storages in particulars, that affect all stakeholders, including producers and retailers. According to various reports, $133 billion worth of food is wasted each year due to these infrastructural inefficiencies, and thus, a cold-chain infrastructure is the need of the hour. The cold storage capacity as on March 2019 stood at around 39 million metric tonnes, and as per reports, this is only about 50% of what is required. The Govt thus focuses immensely on this goal to ensure sustainable production, which in turn shall foster a sustainable consumption pattern. As on 30/11/2019, the govt has approved grants worth almost 2260 crores, out of which 1454.5 Crores have already been released by the government, for projects across the country, in not only agriculturally prosperous states like Punjab and UP, but states across the country including but not limited to Nagaland, Mizoram, Orissa, WB, even Andaman and Nicobar Islands. [4]
The energy use
of the country has doubled since 2000 [5], and of the total installed capacity,
almost 55% is fuelled by coal. We are also the third-largest emitter of CO2 and
responsible for nearly 6.9% of all global emissions. The government, however,
intends to fight these challenges, and as of now, facilitates two major
flagship schemes, namely; The National policy on biofuels and National clean
energy fund. The policy is aimed at achieving the target of 20% blending of
biofuel with fossil-fuels by 2030. The govt. aims at improving the production
situation of ethanol and biodiesel by increasing domestic production, setting
up newer, second-generation, biorefineries. Bioethanol from sugarcane and
associated products, Biodiesel from non-edible vegetable oil, acid oil
etc, Advanced derived biofuels like Bio-CNG, bio-methanol etc are will
all be focused on by the govt. [6]
The national
clean energy fund started in 2011 using the clean energy cess (AKA the carbon
tax), for funding studies and research into clean energy and technology
that supports that. Announced in the 2010-11 budget, the NCEF supports various
projects in energy infra areas (Like work on silicon related research and production)
environmental management projects around energy sector affected locations,
basic energy sciences and renewable or alternate energy tech like solar,
biofuels, wind, wave, tidal and other forms of alt energy. [7] Since it’s
conception, it has funded projects worth over 15911 crores for clean energy
production and research. India has committed to increasing its renewable power
production capacity to 175 GW by 2022, and 450GW by 2030. The Govt also funds
schemes like Namami Gange, Green India Mission, and also the National Solar
Mission, amongst other schemes.
After the Paris
accord, the govt. Is working towards achieving the SDGs and its commitments and
work on producing green energy and help drive sustainable consumption at all
levels. According to the Second Biennial Update Report, The govt is on track on
reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity to 33% of that of levels before
2005, and that 40% of all power generated by the country will be non-fossil
fuel-based, all by 2030.
The emission intensity
of India’s GDP was brought to 21% below 2005 levels by 2014 with a 2% annual
average improvement in emission intensity. In fact, the rate of improvement was
better for 2014-2010 than it was for 2005-2010. We are also at 35% non-fossil
fuel-based energy production, thus paving the way to achieve these goals well
on time. The third goal still needs some work, as it seems that the
probability of us completing the green India mission by enhancing India’s
forest cover and thus creating a carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2
equivalent is a little low. The government thus has a long way to go in this
regard, but hopefully with the increased focus on sustainability, will create
value and work on achieving the remaining goals. [8]
Corporate actions
Many multinational corporations
have readily adopted SDG-12 as a target in their annual sustainability strategies.
Some of the measures taken by a few are discussed below.
ITC
ITC has categorized its actions under this SDG under the below-mentioned
heads:
Energy & Climate change
ITC has committed to source 50% of all its energy requirements from
renewable sources and is currently sourcing 40.9% through renewable sources. It
has maintained 7.4 lakh acres under forest cover and sequestered 50 lakh tonnes
of CO2.
The main challenges in attaining this objective cited are :
- The existing regulatory requirements of REC and PAT guidelines for energy-intensive industries.
- The increased demand for biomass which is causing the biomass plants to operate at sub-optimal efficiency
- The company has been regularly conducting third-party audits to identify energy conservation avenues and implementing the recommendations thereby.
The company has focused on developing products and services that take
into account the parameters like LEED certification for all its luxury hotels
range, procurement of FSC certified wood for paper production, etc.
The company has conducted scope-1, scope-2 and scope-3 analysis of its
carbon emissions and tracking the movement across years and taking necessary
actions as required.
Waste management
During 2018-19, 99.98% of the non-hazardous waste generated by ITC units
was re-used or has been recycled, its major waste like fly ash , lime sludge,
bottom ash and wood waste were used as fuel for in-house boiler and the fly ash
was used by brick and cement manufacturers. All ITC units have been adopting a
strict segregation at source policy for waste management which allows it to
identify and track the waste until its final disposal .
IHCL (Taj group)
Recycling
and energy efficiency
IHCL has collaborated with EarthCheck, a world’s leading scientific
benchmarking, certification and advisory group for travel and tourism, for its
performance monitoring and verification. 43 of its hotels have achieved a 100%
recycling of organic waste preventing 5,000+ tons of organic waste reaching the
landfill. For the current year, 23% of the company’s electricity comes from
renewable energy and almost 26.42% of total water consumption was recycled and
reused by the hotels through various techniques like rainwater harvesting,
water treatment in onsite and waste water treatment facilities.
The company has also replaced plastic straws with paper & bamboo
straws across all its properties. This helped them to eliminate approx. 2
million plastic straws from the environment. IHCL launched its “Zero Single Use
Plastic Hotel”, “Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Andamans”,which is located in an
area of 46 acres of forest and mangroves in Havelock Island.
Responsible production
Taj MG Road, Bengaluru partnered with “Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural
Energy and Development” (MGIRED) and initiated its unique project on “Circular
Economy” i.e. “Waste to Gold”. Through this, waste cooking oil is being
converted into biodiesel via “transesterification” process, and its by-product
glycerine is used in soap making. Every liter of waste cooking oil from a hotel
generates about 0.7 liter of biodiesel and 5 soap bars of 20 grams each.
Nike
Nike is a global
brand with products ranging from footwear to apparel. The CEO- Mark Parker has
highlighted commitment of company to source 100% renewable energy across the
global operations by 2025. Nike has also joined coalitions like “United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Fashion Industry Charter for
Climate Action” to drive change.
Some of the actions
taken by Nike in various dimensions are mentioned below:
Product Development
Nike Air Sole has
been developed which has atleast 50% recycled material. Since 2008, this has
ensured that waste of magnitude of 50 million pounds doesn’t get dumped into
landfills. More product lines like Flyknit (which uses recycled polyester) and
Flyleather (made from around 50% leather fiber) have been developed in FY2018
to sustain recycling focus. Flyknit also ensures 60% less scrap generation than
conventional shoe uppers.
Raw Material
Focus on usage of
recycled material is also highlighted by 13% y-o-y increase in recycled
polyester usage in apparel manufacturing in FY2018. In the last decade, company
has converted 6.4 billion plastic bottles into recycled polyester footwear and
apparel.
Rubber is a key
component in footwear production. Over the years, Nike has ensured 92% of
rubber is environmentally preferred. Nike has reached 58% sustainable cotton
usage over the years in the form of ‘Better Cotton Initiative’ cotton or
organic.
Energy Consumption
In 2015, Nike had
joined RE100, thus targeting 100% renewable energy usage for their activities.
Nike has pushed suppliers for changing to solar powered facilities. Nike has
continued to support “USAID’s Vietnam Low Emission Energy Program”.
Factories for
finished goods, operating on contract manufacturing basis, have also been
pushed to optimize central boiler systems to limit emissions. This has led to
15% energy saving for these facilities in Asia as there has been an adoption
rate of more than 90%.
Waste Minimization
99.9% of company’s
footwear finished goods waste generated from manufacturing was converted to
energy or recycled. 1.2 million kgs of material was saved via focus on new
cutting machines to minimize waste.
In the global
headquarter facility, focus has been put on reusable dishware while also
eliminating use of single use plastic. This has led to a 10% decrease in waste
per occupant compared to four years ago. All the initiatives also kept out
around 36000 kgs of food waste away from landfills.
Conclusion
With SDG 12 being
such an all-encompassing goal, including aspects such as energy production and
consumption, food production, and water consumption, there exist a plethora of
opportunities to take action to progress on this goal. Not only can we look at
utilizing new innovations to reduce consumption, we can also look at optimizing
existing processes, such as reducing losses in transmission of electricity and
spreading awareness of efficient irrigation techniques, as an important first
step towards reducing consumption to a responsible level.
While there has been
significant progress from both private players as well as the government in
respect to achieving their commitments, a more synergistic approach, where
government and private players collaborate more effectively to progress on this
SDG, is something that will provide the maximum benefit. For example, let us
talk about transportation; currently, the Indian Government has incentivised
the production and purchase of electric vehicles by providing income tax
rebates to customers, exempting manufacturers from custom duty on lithium-ion
batteries, and providing tax exemptions to battery manufacturers.[9] However,
one aspect the government is also looking into is adopting electric vehicles
for use in public transportation. Not only will it achieve the objective of
reducing private vehicles on the road, it will also help popularize EVs and
reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, thus helping achieve a major victory
under SDG 12. To that extent, the central government has provided civic bodies
with mechanisms such as the FAME India scheme to acquire electric buses, as
well as incentivised manufacturers such as Tata and Mahindra to create products
fit for such use.[10] Such collaboration between public and private entities is
what is necessary to drive progress in this area of sustainability.
Citations:
[1] UNDP report
References
1. Growing sustainably
making an impact| The Indian Hotels Company Limited|2019 https://www.ihcltata.com/content/dam/tajhotels/ihcl/sustainabilities/IHCL-Sustainability-Report-19.pdf
2. “2019 Serve 360
report| Sustainability and social impact at Mariott international http://serve360.marriott.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/09/2019_Serve_360_Report.pdf”
3. “Sustainability
report 2019| ITC Limited https://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/sustainability-report-2019/sustainability-report-2019.pdf”
- https://purpose.nike.com/reports
- https://news.nike.com/sustainability
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/parliamentary-panel-objects-to-diversion-of-clean-energy-fund-to-compensate-states-for-gst/articleshow/67019031.cms?from=mdr
Authors
Amit Kumar Garg - B19065
Harshit Jain - B19079
Jubin Sharma - B19081
M Sai Phanindra - B19086
Padmanabh Pandit - B19091
Group 5, Section B, PGDM (BM), 2019-21 Batch
Comments
Post a Comment