Now, norms in place for green factories

‘...we are planning to come up with norms for Green Cities, which include special economic zones and for Green Schools…’

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, July 10

The Indian Green Business Council (IGBC) of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) unveiled a comprehensive set of norms that will help classify factories and manufacturing units as Green Factories.

Such a classification will help address critical issues of energy, water conservation and well-being of workers, including productivity.

Even before the code was formally launched on Friday at the CII-Green Business Centre, about ten manufacturing companies — both domestic and international — evinced interest in being part of the pilot initiative to conform to the Green Factory compliance norms.

These include Cummins Generator, Kirloskar, Godfrey Philips, Grundfos Pumps, General Cable Engineering, Omax Auto, Emerson Network Power and Mather & Platt Pumps — a majority of them based in Pune.

Application norms

The Chairman of Indian Green Business Council, Dr Prem C. Jain, said the council would test pilot projects beginning Friday. This rating of Green Factory is valid for three years. Thereafter, they need to re-apply to display their compliance.

While these norms apply to all new factories, the focus will be on new ones that are coming up. Such a move will enable developers to involve experts from the stage of site selection, design of buildings to save power and help in water conservation. Alongside, the well-being of the employee will be top on the agenda, according to Mr Pradeep Bhargava, Managing Director, Cummins Generator Technologies.

Outlining some of the features being incorporated at the greenfield plant at Chakan near Pune, Mr Winston D’Souza, Advisor (Projects), Mahindra and Mahindra, said the company is working towards a green factory and efforts are on to conserve energy by setting up solar units and gas plants, which help save energy in the long term.

The greener side

“We will take feedback from factories and come out with a final code later this year. Similarly, we are planning to come up with norms for Green Cities, which includes special economic zones and for Green Schools,” Mr Jain said.

This code was evolved after nearly six months of interaction with factories across different sectors. Apart from energy and water conservation, increase in green cover, and enhanced indoor air quality (which results in productivity gains), are its key components.