The conference on ‘Indian Life Cycle Assessment and Management Conference (ILCM 2013)’ is organized to trigger the creation of a national capacity on principles of life cycle assessment, implementation and management. At the conference, the main speakers were Mr. Ramanath Rai, Minister of Forest, Environment & Ecology, Government of Karnataka, Dr. Ayi Vaman Acharya, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, Mr. M N Vidyashankar, Additional Chief Secretary to Karnataka Government, Dr Rashid Khan, Advisor, Minsitry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India Mr. Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman FICCI Karnataka State Council and Founder-Director of Sylvant Advisors Private Ltd and Dr. Sanjeevan Bajaj, CEO, FICCI Quality Forum.
On the occasion, Mr. Ramanath Rai, Minister of Forest, Environment & Ecology, Govt. of Karnataka said in his inaugural address, “Key challenge for humans is striking a balance between development and sustainable use of natural resources. Sustainable development has becomes a top agenda across the globe. India has already demonstrated its commitment and needs to continue focusing on awareness amongst common folks.”
Dr. Ayi Vaman Acharya, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board in his keynote address, said, “As pollution control, we are happy to see FICCI take lead on this matter and organize this initiative, bringing together researchers, academia, government, R&D and NGO’s from around the world. We need a new approach towards industrialization. Simple things like noise, which is a form of pollution, disturbing the whole pace of life, so are issues around landfills. I have seen in some countries the waste generated and towns built on debris, India has fortunately not gone through intense industrialization and that is our opportunity. How do we make use of hazardous and non hazardous substances from power plants? Karnataka has progressed on that front by some research and experimentation to find ways of using wastage. We can’t put everything into landfills; we need to find ways to work with ash, wastage and a wholesome new life cycle approach. Each year 20% of the total landfills must be reduced. Rivers, lakes, marine life, forests, and ground water situations all are at stake. Storage, consumption and dependency on water need to be addressed. Karnataka is giving fresh Kaveri water for industry purposes; however, we can’t do that for a long time and must look at alternatives. Bangalore has a very high content of organic waste and cities also have a high degree of construction and demolition waste and it is important to understand how our waste is stored and managed”.
Mr. M N Vidyashankar, Additional Chief Secretary, Commerce & Industries, Govt. of Karnataka added, “We will be happy to host this platform in Bangalore annually due to its relevance. With initiatives like these we can green the global market. The kind of regulatory pressure we are under in, the market pressure and consumer pressure, we must align ourselves into sustainability practices. In india, we don’t have any study on cost of compliance. There is a study in the US, which says the cost of enforcing and complying with all sustainability practices is 3 trillion US dollars annually. Downside of complying but the return is twice in terms of the benefits to society. Falling in line with the requirements of sustainability makes good business and social sense. There is a perceived demand for environmentally friendly products not just in the west but also countries in Asia now. We have been grappling with the issue in the current industrial policy, sustainability are going to occupy and important part in the policy. The new policy is being facilitated by the industry and focuses on suitability issues and this landmark policy will be announced by December 2014”.
Opening the inaugural session, Mr. Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman FICCI Karnataka State Council and Founder-Director of Sylvant Advisors Private Ltd, said, “The conference highlights how product designers, service providers, government agencies and individuals using life cycle approaches can avoid decisions that merely shift problems from one life cycle stage to another, from one geographic area to another or from one environmental medium to another.”
Ms. Sanjeevan Bajaj, CEO, FICCI Quality Forum on the occasion made three announcements, “We want to bring issues and knowledge on sustainability to the fore and address the challenges that communities are struggling with around the world. We are launching two pilot projects by selecting 2 Indian companies - India Glycols and Polygenta - who will work on creating methodologies on life cycle management. This project is supported by the UN Environment Program.
“The second important announcement is that FICCI is launching the LCA database project with Unilever and we will be coming out with some results mid 2014, to focus on what can be made available to the life cycle community with this initiative. We also invite contributions to the LCA directory, available on our website. It is aimed at effective data sharing for practitioners in India.”
All technical presentations for ILCM 2013 are selected after evaluation of invited abstracts by a scientific committee consisting of well known practitioners and researchers from global life cycle community.
On the occasion, Mr. Ramanath Rai, Minister of Forest, Environment & Ecology, Govt. of Karnataka said in his inaugural address, “Key challenge for humans is striking a balance between development and sustainable use of natural resources. Sustainable development has becomes a top agenda across the globe. India has already demonstrated its commitment and needs to continue focusing on awareness amongst common folks.”
Dr. Ayi Vaman Acharya, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board in his keynote address, said, “As pollution control, we are happy to see FICCI take lead on this matter and organize this initiative, bringing together researchers, academia, government, R&D and NGO’s from around the world. We need a new approach towards industrialization. Simple things like noise, which is a form of pollution, disturbing the whole pace of life, so are issues around landfills. I have seen in some countries the waste generated and towns built on debris, India has fortunately not gone through intense industrialization and that is our opportunity. How do we make use of hazardous and non hazardous substances from power plants? Karnataka has progressed on that front by some research and experimentation to find ways of using wastage. We can’t put everything into landfills; we need to find ways to work with ash, wastage and a wholesome new life cycle approach. Each year 20% of the total landfills must be reduced. Rivers, lakes, marine life, forests, and ground water situations all are at stake. Storage, consumption and dependency on water need to be addressed. Karnataka is giving fresh Kaveri water for industry purposes; however, we can’t do that for a long time and must look at alternatives. Bangalore has a very high content of organic waste and cities also have a high degree of construction and demolition waste and it is important to understand how our waste is stored and managed”.
Mr. M N Vidyashankar, Additional Chief Secretary, Commerce & Industries, Govt. of Karnataka added, “We will be happy to host this platform in Bangalore annually due to its relevance. With initiatives like these we can green the global market. The kind of regulatory pressure we are under in, the market pressure and consumer pressure, we must align ourselves into sustainability practices. In india, we don’t have any study on cost of compliance. There is a study in the US, which says the cost of enforcing and complying with all sustainability practices is 3 trillion US dollars annually. Downside of complying but the return is twice in terms of the benefits to society. Falling in line with the requirements of sustainability makes good business and social sense. There is a perceived demand for environmentally friendly products not just in the west but also countries in Asia now. We have been grappling with the issue in the current industrial policy, sustainability are going to occupy and important part in the policy. The new policy is being facilitated by the industry and focuses on suitability issues and this landmark policy will be announced by December 2014”.
Opening the inaugural session, Mr. Anand Sudarshan, Co-Chairman FICCI Karnataka State Council and Founder-Director of Sylvant Advisors Private Ltd, said, “The conference highlights how product designers, service providers, government agencies and individuals using life cycle approaches can avoid decisions that merely shift problems from one life cycle stage to another, from one geographic area to another or from one environmental medium to another.”
Ms. Sanjeevan Bajaj, CEO, FICCI Quality Forum on the occasion made three announcements, “We want to bring issues and knowledge on sustainability to the fore and address the challenges that communities are struggling with around the world. We are launching two pilot projects by selecting 2 Indian companies - India Glycols and Polygenta - who will work on creating methodologies on life cycle management. This project is supported by the UN Environment Program.
“The second important announcement is that FICCI is launching the LCA database project with Unilever and we will be coming out with some results mid 2014, to focus on what can be made available to the life cycle community with this initiative. We also invite contributions to the LCA directory, available on our website. It is aimed at effective data sharing for practitioners in India.”
All technical presentations for ILCM 2013 are selected after evaluation of invited abstracts by a scientific committee consisting of well known practitioners and researchers from global life cycle community.
