Chairman of Green Triangle Society, Manguirish Pai Raiker is of the opinion that, “protecting our environment is a responsibility of every individual. We owe it to the next generation to protect it and pass it onto them as we have received from our ancestors. In an increasingly environment conscious world, business owners have an ethical and moral obligation to protect the environment. Many businesses have taken a step in this direction by promoting green practices and encouraging their vendors as well as the customers to do the same. Ture that businesses tend to produce large quantities of waste.”

From excess packaging to waste food material, the waste extracts a huge environmental toll. By using recycled products, businesses can reduce their environmental impact. Policies that encourage these ideas and also promotion of green revolution help in the environmental protection movement. Sustainable development within business promotion is expanding rapidly in several directions. Some business houses interpret corporate social responsibility by doing environment protection activities. Some countries have legally mandated it and are followed at the national or international level.

OSHO, occupational Health, Safety and environment norms are actively followed by the Industry today. This also helps to protect the workman at the workplace and also help in having better work culture and sustained productivity.

Goa Mineral Ore Exporters’ Association (GMOEA) spokesperson said that, “The rainy season also provides an excellent period for plantation and afforestation within the mining leases. Saplings are planted, nurtured and old dumps afforested in a sequence. Most of the larger mines have their own nurseries where local species saplings are nurtured. In other cases, saplings from Forest Department are bought. At an average between 3-4 lakh saplings are planted. In recent times, even geotextiles are placed on dumps so that it acts as a soil binder.”

He added that some older non-operating pits are kept as water reservoirs and in the summer, at the request of the Government, water is released, after proper check to augment the ever growing requirements of water to the reservoirs for processing and general despatches by Water Resource Department.

It also needs to be kept in mind that as the population increases, so will be housing and water and electricity needs. As such the pressures on mineral resources too will increase. One solution is for consumers to realize to do more with less.

A communiqué from the World Trade Center, Goa, mentioned that it is the responsibility of commercial organisations and trade promotion bodies to promote environment friendly business practices.

“We must keep in mind that sustainable economic growth cannot be attained by adopting business practices that harm the environment. In this era of digital technologies, management of hardware electronic waste (e-waste) is posing great challenge for policymakers. Currently, 90 per cent of e-waste is managed by the unorganized sector comprising of unskilled kabaadiwallas (or junk dealers). Junk dealers in the unorganized sector are not trained about safe handling of e-waste. It is the responsibility of every business organization to dispose their electronic waste to junk dealers in the organized sector, who are well trained,” added the communiqué from WTC, Goa.

Similarly, CII has always tried to promote green city policy and developed green building projects. As a result the Central and several State agencies have already given due recognition to Indian Green Building Council’s (IGBC) green building initiatives.

CII – IGBC requested the Government of Goa to consider the following incentives for IGBC – rated green building projects in the state:

(A) 10 per cent additional FAR to the developer/project owner for IGBC pre-certified green building projects (gold and above rated only).

(B) Grant a refund of 25 per cent of the Infrastructure Tax to the developer/project owner for the buildings certified by IGBC (gold and above rated only).

(C) Property tax reduction for the occupants by 10% for a period of 5 years for IGBC Certified green building projects (gold and above rated only).

“A key partner to the government, the centre works closely with the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the Planning Commission, and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), among other regulatory and decision-making bodies. It also facilitates policy development at the national and state levels. With the Ministry of Environment and Forests, CESD works on international policy development for climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development. On the domestic front, it works with the Ministry on hazardous waste management, e-waste, environmental clearances, clean technology and clean production, among other initiatives,” said the CII Goa chapter chairman Atrey Sawant.

“GCCI subscribes to the belief that every business has an ethical and moral obligation to do its best to safeguard and protect the environment. We are now in the age of Extended Producer Responsibility. We expect not only our members to follow green practices but we also wish that they will adopt practices that will encourage their customers also to be environmentally conscious, follow green initiatives and be a responsible consumer,” said the Secretary General of GCCI, R S Kamat.