Green SME Summit – Decarbonizing the supply chain

This event took place on 16 July 2014 at the Lalit hotel in Mumbai, India. Designed by the India Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Program, GIZ (BMUB-financed Global Carbon Markets project) acted as a strategic partner to strengthen relationships with the involved parties and the private sector.

The Summit highlighted the importance of the SME sector in India (SMEs in India making up roughly 40% of manufacturing output and 40% of total exports, employing 60 million people and consuming almost 50% of the energy used in the industrial sector) and the need to collaboratively engage the supply chain in GHG accounting. The majority of emissions of a product actually originate from the suppliers or are created due to transport and disposal

High level speakers, such as Jamshyd Godrej from Godrej & Boyce as well as Ravi Pandit from KPIT Technologies stressed the need to become more resource efficient by applying the German SME cluster model in India, potentially resulting in increased efficiency and enhanced innovation among suppliers while simultaneously lowering costs. A holistic approach should mainstream sustainability and GHG reducing measures into regular business models and development policies. To ensure entrepreneurs are involved, a social change shall be fostered through awareness, technologies, economic incentives and a robust legal framework.

GIZ was represented in the panel on ‘Collaborative Engagements and Best Practices – International Perspectives‘ by Manjeet Singh Saluja to talk about the SME-related activities by GIZ and in particular the potential to save costs and GHGs in the freight sector. The Green Freight India received good feedback and several companies showed indicative interest.

The event saw wide participation from a wide array of institutions and industries. Around 90 participants discussed the needs, challenges and opportunities for SMEs to become involved in GHG accounting.