ASSIST, UL DQS and IGCC launch sustainability project for automotive sector in India

Nov. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (http://www.assistasia.org/) – ASSIST (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Asia-Society-for-Social-Improvement-and-Sustainable-Transformation-ASSIST/354675490571), UL DQS India and the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) launched the Public Private Partnership Project Auto Sustain through a CEO Forum last October 30, 2012 at Park Sheraton, Chennai, India.

Co-funded by DEG, Auto Sustain aims to bring about a sustainable transformation in India’s automotive industry by helping the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) from the automotive sector adopt sustainable practices.

The project launch was graced by top managers of various large and medium-sized enterprises including the CEO and Managing Director of UL DQS India, Dr. K. Murugan; Executive Director of ASSIST, Mr. S. Muralidharan; Director of ASSIST & Auditor at Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS), Mr. D. K. S. Moorthy; and the Regional Director of IGCC, Mr. S. Raj.

Dr. K. Murugan, Managing Director and CEO at UL DQS India opened the event, and shared a brief on various PPP initiatives and projects implemented by UL DQS India and ASSIST in countries like India and Sri Lanka. Together, ASSIST and UL DQS India hope to build capacity across industrial sectors on practices supporting energy and resource efficiency through adoption of Energy Management Systems and implementation of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production practices respectively.

Then, Mr. Biju Balendran, Vice President, Plant Engineering from Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd highlighted the concept of Automotive Industry and Sustainability from an OEM Perspective in his keynote address that delved on the various measures adopted by Renault Nissan for resource optimization, energy conservation and reduction of GHG emissions.

For his part, Mr. Muralidharan shared his views on the current trends in the automotive industry of India and familiarized the guests with the activities that would be implemented during the course of the project. For example, project beneficiaries will be engaged in surveys to understand the current practices followed by the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and in the technical training workshops to build local capacity on sustainable practices among the SMEs. Technical assistance on ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, IQNet SR 10 and Global Reporting Initiative will be extended to the enterprises to enable them to align with Environmental, Health and Safety Management Systems.

Mr. D. K. S. Moorthy then discussed the importance of Sustainability Reporting and

publishing of sustainability reports by enterprises to showcase the accountability of their actions and impacts on the society and environment.

Following an open forum during which company representatives shared ideas about balancing corporate accountability in the automotive sector while improving profits, Mr. S. Raj delivered the closing remarks.

The 18-month project will soon be launched in Bangalore and Pune to reach out to a larger group of beneficiaries from the major automobile manufacturing units.

ASSIST is an international non-profit organization focused on capacity-building. It seeks to promote sustainable practices to address social problems in the developing world, with focus on Asia and Africa. It takes pride in its process-oriented approach to capacity building towards social improvement and sustainable transformation. Its goal is to empower its target groups to make them resilient to the social, economic, and environmental challenges.

It is presently based in Makati City, but also has operations in India and Vietnam and manages projects in over 10 countries. Through its Partner to Progress philosophy, it has successfully implemented such projects in collaboration with the European Union, United Nation Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), USAID, International Finance Corporation (IFC), GIZ, and DEG/ KFW amongst other organizations. To know more, visit www.assistasia.org.#