ITC Case Study

ITC – Is it truly sustainable?

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? Lakshminarayana S. (PA 1119) PGPM + uoM RIMS

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? Abstract For over a hundred years, ITC Limited has been a major force in India. It has successfully diversified into several different businesses, such as food, hotels, apparel, etc. It is one of the few companies in India that can claim to have achieved the “triple bottom line”, encompassing economic, social and environmental parameters. However, many experts have criticized its sustainability initiatives. As the Chairman, YC Deveshwar must find a way to continue and enhance its sustainability initiatives while quelling the various criticisms that it faces.

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? Analysis “At ITC, we believe that businesses exist to sub serve larger societal goals” – YC Deveshwar, Chairman

ITC has always been a company that is associated with sustainability and corporate social responsibility. It is a company focused on creating and sustaining a livelihood for the people around them. It believes that it exists to serve the society around them. The fact that it has created over five million sustainable livelihoods speaks volumes of its dedication and commitment towards serving the people around them. ITC has always been a trendsetter when it comes to being ecologically and environmentally sensitive. It is the only company in the world, of comparable size to be carbon, water and solid waste recycling positive. More than 35% of the energy used by ITC is from renewable sources. Apart from this, ITC’s services such as ‘e-choupal’ and its Internet kiosks ‘Sanchalaks’ have greatly benefitted over 4 million farmers, many of whom belong to the weakest sections of the society. Despite its large reach already, it is continuously working to expand its reach and help farmers become independent and sell their own products at a fair price, without the interference of middlemen. Its program ‘Mission Sunehra Kal’ is designed to help rural farmers learn to diversify their crops, so as to reduce the risk burden on them and increase security and sustainability.

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? Overcoming its criticisms •

Although ITC has done so much, it has been severely criticized by several experts. According to them, despite the diversification into several areas, ITC is first and foremost a tobacco company, which at the end of the day causes harm to human health. However, it would be unfair to totally disregard the good ITC is doing just because it is primarily in the tobacco business. Very few tobacco companies in the world would be as socially responsible as ITC. Even while manufacturing, it has continuously striven to meet stringent environmental measures that it had set for itself. In fact, it had won the ‘Greentech Gold Award for Excellence in Environment Management’ for its factories in Bangalore, Kolkata and Munger.

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Many experts see ITCs initiatives as self-serving. Although this cannot be denied, businesses can only ‘do well by doing good’. Though these initiatives undoubtedly help ITC, they have also greatly helped the farmers, who now can sell their products at a fair price. In addition to this, to call this as a “wholesale holocaust” would be extremely unfair to ITC, which has dramatically changed the lives of the farmers for the better. ITC has given these farmers a chance to sell their products in different parts of the world. They have been able to create a sustainable living for over four million farmers.

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? •

ITC’s claim of being carbon positive is questionable according to some. The wood that they cut for raw materials for making paper negates the positive effect it generates. However, its reforestation programs ensures that it conducts its business in a sustainable manner, so that there are enough trees even if ITC conducts its business for another hundred years.

Conclusion ITC is a company that has constantly focused on sustainability. It was one of the first 10 companies in the world to and the first from India to publish its Sustainability Report in compliance with the G3 Guidelines of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). Any company that grows beyond a particular size gets its own group of critics. It has done remarkably to achieve what it has achieved. Deveshwar should ignore the critics and continue the good work – especially his expansion of the e-choupal project. Perhaps an area where ITC needs to work on is energy and water efficiency, where its lack of efficiency in these aspects as compared to OECD countries has led to substantial wastage.

ITC – Is it truly sustainable? References •

ITC Limited – ITC Sustainability in action - Retrieved March 26th, 2012, from http://www.itcportal.com/sustainability/sustainability.aspx

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Wikipedia © ITC Limited. Retrieved March 26th, 2011, from www.wikipedia.com