XLRI Holds Workshop on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy
Jamshedpur: XLRI- Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur recently organized a Workshop on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy in collaboration with Tata Steel and GIZ India as part of the European Union- Resource Efficiency Initiative (EU-REI).
Among the speakers at the workshop were Fr. Nelson D’Silva (Professor, XLRI), Dieter Mutz (Program Director, EU-REI), Dr. Rachna Arora (Deputy Program Director, EU-REI), Shri Umesh P Singh (Corporate Sustainability, Tata Steel), Prof Tata Raghu Ram (Professor, XLRI) and Prof. Kalyan Bhaskar (Professor, XLRI) while the workshop was participated by members of Tata Steel, JUSCO, NML Jamshedpur as well as students and faculty from XLRI.
Explaining about the initiative Prof. Kalyan Bhaskar (Professor, XLRI) said, “EU-REI is a three year ongoing project focusing on promoting resource efficiency and circular economy and is sponsored by the European Union (EU) in partnership with Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India. The project focuses on four main areas, mobility, renewable energy, waste, and building construction. The objective of the project is to support India in the implementation of UN global sustainable production and consumption agenda by adapting international best standards, and business best practices on resource efficiency. GIZ India, supported under the Indo-German Environment Program is the lead implementing partner of EU-REI.”
The workshop began with opening remarks by Prof. Kalyan Bhaskar (Professor, XLRI). Dieter Mutz (Program Director, EU-REI) talked about the industry and policy initiatives taken in Europe to promote efficient use of resources and circular economy. He also highlighted the main challenges in incorporating CE and RE.
In her address, Dr. Rachna Arora (Deputy Program Director, EU-REI) highlighted that India relies on imports to meet demand for most of the primary materials required to manufacture things in India. She said, “These include antimony (100% imports), nickel (100% imports), magnesite (100% imports), copper (95% imports), molybdenum (100% imports), phosphate (90% imports), cobalt (100% imports) and oil (70% imports) that are required to help manufacture things in India. The need for India therefore is to efficiently use the primary materials, reduce wastage, reuse and recycle materials, and promote use of secondary materials (obtained from recycling) for industrial and commercial purposes”. She briefed about the challenges and achievements of the project in India in last one year and the opportunities lying ahead.
Fr. Nelson provided an overview of the various sustainability initiatives taken in XLRI such as installation of biogas plant in the campus, assessment of campus sustainability by a third party agency, installation of solar PV on rooftops of different buildings inside campus, banning on use of vehicles by students in campus and providing free cycles for students use in the campus. Shri Umesh Singh apprised the participants about various sustainability initiatives taken by Tata Steel over years, the ongoing and future sustainability plans, and the benefits accrued in terms of energy, material, and monetary benefits. Finally Prof Tata Raghuram provided an interesting take on the subject by introducing a dimension of Material Karma which is inspired from Karma that is an essential part of Indian consciousness.