Green Productivity for Sustainable Energy and Environment

-Pawankumar Badhe

Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology. ~Alan M. Eddison
Environmental Degradation today is one of the major challenges the mankind is facing.
With the growing progress in Science and Technology, humans have evolved new processes for intense
industrialization so that they can live a more comfortable life. But at what expense? At the expense of
our environment. Rampant deforestation, global warming, extinction of species is all we hear. But is it
possible for man to stop or slow down the process of industrialization? Is it possible to compromise and
live a simple life? NO. The solution to this is sustainable and efficient practices. Green Productivity is
one such method. It simply means improving the productivity and an environmental performance for
overall socio-economic development that leads to sustained improvement in the quality of human life.

Green Productivity deals with use of improved techniques and environment management tools
that reduce the environmental impact of the organization's activities, productivity, services and at the
same time trying to enhance the profitability and advantage of the organization. Organizations should
try to go green wherein the entire chain from the inputs till the outputs are all environment- friendly. At
each stage of the production cycle various initiatives to maintain environmental friendliness should be
undertaken. Green Supply Chain (wherein the company's purchasing, planning and managing the use of
materials to shipping and distributing final products should be based on implementing green policies)
should be incorporated by all the organizations. The production cycle should be based on proper and
efficient utilization of water resources, efficient use of renewable energy, efficient and safe
management of solid waste and harmful byproducts, and also clean development mechanisms. It is also
required to direct the R&D to efficiently tap the renewable and non-conventional sources of energy.
Separate unit for use of renewable energy and treatment of the industrial wastes is the need of the hour
in every industrial unit.

Large corporates may easily adopt Green Technologies, but the lack of capital and technological
innovation on the part of large number of small and medium scale units in the developing countries
would continue to spoil the efforts. Large organizations as well as developed countries must take
initiatives to transfer these green technologies to the weaker sections in the developing countries.
Governments should start with a Green Fund – so as to help the SMEs to cope up with the financial
burdens, for their smooth transitions to eco-practices. NGOs and Organizations as an art of corporate-
social responsibilities should spread awareness and help the local production units to switchover.
Proper planning and management of resources and products would lead to decrease in wastage of
resources and enhance the productivity, efficiency and in turn profits of the units.

Co-operation at larger levels amongst the various units indulged in the process of production,
proper planning, management and successful review and monitoring of the efforts together can help the
world cope up with the issues of environmental degradation and energy shortage. It should be kept in
mind that we have not inherited the earth from our ancestors but we have borrowed it from our
children.