Indian cos missing in action

BANGALORE, INDIA: As the 40th anniversary of World Earth Day is approaching, the entire world is talking high about the day and looking forward to regulations to ensure sustainability, while Indian companies seem to be missing in action.

The Earth day is one of the biggest yearly activity happening across the globe. More than one billion people participate in Earth Day activities, making it the largest secular civic event in the world. Earth Day Network (EDN) aims to reach the motto of making Earth Day 2010 a turning point in the environmental movement.

At present, Earth Day Network, the official forum that celebrates it, has a global reach with more than 20,000 partners and organizations in 190 countries. The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) is one of the eleven participants in the Earth day network. A few other participant are The Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business management, NDTV Hindu Greenathon 2010 and Arts for the Earth.

A few companies are promoting the concept within the company. Interestingly, at least a few of them thought of the 'Earth Day potentials', when we asked them about their Earth Day plans!

Cisco, starting on April 20, is participating in global discussions about environmental sustainability with industry thought leaders and technology experts. As a part of the Earth Day celebrations, Cisco office in Bangalore is hosting awareness sessions on rainwater harvesting, organic farming and wildlife conservation.

Apart from these local initiatives, Cisco has initiated a global campaign, Think Green, Act Green Pledge, for the Cisco employees this year. For every pledge made from April 19 through May 2, Cisco will donate $1 (up to a maximum donation of $10,000) to Water.org - a non-profit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries.

CA and its employees through their Earth Day efforts, are working towards driving sustainable change at the community level while also improving our environment.

Suresh Vaswani, Joint CEO — IT Business, Wipro posted a blog on Earth Day 2010. In this blog, he said that Earth Day is an important date in the company's calendar. From his personal instincts, Vasvani gave the message to individual to do their bit for the environment by conserving natural resources and spreading the message across.

He wrote, “The importance of Earth Day continues to grow exponentially with each passing year. The day acts as a reminder for all of us to shake out of our inertia, to stop taking natural resources for granted, to look around at the world we have created and compare it with the world we grew up in, and to ask ourselves some tough questions on how we have led our lives.”

In contrast, Earth Hour saw a wider participation form India. Almost a month ago, on March 27, 2010, we were hearing/talking/reading about Earth Hour 2010. IT biggies like Infosys, Wipro, HP, Microsoft, Nokia, Canon, IBM, TCS, HCL, Cognizant and Intel were prominent ones. Infosys, for example, saved around 172 kW of energy during Earth Hour, at the Bangalore campus alone. But, for many of the tech giants, the HOUR counts more than a DAY!

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, when million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy and sustainable environment. And on this 40th anniversary what's going to happen? Will this day make us think green and live green?