M&M, Tata Motors among most sustainable firms

The CII survey classified 10 companies as Sustainable Plus Platinum for the highest levels of adherence to the said practices

A survey of corporate India by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) says the metals and mining, automobile and construction materials sectors lead in sustainable business practices.

The Sustainable Plus survey, revealed on Monday, looks at the 100 largest companies by market capitalisation across 20 sectors in the country. It is aimed at checking the environment, social and governance dimensions of business and measures the progress of Indian companies in adopting sustainable business practices.

Ten companies, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Hindustan Zinc, Vedanta, ACC and Reliance Industries, were classified as Sustainable Plus Platinum, showing the highest levels of adherence to the said practices.

Apart from those already mentioned, the banking sector benefited from the high scores of HDFC and Axis banks. Tech Mahindra and Wipro helped the software and services sector perform well.

Seven other companies got a Sustainable Plus Gold classification. These included Bajaj Auto, Ambuja Cements, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Steel. The remaining 83 companies got Sustainable Plus Bronze.

The survey pointed to governance as the strongest dimension of sustainability. The adoption of occupation health & safety management systems by most companies and dedicated Corporate Social Responsibility norms by most businesses made social governance the next highest scorer.

The environment dimension had the lowest overall performance scores. While environmental policy and commitments to reducing overall carbon dependency were cited across sectors, major issues such as reduction of ecological footprint needed addressing. Of the top 100 companies, only 20 responded to the request for information. The vast majority of companies not responding shows disclosure and transparency norms had a long way to go, CII said. Transportation, other financial services and media had the lowest overall scores.