The India Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Program led by WRI India, Confederation of India Industry (CII) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), hosted a high level Green SME Summit - Collaborating Across the Value Chain, on July 16, 2014 in Mumbai. The summit was organised in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), a German government owned not-for-profit enterprise supporting sustainable development.

India's leading companies like YES Bank, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Ltd, KPIT Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, ACC Ltd, Aditya Birla Group, JSW Group, Ford Motors, and Bayer Group participated at the event. The SME sector was represented by Matru Chemicals, Vijayesh Instruments, SA Glass and SimaPro India.

The opportunities, challenges, and current developments pertaining to the SME sector within large corporate value chains to reduce emissions and improve efficiency were the key points for discussion. "We should look at clusters for industries which will then result in high innovation and ideas. It will also release low carbon footprint," said Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd, addressing the event. Beroz Gazdar, Sr. Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra informed, "India has less than 2 per cent of greenhouse gas emission. So, we have to continuously focus on green initiatives." Therefore, identifying primary challenges of doing inventories across SME sector, and engagements of large companies (having resources and expertise) in supporting their Tier1 and 2 suppliers to develop inventories were the major focus. Identification of policy gaps/challenges and providing specific recommendations that promote closer collaboration along the value chain were also discussed.

The speakers at the event were Jamshyd Godrej, Chairman, Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd; Ravi Pandit, Group CEO & Managing Director, KPIT Technologies; Dr Nitin Pandit, Managing Director, WRI India; Dipankar Sanyal, CEO, TERI BCSD; Namita Vikas, Chief Sustainability Officer, YES Bank; Beroz Gazdar, Sr. Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra; KS Venkatgiri, CII Green Business Centre; Pankaj Bhatia, Director, GHG Protocol; Aditya Agarwal, Managing Director, SA Glass; Vishwas Kale, Managing Director, Vijayesh Instruments; and Dr Chandan Giriya, CEO, Matru Chemicals.

With the presence of industry leaders and SME participants, a do-it-yourself SME GHG Accounting tool was launched at the summit. This tool will support the corporate sector in India to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

"India GHG Program has contributed to improve the bottom line and the environmental performance of all the participants. It has helped in achieving India's sustainable goals through collaborative action with all stakeholders," said Godrej.

The event aimed at convincing various stakeholders and key influencers to explore potential avenues of collaboration between large companies and SMEs across the value chain using the accounting tool. With the GHG Accounting Tool, the companies can compile, evaluate, and share emission information. It is used for internal decision making and engaging with partners.