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Green reporting

  • 30/07/1998

Green reporting when it comes to disclosing environmental performances, Indian companies take a back seat. The Bhopal gas tragedy is an extreme example of a company being responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people. Had the company disclosed its environmental status beforehand, the crisis could have been averted. However, despite the catastrophe, there's a Bhopal waiting to happen in every corner of the country.

When to make their performance public, companies usually go on the defensive. The first reaction one should expect: the information is confidential. And the alibi: regulatory authorities could crack down on us.

A workshop, organised by the United States Agency for International Development's (usaid) Clean Technology Initiative (cti) and International Resource Group (irg), was conducted recently to find a way of encouraging disclosure of companies' performance on the environmental front. Various officials from industrial houses, government organisations, banks and financial institutions (fis) and non-governmental organisations (ngos) participated in the workshop.

Delivering the keynote address, Malcom Baldwin, irg vice-president, said, "There has been an explosion worldwide in voluntary standards implementation.'

In India, about six years ago, Company Law made it imperative for a company's balance sheet to include two more statements

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