We understand the vital role businesses play in shaping public policy, particularly concerning climate change. In alignment with our commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility, we actively engage in public policy discussions and advocate for initiatives that address climate change and its impacts on our operations.
Our Board of Director, Nadir Godrej, was invited to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland both in 2023 and 2024 and the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). He has used these platforms to talk about key ESG issues and learnings from our programmes. He has been actively involved in various working groups of the forums.
To ensure that our policy advocacy is conducted with integrity and credibility, we have established
robust management structures and processes:
Database of memberships
We maintain a centralized database of all trade association memberships, detailing the purpose of each association, our representatives, membership fees, and the value derived from each membership. This allows us to track the effectiveness of our engagements and ensure alignment with our business strategic goals. Our trade association memberships and public policy advocacy are aligned with limiting average global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.
Regular reviews
We conduct regular reviews of our memberships and associations to assess the value derived from each engagement. These reviews help us determine whether our memberships continue to align with our evolving business objectives.
Functional oversight and accountability
The senior leadership of our functions is responsible for managing trade association memberships within their areas of responsibility. They ensure that memberships contribute to their function’s objectives and manage departmental representation in trade associations and memberships.
Internal Audit compliance
Our Internal Audit team rigorously monitors all activities related to association memberships to ensure compliance with legal requirements, ethical standards, and company policies. This ensures that our engagements uphold the highest standards of integrity and transparency
Climate review of trade associations’ positions
We believe we need a rapid transition to a lower carbon energy system. Within our operations and our membership associations we are clear on our stance on climate change and are aligned with the Paris Agreement, Climate Science and Energy Efficiency. We will use this as basis for our periodic review of our trade associations’ positions.
Political donations
We do not make any political donations. We have made no contributions to any political parties in FY 2023-24 and communicated the same in our Annual Integrated Report FY2023-24, page 89.
We firmly believe that it is crucial for businesses to have strong industry associations and memberships for collective growth. Such associations and partnerships will provide strong foundation to develop the business, share knowledge, gather new ideas for innovations and also establish resilience to key industry issues while gaining an understanding of competition. We ensure that policy advocacy is done with the highest degree of integrity, responsibility and credibility. The following some of our trade associations –
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
As part of the Godrej Industries Group, we are one of the leading members of WBCSD (World Business Council of Sustainable Development). WBCSD has crafted 9 pathways for the sustainable transformation of businesses. Our Good and Green Sustainability strategy is aligned with the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 framework. Also, we are active participants of several WBCSD programmes, including Nature Based Solutions, and Natural Climate Solutions.
Confederation of Indian Industry (India Plastics Pact)
We are one of the founding members of the India Plastic Pact that aims to promote a circular economy of plastics through public-private collaboration. We collaborating to find innovative ways to eliminate, reuse, or recycle the plastic packaging across the plastics value chain and collectively achieve the long-term target of plastic intensity reduction and increasing the use of post-consumer recycled plastics in our packaging.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
We continue our advocacy and thought-leadership at various platforms and forums organised by FICCI. We build awareness and drive to partnerships and collaborations that are critical to our business and the environment including solid waste management, and nature & biodiversity conservation. These platforms help us deepen our relations with peers and drive progress on some of the biggest challenges we face.