INDIA: Paper companies show poor performance in ‘Green Ratings’

The ‘Green Rating Report’ describes the overall environmental health of the sector as “not very good”. Not one mill could get a five leaves rating (75-100 weighted score) or a four leaves rating (50-75 weighted score). Only two companies scraped into the three leaves category. As many as 12 companies were in the very poor, one leaf category.

The work was carried out by New Delhi-based Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE), as a pilot for a ‘Green Rating Programme’ initiated by the Government and UNDP. The report covered 31 pulp and paper facilities across the country, accounting for some 50% of national paper and board production.

Mills were evaluated using over 100 green criteria under three broad categories – corporate environment policy and management systems, input and process management, and the public perceptions of the mill’s environmental responsibility, including that of the local community, non-governmental organisations and the media.