Over the years, Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) annual sustainability summit has been bringing together a wide variety of organisations and individuals to dialogue, ideate and create actionable agenda on a variety of sustainability issues in India and beyond. This year, the 11th edition of our annual summit is no different. With over 60 partners, we have co-curated 26 sessions in this year’s summit. We will hear different perspectives from over 135 speakers who represent policymakers, practitioners, researchers, consultants, civil society leaders, international and multilateral organisations. We shall also hear from workers, women farmers, small and medium entrepreneurs, community representatives and young millennials.
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This year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of CRB’s annual conference – India and Sustainability
Standards (ISS). The fact that the event has achieved this milestone, provides considerable motivation
to all of us at CRB – and the evidence too, that there is consistently growing interest on this topic
among diverse stakeholders. We have also witnessed this in our programmes, where we see more and
more organisations and professionals (from diverse sectors) taking interest on the subject. There is an
expanding body of evidence on how sustainability is being mainstreamed into businesses, industry and
society at large. However, we have a long, long way to go towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive
future. The global sustainability agenda is significantly behind schedule, with only 12% of the SDG targets
on track, and some even regressing. Sustainability and inclusivity are vital for our common future,
necessitating a paradigm shift in the development discourse, from a GDP-centric to a more human and
nature-centric approach to business and industry.
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This year, CRB celebrates the 10th anniversary of our flagship annual conference, '
India andSustainability Standards
' (
ISS2023
,
www.sustainabilitystandards.in
). The summit event will beheld 6-8 November 2023, at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
Pursuing our aim to
make sustainability everybody's business
and to take the ‘India andSustainability Standards’ hosted multi-stakeholder dialogue to a wider group of stakeholders, wedecided to organise two curtain raiser events - one in Mumbai and the other in Bangalore. .
The event was co-organised with Mahindra and Mahindra group, specificially with MahindraLifespaces (MLDL) and hosted at the Mahindra Towers in Mumbai.
The following distinguished speakers joined us for the event:
Sunita Purushottam, Head of Sustainability, Mahindra Lifespaces
Pratik Ghosh, Assistant Vice President, Group Sustainability Cell, Aditya Birla Group
Yusuf Kabir, WASH & Climate Specialist, UNICEF Maharashtra
Chandrika Parmar, Director, Centre for Corporate Citizenship, SPJIMR
Pradeep Ramakrishnan, General Manager, SEBI
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Centre for Responsible Business’s (CRB) annual flagship conference ‘India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference’ convenes a diverse set of stakeholders to dialogue and develop roadmaps across key sustainability issues and industry sectors – in supporting the momentum towards Sustainability. CRB believes that sustainable business principles are a key ingredient that businesses of the future (and businesses with a purpose) should integrate into their enduring core values – that should ultimately inform their strategies and operations. India and Sustainability Standards spanning over three days is meticulously designed to bring together industry leaders and practitioners, private sector actors, renowned academicians and researchers from distinguished institutions, policymakers, civil society representatives, youth champions, and other diverse stakeholders.
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It’s a no-brainer that businesses in the present and increasingly in the future need to innovate, improvise and evolve constantly, not just to remain ahead of their competitors but even to survive in the market. Whether large or small, local or international, business leaders are therefore keeping their eyes out on political and geopolitical events; inflation levels; market forces; and risks and uncertainties in their supply/value chains.
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The inaugural session began by observing a
minute’s silence, remembering those who
have been lost during the pandemic. This
was then followed by Rijit Sengputa from
CRB elaborating India’s steady role in leading
the way as a global leader in sustainability
with the BRSR framework, Sustainable
Finance Taxonomy and the NAP. He then
set the context for the 3 day conference with
3 goals - first, to assess how we can make
rapid progress towards SDGs. Second, to
examine the processes and tools to measure
how we are able to move forward and make
an impact. Lastly, to ensure that there is a
collaborative spirit.
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The 7th India and Sustainability Standards (ISS) International Dialogues and Conference
welcomed sustainability professionals, academicians, financial experts, business representatives,
government officials, media and civil society personnel to discuss and debate on challenges and
opportunities to achieve sustainability, like its previous six versions. The theme ‘Sustainability a
Key to Business resilience in an Uncertain World’ focused on the new challenges we face with
the pandemic which has added a layer of unprecedented uncertainty. The conference, conceived
and presented by CRB, was co- organised with 63 partners and 200 speakers in 29 sessions with
over 800 participants.
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The 6th India and Sustainability Standards (ISS) International Dialogue and Conference welcomed sustainability professionals, academicians, financial experts, business representatives, Government officials, media and civil society personnel to
discuss and debate on challenges and opportunities to achieve sustainability, like
its previous five versions. The theme ‘Market dynamics and Social Dilemmas of Promoting Sustainable Businesses’ focussed on market trends, labour practices along
with existing government policies, legislation and voluntary standards that can create the pull in the market to reward sustainable and inclusive business in India. The
conference, conceived and presented by CRB, was co-organised with 69 partners,
149 speakers in 32 sessions with over 600 participants.
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For the conference and its
organisers, the fifth year
was an important
milestone. To mark it, new
elements were added to
make the event more
diverse, engaging, liberated
and inclusive.
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CRB’s annual flagship conference India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference (ISS) is in its fourth year in 2017. To meet and address the challenges of achieving sustainability, both the Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) and collaborative sustainability initiatives (CSIs) have been growing in numbers, market presence, relevance and consumer perceptions and significance. However, in an interconnected world of business, trade and communications, without the participation (in larger numbers) of emerging and developing country actors, achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress on UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), Paris Climate Accord, Child Rights and Business Principles (CRBP), and such global, multilateral frameworks, will definitely be daunting.
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While inaugurating CRB’s 3rd Annual Conference, ‘India and Sustainability Standards 2016’, Honourable Minister for Railways, Government of India, Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu underscored the tremendous advantage that standards have in terms of helping companies to make informed decisions and governments to design appropriate regulations. He, however, also cautioned that certain sections of standards many not be appropriate in the India context. Effective implementation of international standards will be possible if they are aligned with the domestic context. In which case, review of those specific sections in the standards framework should be considered, rather than using it as an excuse for not doing anything. Also, it should be ensured that standards are not used as a means for manipulating the markets to favour a set of market players. Hon’ble Minister further stressed on India’s commitment to sustainable and responsible growth and shared initiatives taken by the Indian Railways in this regard. In his address, he stressed on the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders to address challenges pertaining to sustainability in India. He congratulated Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) for convening this conference annually to highlight and foster collaboration among stakeholders across various sectors in India.
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The Centre for Responsible Business (CRB) along with its partners organised a three-day international conference on Sustainability Standards at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi, from 18th - 20th November, 2015. With 50 partners, 23 sessions and 500 plus delegates & speakers, India and Sustainability Standards: International Dialogues and Conference 2015, was a landmark event that succeeded in achieving its goal of convening international and Indian stakeholders to initiate dialogue, build understanding, and exchange proposals centered on paths forward on sustainability across a range of industry sectors, commodities and themes. Some of the key partners of the three-day event included the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, ISEAL Alliance, UNICEF, UNDP, C&A Foundation, OECD, GIZ and Alliance for Integrity.
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