“Responsibility beyond market”:
Interview with Niranjan Khatri, GM, Welcomenviron Initiatives - ITC Welcom Group

Welcomenviron launched by ITC welcomgroup is an eco responsible initiative based in the three R’s :Reduce, Recycle and Re-Use. It further comprises adherence to three dimensions –economic, environment and social change. Commercially, Welcomenviron has resulted in cost savings. In terms of human resources, it has given every employee a sense of purpose in contributing towards an environmental revolution. But more significantly, it has set new trends in the hospitality industry that others are now aspiring to follow.

TBY: ITC Welcom group had launched 'Welcomenviron' in the early 90's. After a decade of its launch, would you say that the hotel industry in India has been influenced by this initiative? How do you think the hotel industry can operationalise /effectively implement environment friendly practices?

Niranjan Khatri: Yes the hotel industry has been influenced by our eco responsible practices & more or less the entire tourism sector has slowly but surely started to adopt cleaner production practices.

The industry needs to shore up the green knowledge base of all its employees, suppliers, customers, because as we all know, the scale of the challenge is big and requires major mindset changes to bring the relevant lifestyle changes amongst all stakeholders.

TBY: ITC Welcom group is a large hotel chain with hotels in different parts of India. How have you incorporated the triple bottom line of Economic, Social and Environmental responsibility into practice?

Niranjan Khatri: Yes. The hotel operation is a vibrant and profitable - Economics! On Environment front we have reduced our water consumption by30 %, implemented rain water across all our hotels ,reduced our solid waste by imaginative redeployment of so called waste by 94 %, started the concept of water swap with municipalities/ local stakeholders, using renewable energy :1,10,000 solar hot water system already installed!

Social-- give vocational training to orphan boys /girls on regular basis and employing them , employed 98 people with disability in our hotels, sister divisions /suppliers, have developed a training module for domestic help. Please see our website for more details.

However the task is big and is being constantly integrated in our DNA through regular training programs, small pilots and our own learning. Our company ITC is perhaps the 1st company in the world which has become a CO2/ H2O positive and working towards being a ZERO solid waste company!!

TBY: The US Green Building Council awarded ITC with the LEED 'Platinum Rating' for Green Centre in Gurgaon. What prompted your group to conceptualise such a corporate office?

Niranjan Khatri: ITC welcomgroup has been an ecological pioneer and we have been implementing environmentally responsible ideas, practices & most important been sharing the best practices over last 19 years. Keeping this as back drop when we heard about some new green building practices and we decided to adopt the same. The advantages of the green building are that it has helped us reduce our energy/water consumption by 51/40 % respectively. For more details please visit our website here

TBY: ITC Welcom group has been taking initiatives to spread awareness about the dangers of Global Warming. The world environment day had a focus on Global warming in most of your properties across India. Though the organisation 'believes in responsibility beyond market', how do you ensure that the conceptual understanding is, percolated into every member of your staff? What was the response of your guests to the initiative on world environment day?

Niranjan Khatri: By adopting cleaner / meaner production practices like shifting to energy efficient lighting, installing VFD motors ( Variable Frequency Drive ), by helping the stakeholders to adopt low cost hi efficiency drip kit devices, planting trees, swapping treated waste water with neighbors for their horticulture needs & many more similar ideas reflected in our website. All our stakeholders appreciate our green initiatives and therefore Business World magazine nominated us as 1st most eco responsible chain in the country.

TBY: In most of the evolved markets, travellers are now keen on checking out the Responsibility credentials of the properties they are staying. Do you see such engagements by travellers in an evolving market like India?

Niranjan Khatri: The world has shrunk with "webability". Sure the signs are already there, but the big question is whether global travelers are willing to reduce their personal footprints through green service designs being thought of. If so, travellers need to articulate how they want to be transported and what kind of new innovative ideas they would like to see being implemented to help them in participating in responsible tourism. We need to understand that responsible tourism is a stakeholder engagement movement, not a one way traffic.

We all know that markets take a cue from the desires of customers. There is still a dearth of engagement from some stakeholders, only because of the absence of internalization of the eco threats, which seem to be changing recently on account of the media exposure to the “Stern report” and the movie the “Inconvenient truth”

TBY: Thank you!