India’s premier centre of excellence in Sustainable Supply Chain practice, dissemination, and advocacy

As we know, in the 2016 Paris climate agreement, scientists and all countries agreed that if we have to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, the world has to become carbon neutral by 2050. Consequently, several countries committed to becoming net zero by 2050, including India by 2070. Almost all large corporations across the world and India have committed to becoming net-zero in the next 15-20 years. Almost two-thirds of the total emissions of any organization lie in the supply chain, which is why the need to create a centre that fosters research in areas of supply chain management became a major priority.

To address this urgent need, we found an ideal partner in Indian Institute of Management Bangalore to establish one-of-its-kind Supply Chain Sustainability Lab. After working on some projects together for several months, we launched the lab for everyone to join and contribute in the mission. On 28th April, 2023, it was inaugurated by renowned Indian cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty, Chairman and ED of Narayana Health, and Chairperson, Board of Governors, IIM Bangalore along with the Chairman of TCI Group, Mr. DP Agarwal.

The launch event witnessed decent participation from corporates, associations, academia & media. Prof Jitamitra Desai, Chairperson, Supply Chain Management Centre at IIM Bangalore started the event with a welcome speech. Post which, the intent of setting up this lab was covered by Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore in his speech. Backing it up with on-ground action, Mr. Vineet Agarwal, Managing Director – TCI Group, launched the beta version of a GHG Measurement Tool. This tool named TEMT (Transport Emissions Measurement Tool) has a multi-lingual interface, enabling the grass-root level adoption by India’s logistics and supply chain ecosystem. It covers all modes of transportation, i.e. road, rail, air, & sea.

The lab believes that Supply-chain decarbonization will be a “game changer” for the impact of corporate climate action. For companies, mostly in customer-facing sectors, end-to-end emissions (Scope 3) are much higher than the direct emissions in their own operations (Scope 1 and 2 emissions). Addressing Scope 3 emissions is fundamental for companies to realize credible climate change commitments. Going forward, we will focus on the following 5Cs:

1. Creating Content around Sustainability to educate all
2. Providing Consultancy Services
3. Certification & Assessment
4. Collaborating with like-minded organizations to build unique solutions
5. Coach students and executives in order to build a robust ecosystem

Thereby, adding to nation's progress towards a net-zero future.

To know more or to partner, click here, https://www.iimb.ac.in/iimb-launch-tci-iimb-scsl