89: Driving stakeholder well being through sustainable development: Anirban Ghosh, Head for Center for Sustainability, Mahindra University

Shownotes: India was ranked 121 out of 163 countries in the 2022 Global Index of SDGs. It has also been identified as a global hotspot by the IPCC in terms of geographical and socio-economic vulnerabilities. In 2023 India is expected to become the most populous country in the world. As a rapidly growing economy with decades of infrastructure growth ahead of it, India’s energy demand and emissions are projected to double if not triple by 2050. Then there is the all important commitment the country has made to reaching Net Zero by 2070 (It is not as bad as it looks). Achievable, not achievable - whatever the verdict, India’s impact on the world’s ability to meet the SDGs or NetZero is undeniable. To discuss the role of the private sector in helping countries achieve the SDGs I recently spoke with Anirban Ghosh, Head for Centre of Sustainability at Mahindra University and previous Chief Sustainability Officer at the Mahindra group. In this freewheeling conversation we spoke about organisational purpose, stakeholder priorities 👇🏾👇🏾👉🏾 The key drivers for the private sector to start planning for, embedding sustainability and adopting ESG reporting?👉🏾 The priorities for the Mahindra group on Sustainability and ESG reporting👉🏾 The World Bank’s Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition and its ambition👉🏾 The challenges to India achieving Net Zero by 2070 considering it is one of the largest emitters, its dependance on coal and lack of funding👉🏾 The role of the private sector in achieving the 👆🏾👆🏾and Mahindra group’s strategy on Net Zero👉🏾 Green and sustainable growth - can this be a reality for a developing country like India👉🏾 Just Transition - can this be a reality? How can we ensure people on the margins are not left behind👉🏾 Corporate Greenwashing - and how big a concern it should be. According to Anirban the private sector has just about started on it - there is worse to comeWe also spoke about what he likes about his job and what keeps him awake at night. If you want to know more, head to the episode 👇🏾👇🏾Memorable passages from the podcast👉🏾 Good afternoon to you.👉🏾 Currently I'm the Head for Center for Sustainability at the Mahindra University. Till recently I was the Chief Sustainability Officer of the group. Did that job since about 2014. And now we are looking at leveraging the centre to make a greater impact on the sustainability ecosystem. Three things that influenced my career. I think there's only one, which is chance. There are these lovely lines from a song by John Lennon which says "life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans". And it just seems to happen every once in a while. 👉🏾 The sustainability job is very interesting. You can kind of create your day for yourself. There are two or three broad things that one needs to do. Of course, I must also look at it from the lens of what it was a few years ago, to what it is now.👉🏾 A few years ago, a lot of the time was to take your colleagues along on the journey. Help them understand how they could leverage sustainability to do...