1. Panel: Emerging Trends in
Sustainability in Retail
5 – 6 February 2014
Renaissance Convention Center, Powai

2. Panel discussion on Sustainability in Retail
From L to R
1.Surender Gnanaolivu, Executive Vice President and Head - Marketing,
Brand Experience and Store Development, Mahindra Retail Pvt Ltd
2. Siddharth Bindra, MD, BiBa
3. Sudhir Soundalgekar, CCA & Head Lifestyle & Specialty Projects,
Shoppers Stop Ltd
Moderator: Ravi Singh, CEO & Secretary General –
World Wide Fund

3. Opening Remarks
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
• The world is today consuming 1.5 planets worth of resources annually.
• Demand for certain commodities such as palm oil, milk and beef (buffalo
meat) is threatening India’s biodiversity.
• Owing to its direct contact with consumers, the retail industry is in a position
to drive change towards sustainability.
• Experience with mature markets shows that the ‘tipping point’ towards
structural sustainability is when consumers adopt and are willing to pay for
sustainable products.

4. What are your initiatives towards sustainability?
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
•
Our sustainability initiatives are driven by decisions
that make business sense.
• Three objectives for sustainability initiatives:
1. Reduce Energy: overall energy spends down by 15% by
using LEDs lights
2. Reduce Emissions: changing air conditioning filters
regularly; reducing carry bag usage; reduce travel by
using video conferencing.
3. Reduce Resources: reusing and resizing building
fixtures, saved 18% maintenance costs.
Surender Gnanaolivu, EVP,
Mahindra Retail
•
This disciplined approach to sustainability has ensured
cost savings every 11th store free.
M&M sustainability ethos at a group level runs deep. The challenge was to
adapt to Retail.

6. What are your initiatives towards sustainability?
•
Siddharth Bindra.
Owner, BIBA
•
•
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
Typically manufacturing processes
such as printing release a lot of
effluents. So we try to maintain a
control on that.
Textile plant use chemicals which
are environmentally friendly
because they also cater to the
European market. Have had these
extended to India.
Progressive standards in
manufacturing, are being applied by
default, to the Indian market.
We are launching a range of organic cotton to gauge customer willingness to
adopt and pay a premium.

7. What are your initiatives towards sustainability?
•
•
•
Sudhir Soundalgekar
Projects Head, Shoppers Stop
•
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
Sustainability was driven top-down, by
business requirements.
Reduce: Lighting / Air conditioning. As power
tariffs increased, there was pressure to reduce
usage.
Reuse: Rainwater harvesting / Storm water
drainage based reuse of water resources for air
conditioners.
Recycle: Focus on recycling paper
If there is a policy – driven top down – then sustainability is easy to implement
within a company

8. What are your initiatives towards sustainability?
•
•
•
Sudhir Soundalgekar
Projects Head, Shoppers Stop
•
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
Results: 60 lakhs units of power saved by
Shoppers Stop Ltd. = to Rs 6.8 crores per
annum. Equal to one store “free” given to
management per annum.
Saved 84 mio pages to date through initiatives
to recycle paper.
Carbon footprint – saved 10 metric tons of
carbon footprint.
Carbon footprint benchmarks:
• Comparable with international retailers
such as M&S and Walmart.
If there is a policy – driven top down – then sustainability is easy to implement
within a company

9. How can the entire retail supply chain be made
sustainable?
“There are no government
regulations in this regard as yet.
So the industry must take the lead
in educating customers to make
environment-friendly choices.”
- Surender Gnanaolivu, Executive
Vice President and Head
Marketing, Brand Experience and
Store Development, Mahindra
Retail Pvt Ltd
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF
“We need to partners with vendors.
The industry needs to explain the
cause of sustainability to the people
we source from and encourage them
to observe our policies.”
- Siddharth Bindra, MD, BiBa

10. How can the entire retail supply chain be made
sustainable?
“Firstly, consumers need to be motivated to believe in
the cause of sustainability. Secondly, the retail
industry needs to incentivise and evangelise
intelligent methods of resource consumption.”
- Sudhir Soundalgekar, CCA & Head Lifestyle &
Specialty Projects,
Shoppers Stop Ltd
Moderator: Ravi Singh,
CEO & Secretary
General WWF

11. Panel: Emerging Trends in
Sustainability in Retail
5 – 6 February 2014
Renaissance Convention Center, Powai