Sustainability is the next big opportunity

Designing innovative products and solutions is the way India can move forward in making its resources sustainable emphasises Kris Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys Limited who spoke to us after his return from Rio+20 where he was Chairman, Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD). BASD is an organization set-up for Rio+20 as “a coalition of leading international business groups who are committed to sustainable development with the overall objective to enhance the conference contribution to sustainable and inclusive markets.”

“The outcome document of the conference has identified the main principles. It cannot get into details. But the challenge now is the implementation of these principles, what it means to our country, what it means to businesses,” says Gopalakrishnan. While big businesses do contribute to sustainable development because of the pressure on them to do so, Gopalakrishnan feels that it’s the small and medium enterprises that need to find solutions to contribute.

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Kris Gopalakrishnan says the Rio+20 dialogue did have some positive outcomes, and talks about India’s challenges in ensuring sustainability

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As a way forward, for a country like India where basic necessities have higher priority over sustainable goals, the solution lies in a combined solution he says. “The basic necessities will have higher priority over sustainable goals, so when we look at housing for all, can we also look at sustainable houses where they are energy efficient. If we marry these two together we would’ve met both the objectives. It requires innovation, it requires research, it requires new technology to be developed and I see that as an opportunity.”