Environmental CSR as a Tool for Community Welfare
Environmental CSR play a key role in climate change mitigation and fostering sustainable development. The major ingredients of environmental CSR are elimination of waste and emissions, maximizing energy efficiency and productivity, and minimizing practices that may adversely affect use of natural resources by coming generations. In recent years, environmental CSR has also emerged as an effective tool for the welfare of rural, marginalized and unprivileged communities, mainly through renewable energy, waste management and resource conservation initiatives.
The deployment of renewable energy is a tremendous opportunity for corporates to support societies’ broad developmental priorities in the form of energy access, job creation and overall community development. According to IRENA estimates, the expected increase in human welfare from the deployment of renewables is close to 4%, far exceeding the 0.8% rate of improvement in GDP.
Infact, savings from reduced health and environmental externalities, which are not fully reflected in conventional economic accounting systems, far offset the costs of the energy transition. Renewable energy projects, supported by corporates, will also go a long way in helping remote communities to achieve energy independence with the help of decentralized, micro-grid alternative energy systems based on solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and other viable systems.
Waste management is another important area where corporates can play a key role towards community welfare. Waste management is needed in all type of industries and it should be adopted by every industry as its social responsibility. Nowadays, eco-friendly waste management is a growing concept which can make significant contribution in the welfare of the society and environment.
Salman Zafar is an ecopreneur, consultant, advisor, speaker and journalist with expertise in waste management, waste-to-energy, renewable energy, environment protection, conservation and sustainable development. His geographical areas of focus include Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. Salman is the Founder of EcoMENA, a popular voluntary organization based in Qatar. He is also the Founder and CEO of BioEnergy Consult, a reputed consulting firm active in biomass, waste-to-energy and waste management segments.
Salman is a professional environmental writer with more than 350 popular articles to his credit. He is proactively engaged in creating mass environmental awareness in different parts of the world.
Salman Zafar can be reached at salman@ecomena.org or salman@bioenergyconsult.com
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