Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited has received the prestigious Green Rating Award based on assessment done by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for achieving several benchmarks on energy use, resource consumption, and environmental performance.
The award was received from Union Minister of State for Environment Jayanthi Natarajan by RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director A.P. Choudhary at a function organised in New Delhi on Monday evening.
RINL along with two other companies (Ispat Industries and Essar Steel) bagged the prestigious award with “3 Leaves rating” out of 5 leaves.
The CSE recognises the good performance as under: Above 75 per cent - 5 Leaves Award, 50-75 per cent - 4 Leaves Award, 35-49.9 per cent - 3 Leaves Award, and 25-34 per cent - 2 Leaves Award and 15-24.9 per cent - 1 Leaf Award. Green Rating Project (GRP) is India's only public disclosure project in which environmental performance of companies within a sector is assessed and made public. The process followed by GRP is rigorous, independent and participatory.
The GRP of the Indian iron and steel sector is being organised by the CSE. The award is instituted by CSE based on the detailed information obtained from the plant and their team visit to the industry, feedback from NGOs, Pollution Control Board and other stakeholders. Assessment of the industry is done by a technical advisory panel, comprising experts from the steel industry and other areas.
After receiving the award, Mr. Choudhary said in this era of high volatility and steep rise in input materials for the steel industry, the “green rating” had come as a shot in the arm for RINL, a Navratna company, which had all along banked heavily on its eco-friendly technologies to improve its bottom line in spite of not having captive mines for iron ore and coal.
In fact RINL's environmental measures contribute in reducing our steel manufacturing cost by a whopping 17 per cent, he added.
Mr. Choudhary pointed out that the commitment for environment was made at the design-board-stage when Vizag Steel's designers and engineers gave high priority for maintaining the pristine quality of the environment.
RINL Director (operations) Umesh Chandra was present on the occasion.
