Role of Eco-Efficiency in Evaluating Environmental Performance and in Accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals Case Study of ITC Ltd.

Abstract

In this paradigm of global climate-change there is a need to address environmental concerns along with economic concerns for better management of corporate resources and to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Companies are becoming increasingly keen to take into consideration the role of environmental issues in economic information or in the financial markets, either due to legal mandates or at times, voluntarily. Hence, there is a situational demand of a shift of their attention towards measuring eco-efficiency. “Eco-efficiency” refers to economic-ecological efficiency which is a ratio between an economic performance indicator and an environmental performance indicator of an enterprise. As a tool, it can help to integrate conventional accounting with ecological accounting. Contextually, the present study makes an attempt to calculate eco-efficiency of ITC Ltd., an environmentally-conscious Indian conglomerate, both in a business-as-usual scenario, as well as after considering the environment-friendly measures taken by them, to find out how they are contributing towards the achievement of the SDGs. The results are based on the analysis of secondary data compiled and calculated for a five-year period of 2014-15 to 2018-19.