“We understand the value of prioritising Sustainability & CR in business”

Sustainability & CR is not an obligation, but a need and responsibility of all. And embedding it with­in the business is a must for corporates. Elaine Weidman, VP – Sustainability & CR, Ericsson tells Bachan Singh why there is a real need for transformative and not incremental solutions for climate and sustainable development by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector and how the sector will evolve in the coming times. Excerpts:

What is Sustainability for you and what drives CSR at Ericsson?

According to me, it is about having a holistic approach and embedding it within the business. Further, it is not a static topic, it changes with the constantly changing world. In the 90s, Sustainability was more about compliance to legislation, these days it is about understanding global so­cietal challenges and finding solu­tions in the Post 2015 development process.

At Ericsson, our focus is our tech­nology. We try to understand the negative aspects that we need to address and how can we positively impact the society. The pace of tech­nological change has never been greater, and there are so many op­portunities for business to play a role. At Ericsson, we are embracing this opportunity to create positive change. And our CEO, Hans Vestberg drives that change. He understands the value of prioritising Sustainabil­ity & CR in the business.

How do you rate the corporate initiatives in terms of CSR around the globe? How has Ericsson posi­tioned itself to take this forward?

Different parts of the world are in different stages. Europe and North America are more advanced with legislation and policies. China is making a big push and India is inno­vative with focus on green passport guidelines by DoT e-waste and the legislation for mandatory CSR spend as per the Companies Act, 2013.

But globally, we focus on our own business, ensuring concrete tar­gets to measure our progress. We also use our industry leadership to be progressive on advocacy, in areas like Broadband’s role in the post 2015 sustainable development agenda. This is not new to Ericsson, as we have over 20 years of sustain­ability reporting to our stakehold­ers.

The domains of Sustainability and CR overlap in many areas. How the two are connected and is there any need to de-link the two?

We see it in two ways. On one hand, minimise your risks and conduct business responsibly. On the other hand, maximise your positive im­pacts. These areas might be of var­ied interest to different stakehold­ers, but they are interconnected. To share your credible, positive story, you need to run a sound and ethical business.

In totality, what responsibility does communication technology sector carry in order to make our ecosystem sustainable?

First, Information and Communica­tion Technology (ICT) is transform­ing industries, people and society. There is a real need for transforma­tive and not incremental solutions for climate, and sustainable devel­opment more broadly, and we have a responsibility to make the potential of our sector known to policy-mak­ers and government leaders.

Secondly, as networks become an infrastructure for everything we do, trust in the network is imperative, so our sector also needs to work much more actively with issues like privacy, security and human rights more broadly.

From your experience, can you give us some examples of how business­es can become more sustainable?

Companies can rethink over the value chain with a sustainability lens. There can be many opportuni­ties to reduce resource and energy consumption, and even waste while also saving money. One big effort we undertook was to consolidate our data centers. This reduced energy consumption by some 40%. Com­mit to targets. Measure and track performance, according to global standards, for instance, GRI. Em­brace the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights. Compa­nies have a duty to respect human rights throughout their value chain, and in an increasingly transparent networked society, this will become even more important.

Can you enlist the top 3 achieve­ments at Ericsson (in terms of Sus­tainability and CR practices) that you are most happy about?

a). Embedding CR in overall gover­nance of the company, Code of Busi­ness Ethics, UN Guiding Principles, etc. We have targets at the highest level of the company that are mea­sured and performance is followed up by our Executive Management Team.

b). Establishment of Technology for Good programme which con­nects to our core business – tech­nology and the expertise of our employees to help meet global challenges. This makes our work much more relevant to the busi­ness, our stakeholders, and en­sures a more lasting effect.

c). Scaling up of Connect to Learn, our initiative in India. We are now in more than 16 countries and posi­tively impacting more than 40, 000 students. In 2014, we formalised a partnership with the UK develop­ment agency, DFID. Public-private partnerships such as this are key to the success of various initiatives.

Kindly share which all CR initia­tives Ericsson is carrying out glob­ally and what plans do you have for India in 2015-16?

For 2015-16 in India, we will have a big focus on education and skill building for employability and de­ployment of Connect To Learn with partners here. We will also focus on energy, e-waste and disaster man­agement.

As per your understanding, what kind of organisational leadership or communication systems have to be in place to ensure that the Corporate Responsibility effort will last beyond the current lead­ership?

Sustainability and CR must be em­bedded in the governance of the company – in the policies, culture and ways of working. For any CSR programme, it is vital to ensure employees awareness and their engagement with the programme. Employees must also live in sync with the programme. Also, it is im­perative to think about helping your consumers before you become more sustainable. Once consumers are en­gaged, the rest of the organisation comes on board much more readily.

What is the biggest hurdle you have been able to cross as VP – Sus­tainability & CR at Ericsson?

ICT can do so much when it comes to Sustainable Development. Pri­oritisation is always a challenge, but we have set a good strategy for that. Joining the Global Leadership Team of the company was an important milestone, marking the growing im­portance of the area.

How do you see the evolution and future of corporate social respon­sibility?

In my view, the future will increas­ingly be about partnerships, public private partnerships in particular. This year at the World Economic Fo­rum, there is a lot of discussion about the world actually being worse off, in terms of natural disasters, conflicts, etc. The challenges are great, and no single entity – company, govern­ment, civil society can tackle them on its own. Much more cooperation is needed going forward, and finding models that have impact and scale.

For many years now, even long after the end of the Cold War, India has had a love-hate relationship with the United States. Or rather a relationship based on mutual suspicion.

by Dr. Sudipta Narayan Roy  

Over the last decade however, that element of suspicion seems to have evaporated a bit as the US moves to contain the rising economic superiority of China and looks to India as a counter-balancing power in the region.
President Barack Obama’s visit to India in January 2015 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States in 2014 helped sort out many of the rough edges in the relationship.
The first big thaw in the relationship came with the Manmohan Singh government driven nuclear deal. The Indo-US nuclear deal signed in 2005 coming with a Nuclear Suppliers Group Waiver in 2008 has been one abiding bond between the two countries. Though there are still issues on the compensation that US or any foreign uranium or nuclear reactor suppliers will have to pay in case of an accident, the deal has created a long-term interest in each other.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, “India-US bilateral relations have developed into a ‘global strategic partnership’, based on shared democratic values and increasing convergence of interests on bilateral, regional and global issues. The emphasis placed by the new government in India on development and good governance has created new opportunity to reinvigorate bilateral ties and enhance cooperation under the new motto ‘Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go’ , which was adopted following Prime Minister Modi’s first summit with President Obama on September 30, 2014, in Washington DC.”
However, the future strengthening of relationship will depend entirely on how business and commercial relations develop. Friction in the long-term relationship is likely to emerge if Donald Trump becomes the US President and cuts down totally on job outsourcing to IT companies based in India. Obama had also expressed concern on this and taxed American companies which are outsourcing jobs to India. Indian IT companies have no doubt taken away thousands of jobs in the US over the last decade. Also Indian engineers are finding jobs in Silicon Valley at lower salaries and there too the threat is real. But the big US companies do not really bother because the big technology of the present and future is with them.
At another level Indian IT companies are buying into US campanies thus pumping money into the Silicon Valley economy. In April 2016 itself, for instance, Infosys bought into Silcon Valley-based start-up Trifacta which will provide “data wrangling” solutions.

Over the past year-and-a-half, Infosys itself has invested in a bunch of early-stage US start-ups such as Waterline Data, WHOOP, CloudEndure, ANSR Consulting and Airviz Speck and spent at least $39 million from its $500-million venture fund in making these investments.
Other Indian companies like Wipro too have invested heavily in Silicon Valley technology showing that in this sector it is a mutually beneficial relationship which should not be rated on the basis of outsourcing and jobs alone. Also Indian engineering talent working in the US has made stellar contribution to the sector itself and many have risen to the top of the big companies.
Many US companies are also bullish about India and are investing big. Apart from Amazon which has budgeted about $2 billion into its e-commerce venture in India which is likely to score over Flipkart by this year end, other companies too are betting heavily on India.
One example is that of US major Cisco’s Executive Chairman John Chambers already committing $100 million into India. He feels that in the next ten years there is a $19 trillion possibility in India, according to a report in Forbes.
The US-India Business Council is focused on forging public and private partnerships between US businesses and companies and government groups in India according to one industry estimate. The idea is that big corporate investors in India like Google and Microsoft can reap financial benefits as the country adopts more technology.
These companies, in addition to other giants like Qualcomm and Cisco, have promised to help with upgrading the country’s Internet infrastructure and invest in Indian start-ups, according to Forbes report.

Strategic Front
Indo-US business relationship will only gather strength considering the huge investments that each country has made in the other. On the strategic front India has to contain China’s growth and also see that it doesn’t get too cosy with Pakistan. Despite being a terrorism factory, Pakistan has managed well in terms of international diplomacy in keeping China and US within hand-holding distance.
“China’s move to block sanctions on Pakistan for harbouring the notorious terrorist mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is the latest manifestation of the growing strength of the Beijing-Islamabad axis.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has made efforts to strengthen Pakistan’s 60-year-old alliance with China a top priority. India needs a subtle response. The Chinese used their veto authority to block India’s attempt to pressure Pakistan for releasing Lakhvi from jail seven years after the Lashkar-e-Toiba attack on Mumbai in 2008,” according to analyst Bruce Riedel in Economic Times.
Beijing provides diplomatic support, economic investment and arms and technology for Pakistan. China’s support was essential to the development of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal. The centrepiece of the China connection now is the Chinese commitment to invest $46 billion in the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to connect Kashgar in Xinjiang to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

India and US are big partners in the war against worldwide terrorism. This alone forms a substantial bond between the two countries.

So India is left with no option but to try to bring in the US pressure to work in the region. China getting closer to Pakistan is a good reason for the US to back India in the effort to stem the rising tide of terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortunately for India, Afghanistan too seems to be slipping out of its hands.
But US too cannot be depended on eternally to bail out India at the UN and to occasionally cock a snook at Pakistan and China. India like many other countries has become dependent on China for many things. Most of the mobile phones marketed by upcoming companies like Micromax are made in China and the pricing advantage that such phones hold has helped make them top players in the market posing a challenge to even iPhone and Samsung. The US offers us no such advantage. Also the US economy will soon be in big trouble as some economists have predicted. The reason is that its debt has ballooned to $13 trillion almost parallel to its GDP of $14 trillion.
In the near to mid future the Indo-US relations looks like going stronger. There are no major irritants either at the political or business level. Also India and US are big partners in the war against worldwide terrorism. This alone forms a substantial bond between the two countries.