Speaking at the inauguration of a green initiative on the premises of Southern India Regional Council (SIRC) of the cost accounting body here on Monday, he mooted the idea of first making green auditing an optional subject and based on the feedback, it could be made one of the main subjects of the core syllabus for the students.

He recalled the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had issued two voluntary guidelines on corporate governance and social responsibility for professional bodies and noted the ICWAI has taken the leading initiative in the field of green campaign under the CSR segment.

Referring to triple bottomline, Bandyopadhyay said corporates have an environmental and social responsibility, besides taking care of profitability in their ventures. ‘MCA has seven lakh companies, 1.65 lakh CAs, 50,000 cost accountants and 30,000 company secretaries in the register and there is a need for all of them to come together to forge a basis consensus on tackling environmental problems,’ he said.

Further, MCA Secretary pointed out India was a huge country with a very young population and everyone has to be given the opportunity to succeed in their lives. ‘Though we have suffered a marginal setback during the meltdown last year, our GDP has been growing rather fast when compared to other countries. But care should be taken in that our basic resources like natural wealth are  being conserved and pass on to the next generation,’ he said.

Bandyopadhyay urged the corporates and professional bodies to spread the green message and implement them at their facilities. In this regard, lauding the ICWAI for taking up the green initiatives at its SIRC building which, he hoped, other professional bodies would take up this project for a serious implementation. Following Chennai’s example, ICWAI chapters in other metros and major cities must take up green projects to spread the message around, he said.

Earlier, ICWAI president G N Venkataraman said all the 93 chapters and seven offices in foreign locations would take up green drive at their campuses. He said village youths would be taught CAT (Certificate of Accounting Technicians) to further expand the green projects of ICWAI in rural Tamilnadu to begin with.

ICWAI - SIRC chairman AVNS Nagewara Rao and Exnora group founder-mentor M B Nirmal spoke on the need to tackle environmental crisis through a number of measures like zero waste management and green auditing that would go a long way in warding off global warming and other harmful effects of climate change.