Our Bureau

Chennai, Aug. 19 “I pretty much got thrown out of the room by the promoter of a mining company because we asked for environment audits,” said Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head, India of the HSBC Bank. She mentioned this anecdote while addressing a seminar on climate change and environmental risks organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at Chennai today.

But the story didn’t end there. Three months after this episode, the promoter agreed for the audits. And two years later, he was actually thanking HSBC for insisting on the audits and raising his awareness because it helped the smooth passage of his equity issue.

Asked later, during an interaction with presspersons, about the reason for this change of heart on the part of this promoter, (when he could have gone to other banks), Ms Kidwai said that the promoter needed their services because he was looking at global opportunities and hoping to buy mines elsewhere.

She also said often promoters didn’t know better because of the general levels of ignorance about best practices in energy efficiency, environment protection and conservation. She said, “There is often no need to cajole. We just need to raise their awareness. Clean business is good business for them and by extension, for us too.”

Asked if HSBC would consider providing incentives in the form of lower interest rates for companies that adopt energy conservation and environment-friendly practices, Ms Kidwai said that this would happen eventually. She said that such practices may form one ingredient in the parameters that rating agencies would consider while determining the sustainability of business models and, therefore, prove beneficial.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu Business Line