IPMX @ IIM Lucknow

Sustainable development is the kind of development which satisfies the current needs without endangering the future generations to satisfy their own. Sustainable development is a complex and multidimensional issue, which combines efficiency, equity, and intergenerational equity based on economic, social, and environmental aspects. These three aspects are fundamental to the concept of sustainability and are closely linked. Businesses operate in these spheres simultaneously and hence most affected by the sustainability as a strategic and competitive force.

Sustainability is no more just an issue or a point of differentiation for the businesses. Sustainability has become megatrend which is sweeping the business world off the very foundations they were thriving on. It is no more about launching a campaign or a plan or a vision, it has to be much more deep rooted, much bigger force to reckon with. World over winds of change have already started blowing. Over the past 10 years environmental issues have steadily affected the way businesses are seen or supposed to function. Earlier the only function a business was supposed to carry out was to make profits for the owners. But now it is expected from businesses to create sustainable value for all the stakeholders in the value chain including society.

In this globalized era, workforces and worldwide suppliers are creating environmental pressures. The rise of emerging economies has fuelled the competition for scarce resources emphasising prudent use of available resources. Carbon emissions, water, energy are no more local issues of a nation; these have become global issues as actions of one country affect other nations too. Investors have started looking environmental issues central to firm’s performance and they seek information on sustainable initiatives a firm is taking up. Customers have started valuing those companies more which are genuinely concerned about environment and society. More over government concerns is ever growing over the issues of climate change, food security, energy security, industrial pollution, natural resources depletion among others. This is bound to change the regulatory environment of a business if not presently then in near future. More and more companies are now moulding their strategy and taking up investment in energy efficiency, pollution control, carbon footprint reduction, renewable power which is going to change the competitive landscape once and for all. Venture investing in clean technology reached a nearly $9 billion annually in 2008 and it is picking up again after slowdown in 2009. The private-sector investment into the clean technology marketplace has been estimated at more than $200 billion a year—with fast growth not just in the United States and Europe but in China, India, and the developing world. G20 governments have earmarked some $400 billion of their $2.6 trillion in stimulus funds for clean technology and sustainability programs.

Even if in short term businesses ignore sustainability but in long term it will not be just competitive advantage but a business imperative.

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More people today live in the cities than villages. Countries like USA and UK are more than 75% urbanised. Cities combined consume 75% of the world’s energy and produce 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions apart from being heavy users of water and producers of waste. However, the disadvantages that cities have created can be reversed by making them a key part of the solution. In fact cities are critical to addressing the issue of climate change and sustainable living because of their nature of having dense urban concentrations of people, shorter supply chains and shorter commuter travel. Research in sustainable development has explored this phenomenon and has proposed Ecocities as the answer to solving migration and urbanization problems.

Eco-cities are designed according to certain principles. Reducing the scale is an important principle. The so-called green codes focus on maximising the efficiency of individual buildings whereas the real gains come from the overall design of the city. Cities should be dense rather than sprawled, with more of apartment blocks and public transport. Similarly, public transport systems do not work efficiently when the city is spread out and commuters cannot easily walk to the bus/metro stop. We need to design our cities based on urban densities rather than size. But at whatever population, the scale of material consumption and waste should be much smaller than in today's cities and villages.

Access by Proximity is another important principle of ecological city building. If enough diversity is close enough, one doesn’t need to travel a lot for life's basics like residence, job and school. The idea is to design maximum access right into the city structure aided by mixed use zoning. Proximity access policies could also include local hiring practices, renting apartments to people who don't own cars and who work nearby, making bank loans available in the neighborhoods from which the savings come and permitting increased residential construction in activity centers and prohibiting it in farther-out areas.

Diversity is healthy. This is perhaps the largest, broadest principle of all. It is no longer meaningful to design for separate “zones” for commercial and residential activity (except for hazardous industries).Our cities today are home to the ultra rich on one hand and the slum dwellers on the other. We need to have more inclusive growth. For example, slum re-development projects help to rehabilitate the poor in EWS housing while freeing up the land for other development. Singapore has created a successful network of hawker-centres across the city.

In the past, a common obstacle for ecocity advocates was the conventional wisdom that anything less than direct automobile access would be bad for business. The mere suggestion of replacing a parking space with a sidewalk cafe would be enough to draw the ire of merchants and chambers of commerce. Over the last decade or so this perception has been changing drastically. With more and more cities embarking on pilot projects to close streets for traffic, businesses are seeing the benefits of car-free commerce. Thus Instead of viewing integrated ecological design at odds with economic development, city planners worldwide are increasingly promoting urban density with a focus on community and people’s connection with nature as an automatic boost to small business and local commerce. This new urbanism combines the strengths of the market with the strengths of good planning and basic ecological and social principles.

“Nothing in excess” goes the maxim often heard and taught. But in practice, we have exploited Earth’s resources like there’s no tomorrow. As a result, we are facing the consequences of our excesses manifested in Global warming, water scarcity and ruined ecosystems. Our cities have grown inorganically with huge asymmetries in their development. Just to put a figure to that; 30% of India’s 1.1 billion population lives in urban areas. Of that more than 70% resides in just 10% of the cities. Not only have the resources depleted at alarming rates, they have been grossly polluted.

‘Sustainability’ is the need of the hour. Sustainability is defined as “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” It’s all about using living in a way that resources serve us in perpetuity. So what do we need to do to live in a sustainable manner? We must reduce our ‘Ecological Footprint’. Ecological footprint a measure of humanity’s demand on nature and measures amount of land and water a given population needs to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb the wastes, using prevailing technology. A lot of green standards abound that tell us how to design our buildings in an environment friendly way. But what we actually need is better planning of our cities.

I refer to an article on building new cities in the 21^st century that compared two cities viz. Barcelona and Atlanta. Both are former Olympic hosts with populations of around 2.8 million and with roughly the same standard of living. Yet, the per capita ecological footprint of Atlanta is four times that of Barcelona! Indeed, Barcelona’s per capita environmental impact is lower than even that of many rural areas of Europe. In India the large cities are already bursting at the seams and every day newspapers are full of problems faced due to rampant in-migration. We cannot stop people from choosing where they want to live and work. The answer lies in creating sensible templates for urban planning.

So what should be our strategy for a sustainable future? We need to design compact cities and stop creating flat urban sprawls. Our Cities should have an optimized circulation plan alongwith an efficient Public transport built into the urban design. Studies suggest that reducing the sprawl and better public transport alone can bring in a 30% reduction in energy usage. Building sustainable cities would involve significant costs in modifications to existing city structures and building new cities. However, sustainable development must be treated as investment and not consumption. Only in this way will capital including our natural capital be available for future re-investment.

Neerad Swaroop

I got a chance recently, to go to the land of pretty girls, tall towers, large palaces and elaborately embellished places of worship. Partly because I haven't seen too many foreign countries and I was excited to do so, and partly because it was part of my curriculum at IPMX (1 year MBA program at IIM Lucknow) and I didn't have too much of a choice, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Now, statistics suggest that it takes an alert person approximately 2 weeks to assimilate an alien culture, and co-incidentally, my visit was scheduled to last exactly 14 days. (Of course, like most other statistics you've come across, this one too, has been concocted on-the-spot, entirely with the intention of sounding convincing and knowledgeable about the point just made.)


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IPMX is not just only studies but also about experiencing the rich life style that NCR offers. So, a bunch of music enthusiasts within our batch were pretty much up for it when we heard that Indian Ocean, possibly India's most original and cherished band, is going to perform at Hard Rock Cafe, New Delhi. 
And boy.. what a show! I could not fail to observe that there was such a wide mix of audience with quite a few foreigners as well; all simply worshiping and applauding the band. It just proves one point. When music is honest and soulful, people will love it, no matter what the language and style is.

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Whenever I think of Harry Potter movie Prisoner of Azkaban, I feel jealous of Hermione, the one who knew each and every charm. Reason is that she had Time Turner and I don’t. It helped her in reversing the time and did whatever she wanted. I can’t. The only thing which I wish at IPMX-IIML is to have a time turner or more time.
Now question is when God has already given 24 hours why I need more. The answer goes back to information I read on IPMX site. It said program is rigorous and all the activities at IPMX-IIML are student driven. After nearly 3 months into the program, I had finally understood that it meant a few hours sleep that too with a guilt feeling of going to sleep with so much balance to do. Biz is what at the centre of the universe for us and we all students buzz around it with plethora of activities.

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Well, I had heard about the concept of peer learning in B- schools. What I did not know however, was the sheer strength and impact of the same, especially in a case based pedagogy! What we have here is a pool of 48 students with work experience ranging from 6 years to 23 years across diverse sectors and industries, each carrying an enormous knowledge base. An average work experience of around 9.5 years makes it 450 years of experience and wisdom to be assimilated within a short span of 1 year!

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Make hay while the sun shines. Extract the spirit of this saying and one can come up with one's own flavors of it. For instance - 'Cheat in the quiz while the professor is not looking your way'. Though these days you can do better than just make hay in sun and use sunshine to produce what is called clean energy. Last week we performed the rites and rituals which are preconditions for entering a new term.

June 5th, although scoring comparatively low on the acads-meter of IPMX, was one of the busiest days we’ve had this year.

After assignments and various other commitments had kept us awake for the better part of last night, the day started pretty early for most of us. Dragging your reluctant bodies out of the coziness of your sheets becomes far more easier when it is for a social cause, as evident from events today. Roughly 30 of the 48 enrolled were up, about and done with an early breakfast by 0600 hours, a time at which nary a soul stirs on any other day. From that point on, the day took two distinct routes for us, to converge at a well-deserved celebration in the evening.

Let’s Do It, Delhi – We Came, We Saw, We Cleaned



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Before joining IPMX, I used to wonder whether I would be able to withstand the rigors of the programme. The books that landed at my place even before the start of the programme added to the apprehensions! Life was moving at an extremely comfortable pace and I must say that for me, the transition from a manager to student has certainly not been without its share of challenges….

Looking back after the completion of the 1st term, I wonder how much we’ve been able to accomplish in such a short time. For someone who’s biggest luxury in life was long hours of sleep, getting used to a just a few hours everyday and still surviving was itself a revelation!! Could this be the ‘Pygmalion effect’ at work? Don’t really know… (to understand this, you may need to wait till you attend the Organizational Behavior class at IPMX). For me, term 1 would certainly be remembered as a test for survival… hope there are better things at store in the second term :-) Read the full story