TUV Rheinland completes first phase of SME project

BANGALORE: TUV Rheinland, a leading global provider of technical, safety and certification services, on Tuesday announced the completion of the initial phase of its PPP initiative for an 'Enhanced Productivity and Sustainable Industrial Ecology among SMEs in Karnataka'.

In a statement, TUV Rheinland said that under the project, it will audit ten select SMEs and rate them on social, environmental and occupational safety standards as per international norms, "enabling them gain global acceptance and recognition".

The initiative, dubbed 'SHINE (Systematic and Holistic Programme for a Balanced Industrial Ecology)', is jointly funded by DEG of Germany, Europe's largest developmental finance institution, and knowledge firm ECC International.

Speaking at a Best Practices Exchange Forum held here at the end of the first phase of the project, where the 10 select SMEs shared their lessons and experiences with the industry, academia and government, TUV Rheinland Director M Bhaskar said, "Karnataka's rapid and unsustainable economic growth is posing a serious challenge to the ecological balance of the region and the environment in general."

He said studies confirm that 51 per cent of the state's highly polluting industries were concentrated in the four districts of Bangalore, Belgaum, Bellary and Mysore.

These cities account for a huge concentration of small and medium industries, which are losing their competitive edge and are ill-equipped to meet increasingly stringent national and international rules and regulations, as a result of which they are in danger of being shutdown, Bhaskar said.

"Our project seeks to achieve increased levels of awareness and adoption of environmental health standards by addressing issues at three key levels, awareness, involvement and implementation. We will organise mass mobilisation programmes (and) create multi-stakeholder expert pools to train and build capacity in groups to switch to sustainable industrial production," Bhaskar said.

Speaking at the forum, ECCI Managing Director Sreenivasan said: "As a part of the programme, we have also created a comprehensive e-learning kit on international standards and best practices governing industrial production that will be distributed to over 200 enterprises in the state."