PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Nov 14: Realising the urgent need for integrating nature and biodiversity concerns into business decision-making, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and XLRI Jamshedpur signed an MoU today.
Founded in 1948 IUCN is an international nature conservation union, with its members consisting of sovereign states, government agencies, international agencies with observer status in the United Nations General Assembly.
XLRI, founded in 1949, is India’s first and oldest management institute with a vision “To be an institution of excellence nurturing responsible global leaders for the greater common good and a sustainable future”.
Fr Arrupe Centre for Ecology and Sustainability (FACES) at XLRI is a multi-disciplinary centre which aims to promote policies, practices and dialogue which have an impact on the holistic and sustainable development of society and enterprises.
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Building capacity of corporate executives on three dimensions
The purpose of the collaboration is to sensitize and build the capacity of the corporate executives, particularly working in corporate sustainability, environmental management, Corporate Social Responsibility domains, on three dimensions (i) integration of nature-biodiversity concerns into decision-making, (ii) signalling business responsibility, and (iii) measure, monitor and report on business-biodiversity interface under reporting frameworks like The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
IUCN and XLRI believe that the learnings from the training programs will equip Indian business leaders with the skill set to shape and contribute to their company’s biodiversity policies and align them with global best practices linked with national and international disclosures.
Further, IUCN and XLRI will create a business-biodiversity knowledge repository of good practices and case studies. XLRI students are likely to get summer internship opportunities to work with IUCN, which will hone their business-biodiversity leadership skills.
The MoU was signed by Yash Veer Bhatnagar, IUCN India Country Representative and Tata L. Raghu Ram, Chairperson, FACES-XLRI.
The MOU was signed in the presence of the Board of Governors of XLRI.
