By Rakhi Mazumdar

Indal's Hirakud complex houses a 42-year-old smelter, but it's still green

It may have gone green more to conserve scarce resources than to save the environment, but Indian Aluminium's is a happy story, too. In 1996, its thermal power plant and smelter at Hirakud became the first such facility in Asia to be ISO 14001 certified. Since then, its other five units-smelter at Belgaum and Alupuram, alumina plant at Muri, and the Alupuram extrusion facility-geared up for the same.

Last year, Indal re-defined its corporate environment policy to come up with an Environmental Performance Assurance Process. If the first phase of its environmental programme focused on achieving and exceeding regulatory standards, the new phase focused on eco-supply chain management and eco-product design. Says A.K. Kar, Chief Executive of the Hirakud complex: ''We want to be proactively green, instead of just looking at end-of-the-pipe solutions.''

Not an easy job for somebody who manages a 42-year-old smelter, whose operations usually lead to a large-scale degradation of water and air resources. Thus, each activity in the unit is defined, its direct and indirect impact on the environment is noted, and action is taken to minimise the impact.

To do that, the Resource Conservation and Environment Committee-including nine departmental heads, 20 environmental auditors, the chief medical officer, and the plant chief executives-meets once every month. Suppliers and vendors are involved, too. Indal regularly communicates its expectations to all suppliers. The minimum compliance standard has been set at 70 per cent. In addition, it collects feedback from surrounding localities and holds 'open meetings', where NGOs and other institutions participate.

Raw materials and production efficiency make the biggest impact on the environment. Not surprisingly, the unit has been focusing on greater eco-efficiency in these areas. In effluent treatment, Indal uses a unique biological method. called Rotating Bio Contractor (RBC), which involves transferring waste water and effluents into a huge barrel with two rotating discs. At regular intervals, each of the discs is laced with insects that break the effluent into toxic-free elements.

A baggage Indal has had to live with is the wet scrub technology to clean the pot exhaust gases of flouride fumes. Modern-day units use dry-scrub technology, but Indal has managed to improve on wet-scrubbing, reducing the cost of scrubbing by Rs 165 per tonne of metal. And, as Kar says, should anyone doubt whether Indal's green initiatives are working, they only need to look at the 24-acre forest that has come up on the ash mound near the plant.

ORCHID CHEMICALS & PHARMACEUTICALS
Matching Ideals With Requirements

By Nitya Varadarajan

Orchid's K.Raghavendra Rao believes in sharing his environmental practices with others

The greenery around Orchid Chemicals' factory, at Chennai, does not go beyond a waterfall and a patch of grass. But Orchid has done more than its share of protecting the environment. The factory has become akin to a tourist spot; corporate delegations are the chief visitors-wondering how so much got done with so little water. Managing Director, K. Raghavendra Rao does not believe that competitors will steal his secrets if he lets them in. ''If they learn good environment practices from us, the country will benefit,'' he says. It is not just companies, even CII makes Orchid its destination for training in ecological practices.

For Orchid, being clean and green is not just driven by value, it is essential for operations, too. Thus, the company threw merely a cursory glance at the pitiful effluent treatment support provided by the SIDCO industrial estate and went about building its own. Had it not done so, the company could not have expanded production year after year (100 tonnes in 1993, to 700 tonnes in the last count).

Orchid is also the youngest company to get an ISO 14001 certification. Rao himself oversees the internal audit department on a monthly basis, while the ISO team comes once in six months.

However, the company has some complaints against the governmental agencies. For instance, Rao feels that solid inorganic wastes, which are nothing but salts, could be let out into the sea, as this will not damage the environment. However, the government does not allow this, as it feels that this facility can be misused. ''Hence, we have created our own space,'' he says. ''In fact, the State PCB took 50 per cent of our initial investment as caution deposit, and it has still not returned it.''

In liquid management, Orchid has gone beyond the norms of international requirement to absolute zero discharge of effluents. ''Essentially, the process has been divided into two: a system treating effluent containing low salts and low organics and a system which treats high levels of impurities,'' says Rao. An important provision made is in the shape of 'elevated ponds', which can hold effluent water for treatment.

All potential pollutants arising from manufacturing processes are trapped within a closed system for effective neutralisation. Water usage is doled out even for canteen and toilets. There are no water coolants in the company, resulting in savings of 300 cubic metres a day. The waste heat recovery is about 87 per cent.

''Four years ago, we had the same amount of effluents and today too, we have the same, despite manifold production capacity expansion,'' says S. Mani, gm (Engineering, Environment, Health, & Safety). The additional 150 cubic metre leeway gives room for more production. The highly efficient solvent recovery systems result in savings of Rs 90 lakh of methylene chloride, Rs 10 lakh each of acetone and methanol, and Rs 32 lakh of ammonia.

Orchid will continue to enhance its ecological activities. Its R&D has been given mandate in devising improvements, which are not merely cost-effective, but also eco-friendly.

PHILIPS INDIA
It Does Make Things Better 

By Roop Karnani

Philip's pimpri facility doesn't show it, but the plant handles mercury CFC and other chemicals