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ITC Ltd, with business interests ranging from tobacco to FMCG to hotels, has taken an in-principle decision to achieve 'Platinum LEED' rating - the highest global certification for environment-friendly buildings - for every major construction it takes up from now on. The move, which perhaps marks the first such initiative taken by a corporate group in the country, would involve every hotel, office building, factory or shop that ITC plans to build.

"We have big plans to grow which involve investment in new buildings. Our objective is to reduce our carbon footprint across the company's operations and on its premises. The initiative will also encompass every existing property and office premises that ITC owns. For instance, for those properties which come up for renovation, we will introduce environment-friendly systems and processes that will set the ball rolling for them to achieve the 'green' rating," Kurush Grant, member, corporate management committee, ITC Ltd.

He was speaking to ET on the sidelines of a seminar on 'UK-India Business Partnership: Low Carbon Economy', organised by CII to mark the visit to Kolkata of the UK's representative for trade and industry, Prince Andrew, Duke of York.

Incidentally, Platinum LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environment Design, is a US Buildings Council certification, has recently inspired an Indian standard in 'Teri-Griha' or The Energy and Research Institute's Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. The latter was devised for India keeping local conditions in mind and involve energy efficiency, water conservation, environment.

"At present, we are implementing the initiative through in-house knowledge gathered over the years. If we get the right kind of experts we could also work with them," Mr Grant added.

The company has already made a beginning of sorts in green buildings with the ITC Sonar Kolkata being the first hotel in the world to achieve the 'green' tag. "ITC has eight CDM projects registered so far," Mr Grant added. Apart from ITC Sonar, two other buildings that have already received green credits are ITC Royal Gardenia in Bangalore and ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon.

Earlier, speaking at the seminar, Mr Grant shared some of ITC's experience with green initiatives. ITC's move to lower carbon footprint is being built around each business model and through corporate social responsibility around each unit, he said.

For example, in its paper and packaging business, ITC faced a choice on whether to import wood pulp from Indonesia or to take up social forestry. It chose the latter and has now emerged as one of the champions in carbon sequestration, with 30% of its energy coming from renewable sources.