Sustainable Procurement in Indian Railways - The Track Ahead

I got motivated to bring out this handout during a workshop on " Green Public Procurement" held in March 2012. This workshop was organized by IRILMM and was sponsored by United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP).  I realized that while Indian Railways has undertaken several projects leading to carbon emission reduction, enhanced energy efficiency etc., most of our own people is not aware of them. I can't blame outsiders for that!

I was confused in the beginning about what to include and what not to include. The major factor was limitation on number of pages. The more the number of pages, more the money required to published it.  I had no doubt that I could get funding from Railways. Finally, I decided to spend from my own pocket and cap the expenditure at Rs 10,000/- and worked backwards to decide no of pages, no of copies, choice of paper etc. Since finance was limited, I had to design cover page and its layout, those are something, I am not good at. My wife, Nupoor helped me a lot in editing and type setting, for which I am very grateful to her. She also helped me in design and giving it a more professional look. I appreciate the help that I received from Mr. Sirohi in obtaining papers at very competitive rate. 

Having decided on the project, I took help of many professionals to give it a final shape. I have acknowledged their names in my remarks at the end of this handbook. In case, I have missed out some names, I am sorry and sincerely thank them as well for their help.

This report was well received and as a result found places on many websites. I thank all of you, who took initiative to make this available on your websites for wider dissemination. 

http://www.sustainable-procurement.org/newsroom/news-archive/?c=search&uid=278561db 

http://www.igpn.org/news/2012/08/sustainable_procurement_in_the.html

http://www.sustainableprocurement.eu.com/aboutus.html

Some of the feedbacks that I received are given below. Of course no one has pointed out its shortcomings. I want you to point out those so that such report could be improved in future.

 “Congratulation for making this effort. We will use this report for our paper.”

 - Prof. Dr. Edeltraud Guenther, Technical University, Dresden, Germany.

“Very good to see how much progress has been made!!”

 - Robert Donkers, Minister Counsellor Environment, Delegation of the European Union to India.

" A very good initiative"
             - Rajan Gandhi, SAG

“Good work done.”

 - Eveline Venanzoni, Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

“Congratulations on producing such a professional and comprehensive document.”

 - Barbara Morton, Sustainable Procurement Ltd, United Kingdom.

 I think what has been reported in this report is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many excellent sustainable works going around you.  I propose that like-minded people can join hands to document such works undertaken by India Railways and produce a wonderful report. I don't think money would be a constraint this time!!!