DNV India recently awarded the SA 8000:2008 certificate to the Packaging and Printing division of one of India's foremost and most respected private sector companies, ITC Limited.
DNV India recently awarded the SA 8000:2008 certificate to South Asia’s largest value added converter of paperboard packaging, ITC Packaging & Printing Division, situated in Tiruvottiyur in Chennai. "It gives us immense pleasure to be a part of sustainability journey of ITC’s state-of-the-art Printing & Packaging division,” says Nandkumar Vadakepatth, DNV Lead auditor (SA 8000) and Head – Sustainability and business Excellence Services (South India). He corroborates saying, “The customer exhibits its commitment not only to uphold high quality packaging and printing requirements, but also to be a socially responsible organisation, and they are certain that the Social Accountability standard compliance will strengthen and support this vision."
He goes on to say that, “As part of its long term strategy, ITC is committed to ensure compliance to human rights as per International Labour Organisation (ILO) core conventions…..constantly striving to improve the working conditions for employees and providing safe & healthy work place for its employees . With this SA 8000 certification, ITC will inadvertently prompt other companies and key suppliers to carry out business in a socially responsible way. .”
SA 8000 is the most sought after certification to demonstrate social and ethical compliance by companies in the value chain. The key drivers of SA 8000 were the garment and apparel manufacturing companies who essentially have the vision to fulfill their export ambitions…largely because the current global market demands that suppliers and their sub-suppliers be socially and ethically responsible.
“ITC group believes that providing a transparent, measurable, verifiable standard for certifying the social performance of companies is beneficial for long term success of the organizations, and believes that this can be achieved by putting a management system in place i.e. SA 8000 certification sets the stage for constantly monitoring the social risk and helps in formulating appropriate strategies and action plans,” says Nandkumar.
Grand ceremony
A formal handing over ceremony was organised by ITC on 21st Apr 2010 which was graced by the staff and managers of ITC's Packaging and Printing factory unit in Chennai and was also attended by DNV’s Mr. N. R. Krishnakumar, Director of Operations, DNV (Region India & Middle East) and Mr. Karthik Ramaswamy, Senior Assessor, DNV (Sustainability Services). Mr. N. R. Krishnakumar formally handed over the SA 8000 certificate to Mr. V. Shanmughanathan, HR Manager (ITC) and B. Suresh, Employee Representative (DNV).
Giving his feedback, Mr. V. Shanmughanathan, HR Head and SA 8000 Management representative, ITC –Packaging & Printing Division said, “The run up to the SA 8000 certification was an eventful journey for each one of us.” He goes on to say, “The involvement of all our employees, managers, contractors & other stakeholders in evangelizing Social Accountability Standards was a memorable experience since it generated a lot of excitement and expectation in the unit to set new Social Accountability standards.”
Talking about partnering with DNV, Mr. Shanmughanathan says, “Overall, the DNV Team provided a great learning opportunity to the HR & Quality Team during this entire certification journey.”