Parivartan was organized as part of ISC’s sustainable manufacturing project titled “Accelerating Clean, Equitable (ACE) Manufacturing” in India. The project is aimed at the decarbonization of the Indian manufacturing sector, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which form the backbone of India’s economic activity and cannot be overlooked if India is to meet its emission reduction targets. Since social equity is at the heart of ISC’s work, the ACE project also naturally has a lens of equitable action and focuses not on decarbonization but equitable decarbonization of the Indian SMEs. Being highly energy-intensive, SMEs are increasingly facing environmental challenges like waste generation, carbon emissions, pollution, and resource depletion. This necessitates a paradigm shift towards sustainable manufacturing practices. Additionally, social challenges like gender inequity and unsatisfactory working conditions are hindering the full growth potential of SMEs as nearly half the workforce resource (i.e., women) remains untapped. Therefore, a cohesive action involving both social and environmental issues is the need of hour, for an equitable and sustainable growth of the SMEs.
