Company Background
Expertise Available
Sample of Ecosmart’s Clients
Achievements
Ecosmart - Key Personnel Profiles
Ecosmart - Key Strengths

Company Background

Ecosmart India Limited is a strategic consulting initiative promoted by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS), a premier non-banking financial institution in India.   

IL&FS was promoted by Unit Trust of India, Central Bank of India and Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd.  Currently, 43.58% of the shareholding of IL&FS is held by Government of India Undertakings (State Bank of India and Central Bank of India) and Unit Trust of India. The other shareholders are International Finance Corporation, Washington, ORIX Corporation, Japan, HDFC, Credit Commercial de France, Indivest Pte Ltd (Government of Singapore) and IL&FS Employee Welfare Trust. 

IL&FS commenced operations in 1988 with specific share holder mandate to provide value added financial services and develop infrastructure projects on a commercial basis. IL&FS focus in the infrastructure sector has been on developing commercially viable infrastructure projects under the public private partnership frameworks (PPP).  In all its projects, IL&FS works closely with State Government, as partners, in developing and implementing the projects. IL&FS has successfully developed several projects in the infrastructure sector such as Delhi Noida Bridge Project, Ahmedabad Mahesana Road Project, Vadodara Halol Road Project, Tirupur Water Supply Project, Vishakhapatanam Industrial Water Supply Project, Gangavaram Port Project etc. IL&FS has entered into partnerships with several state governments for jointly developing project on a commercial basis within that State or sector. 

IL&FS has been one of the first financial institutions in India that has considered environmental and social issues, an integral part of the project development process.  In 1996, IL&FS adopted an Environmental and Social Policy and developed an operational framework across the project development cycle in the form of an Environmental and Social Report that was approved by the IL&FS Board and is upheld in all projects.  This led to improved project concept and design as well as Implementation methodologies that minimized the environmental and social impacts while at the same time enhanced the project benefits.  

IL&FS, in the light of time-tested benefits of integration of environment and social concerns in its projects, realized the need to create an independent organization addressing the diverse needs of business, government and communities towards proactive environmental management.  In this perspective, IL&FS has promoted an independent consulting company, Ecosmart India Limited (Ecosmart) for providing environmental and social services in the infrastructure and industrial sectors. IL&FS is holding the share capital of Ecosmart through its 100% subsidiary and affiliate company 

Ecosmart today provides consulting services to project developers, belonging to public and private sectors as well as financial institutions, in India as well as Abroad.  Ecosmart has rich and diverse experience in planning, reviewing and implementing environment and social safeguards as an integral part of project development, implementation, post-implementation monitoring process meeting requirements of Government of India (GOI), various State Governments and Multi-lateral financing agencies, including The World Bank, IFC and Asian Development Bank..  “Ecosmart operates on a proactive philosophy that ecological thinking is critical to bring in both sustainability and competitiveness in any economic development.”  This distinguishes Ecosmart from other environmental consulting companies.  

Presently, Ecosmart has corporate office at Mumbai with regional offices in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. These offices are well equipped with computing, library and other infrastructure facilities.

Ecosmart's Capabilities as a Consultant:

Ecosmart provides specialized services in independent review and evaluation of environmental and social risk profile of investments and/or lending operations in industrial and infrastructure projects and provide measures to prevent minimize and mitigate the environment and social risks.  Ecosmart has successfully delivered various outputs at different stages of project development process and has gained significant credibility in delivering on its mandate.   Some of the key assignments accrued to the credit of Ecosmart, where specialized inputs have been provided in integrating environment and social concerns in project development include:

§               Green House Gas Reduction in Textile Clusters

§               Development of Environmental and Infrastructure facilities for small and medium entrepreneurs in Textile Cluster

§               Area Development and Environmental Improvement Projects

§               Road Sector Projects

§               Water Supply Projects

§               Port Development Projects

§               Telecom/ Wireless Planning projects

§               Remote Sensing / Geographical Information System (GIS) / GPS

§               Urban Planning & Utility Projects

In addition, Ecosmart possesses in‑house expertise and well-equipped infrastructure to support and facilitate all aspect of Information Technology and Environment related work. Some of the projects Ecosmart India have expertise and capable of handling are listed below:

Environmental Planning and Management

·          Environmental Impact Assessments

·          Corporate Environmental and Social Reporting

·          Studies on various environmental components such as water, air, land, land use, flora and fauna, soil and geology, hydrology and hydrogeology, etc.

·          Risk Assessment Studies and Preparation of Disaster Management Plans

·          Toxic & Hazardous Waste Management

·          Training and Capacity Building of Institutions in Environmental Management

·          Geographic Information Systems

·          Strategic advice on Preventive Environmental Management for Corporate (This includes setting and operational zing environmental management systems, corporate environmental reporting, compliance and liability assessments, and life cycle analysis)

·          Environmental Planning and Management Studies, including Environmental Management Systems (EMS) as per ISO 14000: 1996 requirements.

Regulatory Compliance Assessment

Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance Audits

·          Reporting

·          ESA Training 

Merger, Acquisition and Divestiture Support

·          Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments

·          Portfolio and Liability Assessment

·          Remediation and Compliance Reserve Estimates 

Environmental Remediation

·          Soil and Groundwater Investigation

·          Groundwater Monitoring and Sampling

·          Data Management

·          Feasibility Studies

·          Disclosure Services

·          Soil and Groundwater Remediation

·          Remediation Training 

Cleaner Production Assessment

·          Advisory services for registering projects under Clean Development Mechanism

·          Cleaner Production Opportunity Assessment

·          Development of bankable projects in Energy and Environment sector for Industries 

Telecom & Wireless Planning

·          Regional Network Planning and coverage analysis

·          Line-of-sight analysis

·          Network Expansion and optimization

·          Site acquisition and field validation  

Remote Sensing &Geographical Information System

·          Satellite Image Rectification & Processing

·          Satellite Image Classification and Interpretation

·          Aerial Photograph & GPS  technology

·          Data Conversion and Updating Database

·          GIS/Spatial Mapping

·          Customized GIS Solution

·          AM / FM Mapping

Ecosmart’s Capabilities as a Programme Manager:

Ecosmart has capability to promote environmental initiatives in the framework of public-private partnership.  Here, Ecosmart operates as a programme manager to conceive, steer and manage projects that have a complex interface between government, business and communities.  Programmes such as “Ecocity” and “Environmental Information Centre” with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, GOI and “Greenhouse Gas Reduction” in Textile Cluster at Tirupur with US Agency for International Development (USAID) are illustrations of ongoing projects where Ecosmart operates as a Programme Manager. Ecosmart manages a World bank funded MOEF initiative – The Environmental Information Centre. 

Ecosmart has played a significant role in Telecom & Wireless application projects particularly in WLL/GSM/CDMA/TDMA sectors with special integration of Remote Sensing/ GIS & GPS technology.  

Expertise is also available for financial, institutional and management studies, related to feasibility of water supply, sewerage and environmental projects

Sample of Ecosmart’s Clients  

·         IDFC

·         World Bank

·         USAID

·         MOEF

·         CAIRN ENERGY

·         TNRDC

·         BSNL

·         MTNL

·         Idea Cellular

·         Tata Teleservices

·         Aircom

·         Motorola

·          SAIL

And many mores…………….

Achievements

Some of the valuable milestones achieved by Ecosmart India Limited in the past include:

• The Environmental and Social Assessment for Vadodara Halol Toll Road Project, which forms part of the detailed feasibility, and has been rated as best report received by the World Bank financed projects in India during 1992-1997.
• Resettlement Action Plan prepared for Ahmedabad - Mehsana Road Project has been rated as the best document and is currently posted on World Bank web site as one of the Good Practice Example for Resettlement and Rehabilitation in Road Sector Projects

Provided environmental and social consultations on several infrastructure projects, including road sector (12 projects), area development (5 projects), water sector (3 projects), and port projects (2 projects) at different stages of project development process. These projects are spread over 10 different States in India.

Ecosmart India Limited - Key Personnel Profiles

Ecosmart is fully equipped with well-qualified and experienced professionals with experience of working with regulatory, commercial, and voluntary sector agencies. In addition to these, Ecosmart India Limited maintains excellent working relationships with various other consulting and engineering firms, academic organizations, NGOs, construction contractors and international agencies.

Mahesh Babu, Chief Executive Officer
Dr Somnath Mukherjee, Regional Manager, New Delhi
Dr. Vijay Joshi, Head – Environmental Consulting Operations, Mumbai
Shaivali Parekh, Business Leader : Environmental Finance & Risk Assessment, Mumbai
Santosh Shidhaye, Business Leader – Industrial Environmental Management, Mumbai
Chetan Zaveri, Business Leader, Environmental Compliance and Risk Management, Mumbai
Bijay Panda, RS/GIS Specialist
Suneetha Kacker, Urban Specialist
Harleen Kaur, Head - Business Development

Ecosmart India Limited - Key Strengths

Ecosmart is uniquely positioned to undertake assignments that require the conceptualization, planning and implementation of environmental, social risk management strategies that are socially responsive and environmentally effective.  In addition, our team has experience in providing environmental & spatial solution services to multinational and Indian clients. 

Key strength’s that Ecosmart India Limited can offer to its client include:

§               Overall perspective of project development from concept to completion;

§               Hands on experience in identifying the environmental and social issues and their integration with technical, legal, and financial aspects in project development process;

§               Excellent knowledge and understanding of environmental laws in India, as well as policy application and enforcement at local levels across India; and

§               Familiarity with US protocols, methodologies and standards and the adaptation of these to the local environment

§               Complete Geodata solution to telecom/wireless planning with respect to WLL/CDMA/GSM sector.

§               Conceptualization and development of knowledge base RS/GIS module for wide range infrastructure and environmental planning.

§               Housed huge amount of spatial database and expertise to support different spatial planning activities.