Care for the Environment is Central

The Green Card Rating System

Authors

Shri Hemant Dubey

HOD: Environment Department
Reliance Industries Limited- Vadodara Manufacturing Division
e-mail: hemant.dubey@ril.com

Shri Sanjay Patel

Environment Department
Reliance Industries Limited- Vadodara Manufacturing Division
e-mail: sanjay.j.patel@ril.com

Miss Hetal Kothari

Environment Department
Reliance Industries Limited- Vadodara Manufacturing Division
e-mail: hetal.kothari@ril.com

Abstract: RIL- VMD has developed an innovative Environment Performance Evaluation

initiative called The Green Card Rating System, which is a unique in-house system developed
to integrate production and environment and to provide easily achievable and simple (must)
targets with flexibility. This paper highlights the methodology of implementation of this
unique and now global parallel Environment Performance Rating system and its benefits to
Manufacturing Industry. The Green Card Rating System founded at RIL- VMD is now a part
of our Global Reporting System and has found its unique place in the Director’s Report of
Reliance Industries Limited.
Keywords: Green Card, Rating, Environment Performance, Greener Operations,
Environmental Audits

EVOLUTION OF PROJECT GREEN CARD

The Green Card Rating System was developed with an innovative intention to integrate
Production with Environment. The genesis backing Project Green Card was a set of very

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obvious and most common problems associated with Large Industries with very Ambitious
Production Targets. The need for an efficient self sustaining system for Environmental
Management in this scenario became most essential due to following reasons
ü Violation free days became rare
ü Major Operations were focused on Production
ü The concern for Environmental issue is day to day activities began diminishing
As a result Environment became soft pillows in context of performance based incentives for
operating personnel. With the above objectives and problems in mind, the green card rating
system was developed and implemented in April 2003 covering all major environmental
concerns of operating plants and aspects needed to control in order to maintain statutory
requirement and necessary improvements.

The objective is to provide sustainable instrument for continuous improvement. The system is
designed to facilitate incorporation of Environmental protection and pollution prevention in
day to day activities of the plants and hence evaluate various plants based on their
Environmental performances. With each year, the system was fine tuned to ensure better
auditing methodologies and involvement of all departments of plants including process,
mechanical, electrical, instrumental, civil and non plant areas.

THE CONCEPT OF GREENER OPERATIONS

RIL- VMD has dedicatedly worked for improvement and economic grow th of the company
as well as the nation since its inception. This is done with strong belief in adopting
environmentally sound and best available technologies and with due consideration to
sustainable development and right of pollution free environment for our future generations.
RIL - VMD has time and again shown this concern by modifying operating practices and
procedures to maintain Greener Operations. The company has as and when feasible, adopted
change and modified technologies to serve better cause.

Our beliefs lie with various aspects of Green living which we demonstrate by means of our
actions and activities. These mainly include:
Conservation

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ü Schemes implemented and activities by plant to conserve water
ü Efforts put in by plant to conserve Energy and Raw material
Reduction
ü Reduction in Waste and Effluent generation
ü Reduction in Emission of GHG and ODS consumption
Management of Waste
ü Handling & Storage of Hazardous Waste
ü Segregation of Waste and Waste treatment and disposal to generate revenue
ü Striving to Achieve Zero Garbage
Green Practices
ü Framing of Environment Plan for Shutdown
ü Efforts to modify operating practices to prevent Environment Impact
ü Efforts to recycle and reuse within or outside plant
ü Efforts to reduce paper and plastic waste generation

HOW IS THE GREEN CARD RATING DONE?

The Green Card Rating system depends on a set of essential Environmental Parameters that
are set and decided along with monitoring strategy and limits by interaction with the plant
and central technical services. These Environmental Parameters are thereafter translated as
Green Cards that are awarded to the plant at the beginning of every financial year. The Green
cards for every parameter are credited to the Plant for the whole year. Thereafter based on
Environmental performance of the plant, corresponding Green Cards are deducted or retained
every Month. A monthly and Cumulative count of total green cards of each plant is
maintained throughout the year. Correspondingly a monthly status and rating is also released
to plants. This helps plants keep track for their score, and evaluate where more efforts may be
required for improvement.

Towards the end of the year, plants are guided to submit a compiled report of all
modification, schemes, technical changes and innovations done in the plant to benefit on
Environmental Front. These schemes are scrutinized thoroughly and scored with a maximum
of 100 green cards in bulk. A special card with a weight age of 100 Green cards called

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Centurion Card is dedicated to such schemes and projects taken up and implemented in the
plant during the year.

Finally, based on the monthly cumulative score and centurion card score a rating of the best
Plant performer s on Environment front are recognized and awarded the “Green Card
Excellence Award” on 5th June, World Environment Day Celebration function.

A detailed analysis of the performance of each plant is discussed with them in order to bring
about improvement in operating practice or encouraging taking up as scheme for the next
year.

THE GREEN CARDS

The Green Cards that are issued to plants at the beginning of every year are divided into four
main categories as follows

The Water & Effluent Management

Implementation of Schemes for waster conservation, Concentrate on Water saving per month,
Encourage prevention of leaks and wastage of water, striving towards Zero Effluent
Discharge, Practices to avoid Effluent quality deviations during Shutdown, trials to eliminate
toxicants in Effluent

Air & Waste Management

Efforts to achieve Zero Garbage, Biogas generation from Canteen and Garden waste,
Reduction, Recycle and Reuse of Wastes, Focus on Paperless work, Effective Waste
segregation.
Explore means to reduce HAPs to Zero, Odorless and leak less plants, Compliance to New
Air Emission Standards, Air emissions control by simple changes in practices during
Shutdown.

Energy & Ecology

Reduction in Energy usage & Steam consumption, Promote use of alternate energy.
Reduction in Fuel consumption and optimizing furnace operations. Efforts to reduce GHG

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emissions Phase out plan for ODS, Alternates to ODS as refrigerants, etc. Prevention of
plastic, paper, food etc types of wastes spillage in gardens, Prevention of damage to gardens,
trees, shrubs within plant area.

Environmental Monitoring & A uditing Systems

Environmental Risk Assessment of critical activities, Prevention of any Leak, Spill or release
in plant, Plan for abatement after the incident. Review of Audit observations and Effective
implementation of Action plan for correction, Monthly Environment training programs to be
conducted by plant as per Environment plan, Environmental Information System
implementation to upload desired report by 5th of every month on Environment database
Server

THE PENALTY CLAUSE

A good rating system accounts for defaulters by levying a penalty clause so as to make the
rating stricter and prevent wrong doings. A set of penalties as identified for the Green Card
Rating System are levied as and when defaulted to focus of critical Environmental aspects

GREEN CARD AUDITS

Audits are an essential and inevitable part of any Performance Rating System. For Green
Card Rating, the Audits are conducted as dual level mechanism to serve two main purposes.

Sectional Environment Audit (SEA)

In order to make Environmental Protection a line function of the plant, one monthly
Environmental self audit is conducted by each Discipline sectional head (Process,
Mechanical, Electrical and Instrumentation) of the plant. The Green Cards are awarded for
SEA for conducting the audit, irrespective of the Audit findings.

Quarterly External Environment Audit (QEA)

The second line of Audit mechanism involves a rigorous audit conducted by a specialized
team of Environmental Experts comprising of an External Auditor, Environment Cell and

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respective plant personnel. The purpose of this audit is to evaluate Plant performance, onsite
audit, validation of SEA and SWC monitoring reports, follow-up of Plant Environment Plan
and action plan for improvement on Audit Observations, testing of plant personnel
knowledge, validation of Inside battery limit pollution control and monitoring facilities, etc.

MILESTONES

The Journey towards Environmental Excellence of RIL - VMD began with the
implementation of Green Card Rating system in April 2003. Every ye ar, brought with it ,
improved and higher impacted schemes from each plant. There have been several milestones
marked in the history of RIL- VMD on HSEF performance since then.

Achievements 2003-04 - & 2004-05 – Since inception of Green Card Rating System
G 480 kg/d recovery & reuse of Di Methyl Formamide in Fiber plant
G 95% reduction NOx from Acid rectification tower Fiber plant
G 3840 kg/d reduction in Hydrocarbon emission by Seal gas recovery in Naphtha
Cracker Plant
G Elimination of CTC in PVC Plant & 50% replacement of Halon for fire fighting

The Year 2005-06 Rings in with more Zest

G Reduction in Hazardous Waste Generation. Slop oil: 50% in Linear Alkyl Benzene
and 57.5 % in Naphtha Cracker Plant,
G 22% Ethylene di chloride bottoms & 100% Chlorinated Slop Oil in Vinyl chloride
Plant
G 1.16 MMKcal by heat recovery from PBR-I condensate under ICI scheme in IOP

Major Highlights of 2006-07

G 18% Reduction in Hazardous Waste Generation across the complex
G 85% Reduction in HAP emission by process control in VCM plant
G Reduction in 18 MT GHG (Methane) by reuse as fuel.
G The heat recovery of the order of 9.0 MMKCal/Hr and the stack temperature has
come down to 103oC. Improvement in Efficiency for all the 5 Heaters as a whole is
around 9% from 84% to 93% resulting in substantial Energy saving.

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REAPING BENEFITS OF THE GREEN CARD RATING SYSTEM

In spite of initial resistance to the Rating system and difficulties that usually occur during
teething times of implementation of a new system, The Green Card Rating System has
brought with it several benefits that are noteworthy accomplishments of RIL- VMD. The
most Significant Benefit of the system has been a Marathon change in mindset and approach
of Individuals towards Environment.

Hazardous waste Generation and Management

Reduction in Hazardous Waste Generation per Unit Production shows, not only total tonnage
of Hazardous Waste Generation, but also highlights higher conversation rates and adoption of
cleaner production technologies. 32% reduction in Hazardous Waste Generation (kg/MT
production basis) is a significant achievement of RIL- VMD in last three years.

Water Conservation and Effluent Management

RIL- VMD has achieved overall reduction in Water consumption and Effluent generation by
about 30% after inception of the Green Card Rating System. Rigorous efforts are being done
to achieve Zero Effluent Discharge by change in operating practices, Installation of
Restricted Orifices for domestic water use, plant effluent stream segregation and reuse,
process changes to reduce water intake etc.

Reduction in Air Emissions and Energy

We have achieved 93% reduction in Sox emissions and about 50% reduction in NOx
emissions. In order to reduce losses due to fugitive emissions in the environment, Leak
Detection and Repair have be en given major thrust in the Green Card Rating System.
Effective Energy utilization and its optimization with respect to production is another salient
feature of the Rating system.

CONCLUSION

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As a part of the Strategic Environment management to integrate manufacturing with
environment and make environmental activities a line function, this is a unique proactive
environmental rating system for operating plants and on plant units of our manufacturing
divisions.
As quoted by Shri Mukesh D Ambani (Chairman and Managing Director, RIL)-

Reduction in Environment Footprint

Besides incorporating new technologies and better processes
that are more environment friendly in our new projects, our
other achievements include increased recycling of treated water,
increased renewable energy consumption, reduction in air
emissions and hazardous waste, to mention a few. The
Environmental Performance Rating ("Green Card") system is
being extended to all sites to help monitor and improve our
environmental performance

RIL- VMD is conferred the “Greentech Foundation Environment Excellence Award- 2004”
for this system. The Green Card Rating System founded at RIL- VMD is now a part of our
Global Reporting System and has found its
unique place in the Director’s Report of Reliance
Industries Limited. The Environmental
performance rating (Green Card) system is being
extended to all sites to help monitor and improve
our Environmental performance.

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