Trayee Banerjee, (PFM 2005-07)Corporate Sustainability/ESG enthusiast

In a decade long span of working with different organizations in the space of corporate sustainability, Trayee has gained experience in multiple facets of corporate sustainability – strategy, ESG research, assessments, and disclosures. She is a constant learner and her areas of interest lie in business applicability of intangible value assessment /ecosystem services valuation and environmental accounting. She believes one can keep walking the walk, taking one step at a time and then sometime can take a pause to look back and see the distance covered.

LinkedIn ID: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trayee-banerjee-7953034

Current role, past roles, learnings from IIFM and advice for those who are seeking similar career path/trajectory:

I work for an Indian conglomerate in their EHS and Sustainability department. The organization I work with, has been an exemplar of identity transformation, path breaking agricultural sourcing models and diversification. However, as stakeholders’ perspectives are changing, so are the expectations from this organization. And thus the organization is exploring its new course of action, setting and achieving its new goals on ‘Corporate Sustainability’.

Now, one may question why am I sharing all this about the organization rather than sharing about my role! I wanted to set the right context for what I am expected to do as a professional in this organization’s Corporate Sustainability department. The three focus areas of my current role are, sustainable supply chain initiatives for a diverse portfolio of businesses – primarily FMCG and Hotels, developing internal assessment systems for sustainability across these businesses and building the processes for evolving ESG disclosure requirements. There are two very challenging aspects of the role that motivate me immensely, one, how to go about standardization of assessment criteria for very diverse businesses and the second, how to improve and set new benchmarks for a benchmark performer.

As a professional in this field, all I have understood over the last decade or so is, that Corporate Sustainability is an ever-evolving subject. Every organization is at a different level of maturity and thus there are no specific skills my job requires. There are no specific qualifications I must have. It is only the expansion of thoughts from what is needed to what should be. Where to draw the balance between what is ideal and what can possibly be done?

I will be ever grateful to IIFM for introducing me to this side of doing business which I was completely oblivious to before IIFM. It helped me connect the dots between subject areas and between preaching and practice. The courses which introduced me to concepts of natural resource management, environmental economics, green marketing, environmental management, were all ahead of their time. 

I happen to realize it now, even more. And it was in IIFM that I realized the importance of adopting a multi-disciplinary approach to finding solutions for present day business challenges.  By the time I was in the second year at IIFM, I knew that my interests lied in a subject area that did not have many job opportunities, i.e. in 2007. In fact, I could only make it to a group discussion stage of the campus placement process for a nationalized bank, where I ended up discussing whatever half-baked ESG concepts I knew of that time. Undoubtedly, at the time it sounded very disconnected from what the interviewers were looking for and of course, I knew that I was not fit for the banking role. I was desperately looking for an employment opportunity before I left IIFM campus. Reaching out to IIFM alumni and our professors helped immensely. I must especially express my gratitude to Dr. Amitabh Pandey here, following whose advice, I sent an email and an expression of interest to my first employer, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). We did not have the power of social media platforms like LinkedIn then as the world was a different place. And being able to convince my first boss, that I might be of some use to their department, was the first and most significant milestone of my career path. 

And after that all I did for 15 years (albeit there were few gaps in between due to personal causes), was to stick to what I liked the most, what I learnt, could understand, and could build upon. I took on several roles in the Sustainability space – from being a consultant at CII, to an ESG researcher with MSCI, a sustainability management role at the Tata Sustainability Group, starting a sustainability/integrated reporting service at a communication agency, heading Environmental and Social research operations at Arabesque (an ESG research firm) and now as a Sustainability practitioner in my current role at ITC Limited.

I am aware that Sustainability/ESG is an expanding field now and presents great work opportunities. Fresh IIFM graduates are at the right place to capitalize on what is required for employability in this field. Adding my two pence, I would say that being open to learning something new, and letting go of ego and inhibitions for doing certain jobs in certain roles, helps one grow as a professional.

 

The IIFM memories: 

I got some of my great friends at IIFM among my batchmates and from the M.Phil course. The memories are many starting from the clubs in which I enrolled myself with a lot of enthusiasm but ended up not participating in or contributing to, the interesting group dynamics of the batch, personal interactions with faculty members and many more….everything turned out to be learnings for life. These are all bitter sweet memories which have all helped me in my journey.  The field trip to Himachal Pradesh with my classmates Varuna, Ashish, Varun, and Saurabh, has been one of the best educational experiences till date in my life. The beauty of the campus is one to be reminisced forever. Using the library, participating in the clubs, networking better with the alumni, concentrating on improving the grades in between various distractions – make one’s IIFM journey worth its while.  

Typical Office Day, weekends, authors & shows:

A typical day at office includes meetings with team members, catering to sudden information requests from the top management, making presentations, thought notes, research and advisory for business divisions, planning, budgeting, meeting vendors and of course getting diverted every now and then to notifications from The New York Times, HBR, and LinkedIn updates!

Weekends keep me engaged in my daughter’s homework routine and house chores. And yes, spending idle time binging on shows like This is Us, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Modern Love and The Fleabag. And the authors that I go back to every now and then are Murakami, Chekhov and Ruskin Bond.

 

The Alumni Commitment & changes at IIFM over time:

I wish to contribute more effectively by increasing platforms for industry interaction with students.
Being a woman professional, I had to personally overcome obstacles of gap years due to maternity and discontinuation in career progress for other personal reasons. It would be great to have a platform for women professionals from IIFM, where information exchange could take place for young mothers, or women professionals who are on a career break. Using this platform will enable female professionals stay connected and up to date with the latest developments in the job market. I would like to use this interview to request and reach out to IIFM alumni and faculty, if they feel there is some merit to this idea.

I think IIFM graduates today are very well connected with industry, thanks to the new course like Sustainability Management (PGDSM) and of course the robust platforms that social media provides. However, the importance of field visits, PRAs, and learning NRM models on field should not be overlooked in the wake of looking for corporate training in Sustainability/ESG.

Who are next for the IIFMIGHT in Focus:

Praveen Anant, Ratul Saha, Rahul Samaddar & Ashish Chicksena.