2017 Individual Leadership Award awarded to Sanjay Kumar from Indian Railways

The 2017 Individual Leadership Award of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (Washington, US) was presented to Sanjay Kumar from Indian Railways for his vision, leadership and dedicated effort that have been fundamental to the growth of the sustainable purchasing movement, which has helped to reduce Indian Railway’s carbon footprint by 1.5 million tons of CO2eq, saving over $9 million per year.

The cooperation between the Chair of Environmental Management and Accounting, Prof. Edeltraud Guenther and Sanjay Kumar dates back to 2010, when Sanjay Kumar used the chair’s self-evaluation tool for barrier analysis to identify barriers to green procurement at Indian Railways and thereby raised awareness for sustainable procurement, established structures and by these means advanced the green procurement activities of an organization.

Sanjay is currently on deputation to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL), Ministry of Railway, where he is responsible for the Social and Environmental Safeguards Management for large infrastructure projects. He has led various initiatives in research, advocacy and implementation of sustainable procurement programmes in India, and has been an ardent advocate for implementing sustainable/green procurement in other developing countries. As an author of several newspapers, magazines and journal articles, he continues to stimulate and guide the sustainable procurement movement at global level through his blog. Further, he has been on the Steering Committee of UN Environment's 10 Years Framework Programme on Sustainable Public Procurement since April 2015.