In 1996, under Agarwal’s leadership, CSE started a pioneering project to make Indian industry more environment-friendly. As few people know which company is doing a good job protecting the environment and which one isn’t, CSE started a project to rate the environmental performance of Indian companies. It was a tough task conceptualising the project because the Indian government does not share data on companies. CSE went to the companies themselves to give it data. Recognising CSE’s seriousness of purpose and integrity, companies agreed to participate and give it data which CSE then put through a sieve of technical experts. Data that did not make technical sense was sent back with comments for correction. And green inspectors from all over the country visited every plant for a review. CSE started by rating the highly polluting pulp and paper industry and yet all companies participated in the exercise. The project has resulted in educating the top management and greater environmental consciousness within the companies. One company has even used its participation in CSE’s project to prove its environmental commitment and even got an international loan from the International Finance Corporation. After completing a comprehensive rating of the automobile sector, CSE undertook the rating of the Chlor-Alkali sector in India.

The project has confirmed CSE’s belief that markets and democracy must go together. Which helps the power of public opinion to bring about self-correction. The project is overseen by a panel of eminent Indians headed by Dr Manmohan Singh, India’s former finance minister, agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan and former chief justice of the Supreme Court, P N Bhagwati. In 2000, Asiaweek described the project as one of the best environmental projects in Asia.

Ecological Globalisation: Getting the developing world to participate in the development of global environmental governance

CSE does not just look at national issues. It also studies the process of Ecological Globalisation and urges Southern nations to take a proactive position. In the last 30 years, governments have come together repeatedly to develop a new corpus of international law. Treaties that bind nations to make technological and policy changes that will not affect the global environment. Green diplomacy is a new agenda for both environmental activists as well as foreign policy experts. As most environmentalists in the developing world are not aware of the nature of the environmental negotiations that take place in distant capitals, CSE has started producing an Annual Report on Global Environmental Negotiations. To inform interested people what are the issues on the table. The first report produced in 1999 was released in nearly ten US universities and nearly a dozen places in other parts of the world. Five US universities are using it as a textbook for teaching global environmental politics.