Previous efforts in India to improve industry's environmental performance have been limited to lower management levels, and only dealt with technical issues pertaining to waste treatment. There was no effort to involve the top management that takes all the crucial decisions in a company.

Without a change in the mindset of the top management, it is very difficult to induce any sort of improvement in the environmental performance of companies.

The purpose of grp was to reach out to the top management in every stage of the project. Chief executive officers ( ceo s) and senior managers of 71 per cent of the companies that responded interacted personally with cse . Senior managers of 43 per cent of the companies visited cse to individually interact with the grp team. Top managers who interacted directly with cse include: Gautam Thapar of Ballarpur Industries Ltd, Suresh Kilam of Sinar Mas India; J S Neerav , wholetime director of Star Paper mills; C K Birla of Orient Paper Mill; R C Mall of Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills Ltd; G