By Debamalya Mukherjee
Pavel Grachev – a productive top manager and investor, empowered the environmental transformation of Detsky Mir, the retailer of children’s products.
Education and career
Mr. Grachev, a businessman-to-be, was born in Leningrad (currently St. Petersburg) in 1973.
Pavel Grachev received his degrees at two higher education establishments where he had been studying simultaneously – the University of Trieste (received a diploma in 1997) and St. Petersburg State University (graduated in 1998). He was trained in the field of legal sciences.
Pavel Grachev started his career in his student years. From 1997 to 2005, he was the head of the Moscow office of Pavia e Ansaldo, a law firm.
In 2010, Mr. Grachev took over as CEO of Uralkali, a job he devoted three years to. The aspiring executive made his next career step in Polyus, the gold mining holding, where he worked in senior positions between 2014 and 2022.
About Detsky Mir
Having gained experience in managing major holdings, Pavel Grachev decided to realize his potential in his own projects. In the spring of 2021, he became an investor and a member of the Supervisory Board of Detsky Mir, the children’s goods retailer.
The businessman focused his efforts on introducing the principles of sustainable development and environmental responsibility into the business model of the retail chain. The cornerstone of the changes was large-scale environmental education programs targeted at customers and staff.
ESG Initiatives Adopted By Pavel Grachev
The initiatives were aimed at fostering eco-friendly habits and securing a seamless transition to rational consumption of natural resources.
Once Pavel Grachev joined Detsky Mir, he gave way to an initiative on transitioning to environmentally friendly packaging to reduce the harmful impact on nature. Instead of non-degradable plastic bags, the customers were offered to purchase disposable bags made of paper or fabric.
Environment Sustainability
It was the responsibility of Detsky Mir cashiers to explain to customers the dangers of plastic for the environment and to persuade them to try eco-packaging. The transition to sustainable paper bags and fabric shoppers had been successful, with over 840,000 eco bags sold by the end of December 2021.
Among Pavel Grachev’s priorities in Detsky Mir was a program for collecting used items for safe disposal. It is not recommended to simply dump clothes and shoes in a landfill. Instead, these wastes must be recycled or properly disposed of. He launched a campaign where the retailer’s stores accepted old items from any manufacturer while the customers received discount coupons for the products they wanted.
Through his efforts, Detsky Mir transitioned to electronic document management. On the scale of the entire retail network, this allowed for to reduce paper consumption and the saving of forests. Another initiative was brought to life to replace old incandescent light bulbs with modern energy-saving solutions.
In the fall of 2022, Pavel Grachev left the retailer’s Board of Directors, and later in May 2023, the authorities announced that his stake in the legal capital of Detsky Mir was sold. The buyer was an investment consortium headed by Alexei Zuev, the founder of the Korablik retail chain.
What Is Esg And Its Importance?
The ESG is the abbreviated form of Environmental, Social, and Governance. It is a set of practices, policies, and procedures that the organizations implement so that it limits the positive impact on the environment and the government bodies. The ultimate aim of these principles is to adhere to sustainable business policies that focus on profitability and the protection of the environment. The UN World Commission has pictured it as the policies that strengthen the future of business without compromising the future of business and meeting the business needs.
Why Is Adopting The ECG Approach Important?
You have seen that the Detsky Mir, under the leadership of Pavel Grachev, undertook paper reduction policies within the organization. Yes, it is one ECG approach. But why is there a dire need for the organization to take refuge in these policies? We will try to frame an understanding based on it to better understand the subject.
The ESG policies and framework assist an organization in analyzing and prioritizing policies that help reduce risks. Examples of reduced risks include the assessment of climate change. Other areas where it is involved include workplace culture, management of diversity, and others.
How Would You Take Measure To Ensure The ESG Strategy Implementation
Getting aware of the sustainable business policies synchronizing with the ESG strategy and implementing them isn’t easy, to say the least.
Identifying The Responsible Parties
Detsky Mir, authorities led by Pavel Grachev identify the team members who will be responsible for monitoring the flow of policy implementation.
Likewise, the organizations must bring it under priority. They must take assistance from the internal teams or hire external teams to serve their aims.
Identifying The Priorities
Like Detsky Mir, the other companies willing to implement ESG policies within their organization must set priorities to help the organization. Along with it, the organizations will have to standardize the ESG framework, which includes:
- Carbon Disclosure Projects.
- Sustainability Accounting Standard Boards.
- Global Reporting Initiative.
- UN principles for responsible investment.
- Stakeholder Capitalism Meteices (WEF).
Setting The SMART Goals
The organizations must ensure that the Environmental, Social, and Governance policies must be SMART. It means the targets must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It is an important element in the implementation of the policies. Otherwise, the organization cannot implement the goals and objectives.
Incorporating ESG Practices Into Company Culture
If you are to induct ESG practices into your organization, it must be in the norms and practices. Inducting the ESG goals within the organization and turning them into the company culture is undoubtedly one of the aspects you must keep into account.
Conclusion
The implementation of the ESG policies is indeed one of the things that requires good study and adherence. We understood from the case study of Detsky Mir that the organization, headed by Pavel Grachev, brings in internal policies within the organization so that it attains sustainability in the long term. The case study, thus, is a model for all companies to follow.
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