August 28, 2008, Chennai: Wipro Technologies unveiled the second Ops Fest at Chennai today. This yearly event displays various initiatives undertaken by Wipro’s CIO office and showcases plans for future through an array of stalls displayed at the fest.

The theme for this year’s forum is “Smart Workplace” that showcases processes and technologies that attempts to improve efficiencies and service levels to create a smart workplace environment. The forum is open to external visitors – officials from the Government, representatives from corporate sector, IFMA members and to employees of Wipro.

“The Facilities Management Forum is an opportunity for us to share the best practices adopted by us. The forum encourages in house talent for breakthrough innovative ideas and provides opportunity to showcase technologies used in the existing facilities. We encourage exploring new trends through technical paper presentations and participation by renowned personnel in the Industry,” said Mr.Laxman K Badiga, Chief Information Officer, Wipro Technologies.

The forum will include 16 stalls on display showcasing Wipro’s capabilities across Building Management System (BMS) & Civil Infrastructure, Engineering Services – Power distribution System, Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) & Solid Waste Management (SWM), Reverse Osmosis (RO) Plant & Rain Water Harvesting (RWH), Environment, Health & Safety (EHS), Voice Infrastructure Services, Physical Security Management, state of the art lighting and office furniture solutions from Wipro Lighting and cutting edge IT products from Wipro Infotech.

Last year the Forum was organized at Bangalore. Wipro plans to conduct the event once a year in all locations Wipro Technolgoies is present.

Recently Wipro launched Eco-eye a corporation wide initiative on ecological sustainability. Eco-eye is Wipro’s comprehensive program that drives increasing ecological sustainability in all its operations, as also areas of its influence. The initiative attempts to engage with increasing levels of intensity with all stakeholders – Wipro’s own employees, partners, suppliers, customers and immediate communities.

Wipro has developed a framework for Ecological Sustainability that has five themes and seven goals identified for implementation. The Five themes include being an ecological surplus organization, larger sustainability initiatives beyond Wipro, profitable investments, transparent reporting, risk planning & mitigation.

The Company aims to become carbon neutral, water positive organization, achieve defined level of biodiversity footprint, set new standards in recycling waste and facilitate employees achieve a higher ecological footprint in their personal lives. It also aims to achieve transparency in sustainability reporting and incorporate the expected effects of climate change and other areas of environmental degradation into Wipro’s risk strategy

IT has a very big opportunity to contribute towards reduction of green house gas emissions and the energy requirement for the company.

Mr.Badiga said, “Green governance and sustainable development are the corner stones of Wipro’s corporate philosophy. Going green is a movement that calls for participation & involvement from society at large.”

As part of Eco Eye initiative, Wipro also launched the Chennai Eco Chapter for its employees. The eco-chapters will build awareness through talks and video sessions on a whole range of green subjects e.g. Energy, Water, Waste, Biodiversity, Climate change. The chapters will also have outreach programs to engage with local NGOs, community organizations and thought leaders in this area. In addition, the chapters will work on mainstream Wipro projects where they can contribute by way of evangelizing, contributing innovative ideas and in implementing some of the solutions that are employee driven.