The Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) is a centrally administered agency that coordinates the corporate sustainability (CS) initiatives of Tata companies. It operates through a network of regional groups that work in areas where the Tatas have a significant presence and through forums created with the purpose of encouraging networking and sharing of best practices within the Group and with outside agencies.

The members of the council, which includes chief executives of major Tata companies, meet twice a year to deliberate on matters that concern the sustainability agenda of the Group and formulate policies and guidelines. The CS facilitators of Tata companies also meet for an annual brainstorming session on issues of mutual concern and sharing of experiences and knowledge.

The key activities that TCCI guides and monitors for Tata companies are:
Community and social development programmes
Tata companies take up a wide range of community programmes in the geographies they operate in. TCCI helps them to network with national and international voluntary, government and academic institutions, and gives overall direction to their work. It also sets up processes for sharing of knowledge and best practices.

The Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development developed by TCCI in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (India) is a pioneering effort aimed at directing, measuring and enhancing the community work that Group enterprises undertake.

Employee volunteering and strategic management of core competencies
Volunteering is integral to the corporate sustainability strategy of Tata companies. Employees are encouraged to participate in activities that further the social, environmental and economic goals of the company.

When deciding on community and social development programmes, companies try to leverage their core competencies and match them with the needs of the community. This strategic synchronisation ensures employee volunteers have the skills required for the execution of the programmes.

Environment management / bio-diversity
TCCI helps Group companies to build specific professional and organisational capacities in environment management and in implementing the recommendations of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN Global Compact.

Building multi-stakeholder alliances
To successfully address social issues it is important for different stakeholders to come together and form multi-stakeholder alliances. TCCI works towards creating such alliances for combating social problems in areas such as community healthcare and education.

Publications
To assist companies in their training and learning activities in the area of corporate sustainability, TCCI publishes case studies, process documents, brochures and training manuals.

Partners working with TCCI on a long-term project can send an email to tcci@tata.com, to get these publications.