World Environment Day: India Inc in Race to Achieve Net Zero Target

Adani Group’s commitment to restoring, planting, and conserving one trillion trees by 2030, showcases our determination to contribute to the restoration of biodiversity and combat climate change. In line with India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitment under the Paris Agreement, where the country aims to create additional carbon sinks to sequester 2.5-3.0 billion tons of CO2, our pledge demonstrates our support for national and international climate action.

B Sumant, Executive Director, ITC Ltd

At ITC, we have put in place comprehensive interventions for waste management with focus on plastics. Our paperboards, paper and packaging businesses continue to pioneer sustainable packaging solutions that can substitute single use plastics. ITC has extended its sustainable packaging initiatives to its own personal care products as well. ITC’s Foods business has implemented various measures to reduce the usage of plastics. ITC’s Hotels Business has replaced plastic water bottles with eco-friendly glass bottles. Furthermore, plastic drinking straws, stirrers, and other plastic items have been substituted with paper and wood-based alternatives, contributing to the reduction of plastic pollution.

Manish Bandlish, Managing Director, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt Ltd

In our procurement operations, we are harnessing solar energy to power milk collection units at our milk pooling points in around 5,500 villages generating around 0.7 giga watt hours/year. In addition, we have installed solar plants at four of our processing facilities. As we progress, we are in the process of installing a solar plant at our facility in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra. We have also installed rainwater harvesting pits across all our processing/manufacturing locations.

At the consumer level, our Token Milk assists us in preventing the generation of over 700MT of plastic per year. Besides, we have switched from plastic spoons and plastic straws to eco-friendly alternatives and are using clean fuel-based vehicles in our distribution fleet. We have undertaken an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program for plastic waste management beginning 2018. Currently the program is running across 27 states and so far we have collected and recycled/co-processed approx. 19,000 MT of post-consumer used plastic waste till March 2023.

Manish Aggarwal, Director, Bikano, Bikanervala Foods Pvt Ltd

At Bikano, we are committed to using packaging materials for our snack packs that can be easily recycled and reused. Our ultimate goal is to leverage innovation to develop products that benefit people, the planet simultaneously. At factory outlets, we are following practices like reducing waste, water conservation, using sustainable materials, and effective use of energy to reduce carbon footprints. Furthermore, we prioritize effective communication and actively engage with consumers to spread awareness and advocate for sustainable practices.

Bala Sarda, Founder & CEO, VAHDAM India

For the last 3 years, we have continued to be a certified climate and plastic-neutral brand. As an organization, we are focused on reducing our carbon footprint. We are actively working on developing packaging materials and designs that use lesser plastic, a higher proportion of recyclable plastic, and environmentally friendly and sustainable materials. There is no fixed percentage of revenue that goes into sustainability every year. It varies. The brand invests in offsetting the plastic and carbon footprints created year on year.

Smita Jatia, Vice Chairperson, Westlife Foodworld

We are committed to a lower carbon footprint, achieved through increased recycling and reuse of materials, use of renewable energy, and reduced consumption. We recognise the critical role that businesses must play in addressing climate change and we are proud to walk the talk. With each step, we are becoming stronger in our fight against climate change.

Ashley Czarnowski, Senior Director, Global Purpose Marketing, adidas

Move for The Planet is an opportunity to harness the world’s love of sport to support some of the communities that need it most. We’re encouraging our global sporting community to join the movement and move for the places we play – it doesn’t matter how we move, just that we move to make a difference.

Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President, Reckitt, South Asia

At Reckitt, we believe we have a duty to combat climate change across everything we do, and we are globally committed to reach net zero by 2040, powering our operations with 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2030. We have been working closely in the state of Uttarakhand to drive on-ground behaviour change and educate the younger generation, who are the future of the nation. Setting up a Climate Resilient School in Uttarkashi is just another step towards our commitment of building a sustainable future.

Deepak Sharma, Zone President- Greater India and MD & CEO, Schneider Electric India

We have set internal targets to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025 and net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2050. As part of our Zero Carbon Project, we are committed to helping our key suppliers reduce their emissions by 50 per cent by 2025. At Schneider Electric, we have taken an ambition to remove 100 per cent single-use plastic (SUP) from our primary and secondary product packaging by 2025 in India as well as globally. As of Q1 2023, globally, we have already achieved ~52 per cent reduction in the same. We have a goal to increase green material content in our products by 50 per cent, by Q1FY23 we have already achieved 20 per cent. One of the green material initiatives that we have implemented is the increased use of recycled plastics in our products. Around 80 per cent of our product revenues come from Green Premium Products which use lower impact materials.

AR Unnikrishnan, Managing Director, Saint-Gobain India

The building materials of the future need to be low carbon to achieve India’s commitment as a country towards Net Zero by 2070. The new glass with a low carbon footprint launched by Saint-Gobain will accelerate this vision and will actively contribute to light and sustainable construction. In line with our purpose of Making the World a Better Home and achieving our Net Zero goal by 2050, decarbonizing the built environment with sustainable products that will have a lower embodied carbon footprint will be the way forward for us.

Vineet Agarwal, MD, Transport Corporation of India (TCI)

At TCI, we have been promoting multimodal logistics for more than a decade now. On the warehousing front, we have adopted sustainable practices like reuse of water, safe disposal of hazardous waste, building design which maximizes usage of natural light and proper ventilation, use solar power for auxiliary loads, fire retardant structures so that in the event of any eventuality, the damage is minimal.

We aim to move towards 100 per cent sustainable packaging by 2030.We are also working on TCI Safe Safar campaigns to spread awareness amongst drivers, cleaners and other logistics Yodhas to avoid the use of single-use plastic and adopt greener alternatives. To strengthen TCI’s multimodal infrastructure, we will continue to invest in ships, trains, containers, and green warehousing. A capex of Rs 375 crore has been allocated for the current fiscal year.

Imthiaz, CEO and Co-Founder, Raaho

At Raaho, our purpose is to make life better for truckers and drivers, and we look forward to building a better tomorrow for the environment at large. By using technology and data science, we believe that the problem of dead miles can be solved through efficient freight matching. In the last few years, trucks on our platform have covered over 94 million kilometres, saving more than 1.5 million kilograms of CO2. The business has been built around the idea of building a better tomorrow, and all the investments today have been made with the intention of solving the problem of dead-miles in mind.

Soham Chokshi – CEO and Co-founder, Shipsy

When it comes to logistics operations, the distance traveled per package is the north star for ensuring sustainability. By harnessing the power of advanced AI and automation, we are empowering businesses to reduce miles traveled and make miles traveled greener by prioritizing eco-friendly delivery modes. This results in lowering carbon emissions and reducing dependencies on road transport leading to environmental and economic benefits.