Corporates decided to go that extra mile to celebrate World Environment Day. Though an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme, most companies use the day as an annual event to reinforce positive environmental action.
The Mahindra Group conducted a free (pollution under control) PUC check-up camp for all personal and commercial Mahindra vehicles. An official said the customer centric initiative is usually organised at Mahindra dealerships’ workshops in June every year.
This year, the initiative was conducted in association with the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and the Society for Automotive Fitness and Environment (SAFE).
All visitors walking into Mahindra Group’s offices across the country also were in for a surprise, with the offer of Neem tree seeds to commemorate the occasion.
Sustainability
The Tata Group, on the other hand, among top corporate leaders in sustainable development, chalked out a number of initiatives at Tata Chemicals and Tata Power, as an extension of its inherent philosophy and its green legacy. Group companies focused on producing clean and green power, investing and implementing eco-friendly technologies to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and have already joined global initiatives to combat climate change and build green buildings and villages.
Sanjay Choudhary, chief technology and sustainability officer, Tata Chemicals, says the company’s sustainability strategy is focused on ensuring that a greater proportion of the future product portfolio is with green technologies.
The company’s Centre for Agri-technology is working on a wide range of advanced customised fertilisers and nanotechnology-based solutions for improving agri productivity. Rallis India, a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals, is also developing innovative green crops protection solutions.
At all the three plants at Haldia, Babrala and Mithapur, the company has instituted measures to recycle and reuse waste water, harvest rain water, and reduce consumption.
Tata Power was one of the first company to install and commission an environment-friendly 110 KW solar energy generating system across the Walwhan Reservoir on an experimental basis.
Clean power
Anil Sardana, managing director, Tata Power, said the company’s gross generation capacity has touched 8,521 MW, making it the largest power producer in India. The company intends to have a 20-25 per cent contribution from clean power sources which will include a mix of hydro, solar, wind, and geothermal and waste gas generation, he added.
Employees of Jaypee Hotels planted saplings and took the responsibility to maintain the plants. Jaypee said it has given potted plants to all the guests at Jaypee Vasant Continental and Jaypee Siddharth, New Delhi. The hotel added that they have also decided to use green foliage, rather than using cut flowers to avoid wastage of water.
Accenture, on the other hand, has an Environmental Steering Group to help make strategic recommendations on their sustainability initiatives and determines the processes for providing guidance around carbon-emissions disclosure.
Accenture’s environmental footprint consists primarily of carbon emissions generated from business travel and office energy use. The company’s expansion into the strategic growth markets over the past year has resulted in an associated increase in air travel, “which slowed our progress toward our goal of reducing per capita carbon emissions 40 per cent by 2012 from our 2007 baseline,” said an official.
To better understand and improve the carbon emissions performance related to office electricity, in fiscal 2010, Accenture implemented new Remote Energy Monitoring technologies. They connected meters to transmission technology in their locations in India, South Africa, Spain, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Carbon emissions
In India, the technology yielded a 9 per cent efficiency improvement in FY09. Further, the company said they have succeeded in reducing carbon emissions per employee by 25.9 per cent from FY07 to FY10, and 30 per cent of per employee carbon reduction seen in fiscal 2011 against fiscal 2007 baseline. The company also procures more than 10 per cent of their office electricity from renewable sources.
