Corporate action to fight climate change can be rewarding for your business too

PM Narendra Modi’s commitments of India achieving net zero emissions by 2070 at the recent Glasgow COP26 summit was closely followed by a slew of press releases by several large Indian corporates. ONGC, RIL, Adani were amongst those that shared plans on how they plan to reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to a greener world. While this makes for great press, it is also very good for business! And for good reason.

For one, stakeholders increasingly view a pro-environment business more favourably. For another, in the long run it is more economical to employ green business practices. With government regulation to protect the environment getting stringent by the day, turning green is no longer an option. Add to this the prohibitive cost of non – compliance and suddenly the investments towards greener business practices look very lucrative. 

At the macro–level, the decision to go green is driven by regulatory and economic factors. These mainly impact primary and secondary industries like mining, cement production, refining, sugar mills etc. That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything that other companies can do. Fact remains that not only can every business make a difference, irrespective of its nature or size, but they can also be seen as doing so by their stakeholders! Most of what can be done to mitigate their carbon footprint is specific to the industry and sector that a company operates in. However, there are a few simple things that pretty much every entity can do to make a difference.

• Junk the disposable cups: Higher the employee count, more the number of cups that make it to the landfill. Even if you use biodegradable cups, the fact remains that you are contributing to the quantum of waste that needs to be collected, segregated, transported and disposed. Each step adds a couple of tons of unrequired CO2 to the atmosphere. The smart thing would be to shift to reusable glass/ceramic or even plastic cups for that matter. And if you can shift to the classic ‘kulhad’, it doesn’t get any better!
• Don’t over–communicate: Most discerning companies have moved to a ‘paperless office’. Unfortunately, we tend to ignore the carbon footprint of doing business the ‘e – way’. Take for instance emails – each seemingly harmless piece of communication has a carbon footprint. It is typed out on a machine that uses energy, stored on a server that consumes resources, uses cables and energy to get transmitted to the receiver who in turn consumes energy in accessing it. You’d be surprised at the amount of energy computers, tablets, phones and the servers to store data consume! One way of being responsible is to shoot out that email only if required and then only to those who really need to see it. 
• Brighten your day, pro–eco way: Switching to low – energy LED lights, 5 star energy rated equipment and tech like motion sensor lighting is something that anyone can do. A staggering amount of energy (and money) can be saved through this simple to implement solution. 
• Check the Source of the Force: The Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea has successfully tested transparent solar cells that can replace office windows. Effectively, this means that the energy that an office building requires to function, will all be generated by solar cells mounted on its façade’! While this tech is still a few years away, we can still replace all lighting in open parking lots, lawns and other open areas with solar powered lamps. These are very efficient and recoup the investment in a couple of years. Besides huge savings in energy bills, they go a long way in reducing the facility’s carbon footprint. Of course, you could also choose to avail of renewable energy by paying a small premium over the regular rate of power!
• EV to the future: Depending on the rank and entitlement, companies procure cars across models for employees to use. Today, there is a whole fleet of EV’s available, right from hatchbacks to sedans and even luxury SUV’s. A simple decision to switch exclusively to EV’s could result in a huge impact on an organization’s carbon footprint. The biggest argument against switching to EV’s is the charging infrastructure. However, if a company provides parking space for employees, it can easily install charging ports at these parking lots. Over the life – cycle of the vehicle, an EV saves tons of CO2 that otherwise would’ve been released in the atmosphere. Add to this the fractional running cost when compared to conventional vehicles and you have a winner all the way!

These are a few general and easy–to–implement steps for any company that wants to go green. To know what works best for your organization, the first step is to do an audit. Understanding what aspect of a company’s business releases what quantum of CO2 is crucial to arrive at a strategy to reduce its carbon footprint. Cumbersome as this may sound, it actually delivers tremendous savings, contributing not just to the environment but even the company’s bottom – line.

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