CB BureauCompanies covered: IHCL | Wipro | Norwegian Cruise Line | Sony | ASA | Tetra Pak | Okinawa
IHCL announces EarthCheck Platinum certification for 47 hotels
The certification signifies 11 continuous years of social and environmental impact by implementing sustainable tourism management practices.
Overall, a total of 78 EarthCheck-certified IHCL hotels have generated substantial savings since 2008 by:
a) reducing water consumption by approximately 3,000,000 kilolitres;
b) reducing greenhouse emissions, including approximately 232,000,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e);
c) saving approximately 1,202,000,000 mega joules of energy; and
d) reducing waste sent to landfill by 17,000 cubic metres.
The company has set up bottling plants that will replace all plastic water bottles with reusable glass bottles at 15 hotels across the globe, which has the potential to eliminate 0.2 million kilograms of plastic. Currently, 27 hotels are powered by renewable energy.
IHCL continues to reinforce its commitment towards adopting and strengthening sustainable business practices, from phasing out single-use plastic, reduction in carbon footprint, water conservation and utilisation of renewable sources of energy, to extensive community engagement.
Wipro commits to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040
Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, declares its commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040, in line with the objective of the Paris Agreement to cap temperature rise to 1.5 °C.
Wipro, while unveiling its pledge on Earth Day, also set an intermediate target of a 55 per cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 in absolute emission levels compared to its base year of 2016″17 (April”March).
These targets are based on the globally accepted Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and reflect the decarbonisation and operational changes Wipro will drive within its value chain to achieve its 2040 goals. Wipro will also defer offsets until the target year, underscoring its values-driven strategy and approach.
The primary levers of the decarbonisation drive are:
a) Improving the energy efficiency of facilities for a sustained reduction in energy consumption
b) Increasing use of renewable energy in owned facilities in India through private power purchase agreements and captive solar power
c) Combining behavioural, technological and collaborative approaches that help reduce the carbon footprint of air travel, commuting, and purchased goods and services
Rishad Premji, chairman, Wipro Limited, states in a press release shared with CauseBecause: ‘Climate change is a defining challenge for humanity. Business must be at the forefront to address it. Wipro’s climate change programme goes back nearly two decades, and our net-zero goal further reaffirms our commitment. Our approach emphasises the importance of not just reaching that goal, but doing so in a way that is aligned with Wipro’s core values of integrity and business responsibility.’
Wipro is committed to helping its customers realise their net-zero goals by working collaboratively and leveraging its technology and domain expertise in many areas of climate change like GHG assessment, climate and net-zero strategy, and sourcing and supply chain strategy, among others.
The company claims to have made significant progress in shaping and delivering ‘green IT solutions’ for high carbon-intensive sectors like energy & utilities, manufacturing, transportation and consumer goods. Helping customers exit their data centres, driving virtualisation and public cloud adoption, smart grids, waste management, sustainable sourcing and packaging, etc., are a few examples of such solutions.
Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) highlights its waste-mitigation practices
Under its Sail and Sustain Stewardship Program, NCL has several initiatives to minimise waste to landfills, reduce CO2 emissions rate, and increase sustainable sourcing. The company understands that the future of the cruise industry is closely intertwined with the health of our oceans and the destinations. In 2019, NCL became the first major global cruise company to eliminate single-use plastic beverage bottles across its fleet of 17 ships as well as its private destinations, saving over six million plastic water bottles every year.
NCL enforces a zero-tolerance policy for any items thrown overboard. If an environmental incident is observed, guests, crew and shoreside employees are encouraged to use the company’s environmental hotline to report them.
At NCL, reducing onboard waste of any kind is achieved through innovative technologies, staff training and implementing stringent recycling programmes. One of the most successful programmes implemented aboard NCL’s ships is waste heat recovery (WHR). This process works by recovering heat from the engines and transferring it to freshwater piping – thereby creating a free source of energy for improving water production and saving fuel.
NCL’s waste-mitigation programme lessens the environmental impact of their operations, reduces pollution, promotes diversion of material from landfills, conserves natural resources, and saves energy. The waste is reduced through reusing and recycling, with clear benchmarks serving as the measurement.
A rigorous recycling programme ensures that NCL ships take advantage of every opportunity to recycle and reduce waste to landfill. In 2019, vessels that offloaded with Waste Management ® in Florida were able to recycle over 2,300 tons of aluminium, cardboard/paper, scrap metals, plastics, wood pallets, and glass. These recycling efforts conserved the following resources- – mature trees, landfill airspace, water, electricity and GHG emissions.
Sony Pictures Networks (SPN) joins hands with SayTrees
Together, SPN and SayTrees have planted over 8,000 native varieties of tree saplings through the dense afforestation method in three acres of land in the drought-prone Satara district of Maharashtra. The project focuses on environmental sustainability and improving quality of life by tackling climate change.
The collaboration with SayTrees amplifies Sony Pictures Networks India’s effort to advance the cause of environment protection and further sensitise others on the importance of conservation by nurturing the planet. SPN’s MD & CEO NP Singh informs that as part of this initiative, the company will also dedicate tree saplings to several environment-conscious stakeholders to raise awareness by creating a larger community of people to support the cause.
asa’s ‘refill & recycle’ programme offers sustainable makeup solutions
Claiming to be India’s first luxury beauty brand that offers refillable solutions for every product of their range, asa aims to minimise the plastic and packaging wastage generated by the beauty industry. Their primary packaging uses aluminium, an endlessly recyclable material apparently – one can simply keep reusing the outer packaging and refresh the product by replacing it with a refill.
asa has collaborated with Aasra Welfare Association as their recycling partner, an NGO which has worked closely with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) since 2015 to build an effective waste management system in the city.
The NGO will be looking after all of asa’s recycling needs including consolidating any asa empties (both primary and secondary packaging), empty inserts and paper waste. asa aims to make this collaboration a long-term association wherein they will ship out all the empties on a monthly basis, and Aasra will look into their proper disposal. The company plans to enable consumers to contribute to the programme by sending in their asa empties to the warehouse.
Regarding the collaboration, asa’s founder Asha Jindal Khaitan says: ‘Some of the biggest contributors to our packaging material include paper, tin, aluminium, cardboard cartons, alloy, dyes, and stainless steel. We’re happy to say that some of these can be recycled, some can be reused, and others are often reduced. All of these steps help us attain our motto of being one with the planet and that will only be enhanced with this association with Aasra Welfare Association.’
Tetra Pak commits to recycle 500,000 used packs into desks for local school
Under its flagship campaign, called Cartons Le Aao, Classroom Banao, Tetra Pak has pledged to collect 500,000 used carton packages and recycle them into desks to be donated to City of Los Angeles School, Mahim, Mumbai.
The collaborative initiative, in association with RUR Greenlife, Sahakari Bhandar and Reliance Fresh, is inviting consumers to donate used carton packages at the nearest facility. The donation is part of Tetra Pak’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness about waste segregation and recycling.
Regarding the initiative, Jaideep Gokhale, sustainability director, Tetra Pak South Asia, says: ‘Tetra Pak cartons are paper-based, recyclable, and have the lowest carbon footprint among all other packaging materials used for similar food products. So, when we choose carton packaging, we are already making a positive choice. And when we segregate these cartons from other waste, they can get recycled into many useful items like these desks that positively impact the communities around us. Donating recycled products to the local community is a simple way to showcase how a simple conscious act of waste segregation and recycling can create a positive ripple effect on the community around you. The people of Mumbai have supported us since the launch of the “Go Green with Tetra Pak” programme in 2010, and I hope that they will continue to support us.’
Monisha Narke, founder and CEO, RUR Greenlife, sheds more light: ‘Mumbaikars have been contributing clean and flattened used beverage cartons at our 200-plus collection centres across Mumbai. The programme is fuelled by the passion of Mumbaikars, thanks to which we have been able to donate more than 300 desks and over 100,000 other recycled products to the city of Mumbai over the years.’
Mumbai’s City of Los Angeles School is the megapolis’s first municipal school affiliated to CBSE. The unusual name has a rather interesting story to it. In the 1960s, the mayor of Los Angeles visited Mumbai and emphasised the need for a government-aided school with subsidised English education. He funded the building of this school, which then acquired its name.
The ‘Go Green with Tetra Pak’ programme encourages consumers to drop off their used cartons of juice, milk, ORS and other beverages at the nearest Sahakari Bhandar/Reliance Fresh stores, or at any of the 200+ other locations that act as deposit points. These cartons are collected, converted to bales, and sent to the nearest recycler in Palgarh, where they are remoulded into panel boards. These panel boards are used to make many useful items like garden benches and classroom desks, to be donated back to the community. It takes roughly 11,000 used carton packages to make a desk.
Okinawa puts a green task force into action for planting
The task force includes the ‘people of Okinawa’ – dealership teams, customers, partners and employees – and will undertake planting activities in several states (Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat, among others) under the company’s one-year-long Oxydrive campaign.
‘On Earth day, it is an excellent opportunity for us to reflect on our environmental and social responsibility, and take small steps in a manner that is explicitly involved in protecting and restoring the planet. We as a company will move forward towards our vision of a purpose-driven culture with a sense of fulfilment among our employees, who support the company’s long-term sustainability mission,’ states Rupali Sharma, chairperson & co-founder of Okinawa Autotech.
Over the last few years, Okinawa, a leading electric two-wheeler manufacturing company, has run several campaigns for environmental restoration. This is in addition to the company’s efforts to persuade people to switch to electric mobility, which comes with zero or low emissions of local air pollutants and can have a significant impact on the environment and ultimately on one’s health.