Building a Better World Step-by-Step

Climate change, its impact and the transition towards a low-carbon society are arguably the most important challenges facing our generation. Marking the Earth Day, A.S. Lakshminarayanan, MD & CEO, Tata Communications talks about the shared responsibility of businesses and individuals to step up efforts to preserve and protect our planet. In this article, he advocates to invest and innovate that will make a difference as he ascertains, there is no business without nature.

According to the United Nations, 90% of disasters are now classed as weather and climate-related, costing the world economy USD 520 billion each year. And, human activity is producing greenhouse gas emissions at a record high, with no signs of slowing down.

“I firmly trust, sustainable action has the power. To ‘Invest in our Planet,’ through our low carbon products and services, we have helped our customers to save 6X for every tonne of CO₂ generated through our own operations. These are some initial steps we are taking to move towards climate neutrality.”

We are driving constant and sustainable innovations such as developing a range of low carbon products and services through our Network, Internet of Things, Media and Entertainment Services (MES), Cloud, Business Collaboration verticals to our customers that help them conserve energy and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

We have integrated ‘environment sustainability’ as a new area for our work. To protect the planet and at the same time help the communities, we have embarked on distributing smart cookstoves in three regions in rural India.

These are helping reduce smoke and consumes less fuel wood. According to one beneficiary, the smart cookstove reduces her cooking time, and curbs health ailments. With these cookstoves we are aiming to offset 9,945 tonnes of CO2 every year, starting from 2023.

At the same time, our renewable energy procurement is around 22 million units, and we reduced our power consumption globally by approx. 6 million kWh in 2021. We are continuously increasing our renewable energy footprint by extending solar powered electricity. For this, we have brought stable, renewable energy to villages along with the joy of being able to light homes in the dark. Five rural Indian villages received it last year and we will be extending our support to seven additional villages this year.

“Afforestation is another area to make an investment in the planet. We have embarked on restoring green cover in a wasteland for 500 families in 61 villages by planting more than 125,000 fruit saplings. This will assure sustainable livelihoods to the people in these villages, develop a green ecosystem while offsetting carbon emissions and soil erosion.”

Severe water scarcity affects about 4 billion people, or nearly two thirds of the world population, at least one month each year, as per the United Nations. We are making an impact by minimizing our water footprint and reducing the amount of fresh-water consumption. In 2021, we achieved 9% of water savings by focusing on our 3R – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – resource management strategy, by using innovative technology and equipment for optimal water usage, fixing water leakages, rainwater harvesting and upgradation of Sewage Treatment Plants along with other community initiatives.

On Earth Day 2022, we reaffirm our commitment to drive higher resource conservation, promote renewable energy, support our customers and care for the communities to build a better world together. We are aiming for technology and connectivity to benefit everyone in tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges.

For more information, please visit: Sustainability at Tata Communications