Tata Chemical’s integrated CSR approach is underpinned by the Tata ethos and aligned with UN SDGs, making an impact in all areas ranging from nutrition to farm excellence to women empowerment and gender equality to livelihood, Alka Talwar, Company’s Chief of CSR and Sustainability said in an interview with Rusen Kumar, Editor, India CSR. Excerpts:
In these times of Covid, how is the company managing its environmental footprint?
At Tata Chemicals we know that businesses can play a major role in protecting our planet, driving international benchmarks for sustainable practices in the business.
We have pledged to integrate environmental, social, and ethical principles into our business which are central to improving the quality of life of the communities we serve globally since its inception.
Investments in new capacities help us not just cut down on the pollution but also help manufacture quality products. In addition to this we promoted smart agriculture, emphasis on continuous improvement in the recycling of water, and continuously monitored performance with air emissions monitoring systems and pilot concentrators. We are also committed to recycling and reusing materials such as replacing virgin chemical grade limestone with recycled material, conducted climate change risk assessment and waste mapping study.
The company has continued to develop its sustainability capacity at corporate and manufacturing levels while remaining committed to the science-based targets initiative to reduce CO2 emissions. The Dun & Bradstreet’s ESG performance Award in the Manufacturing category won by the company at ‘India’s Top 500 Companies 2021’ Awards is a testament of our commitment towards the same.
The company through its social initiatives is also focusing on carbon sequestration by plantation of more than 1 lakh mangroves, developing social forestry in Dwarka and Sundarban, to conserve the soil and water various micro watersheds initiatives are being carried out.
Tell us about ‘Save The Whale Shark’ Project. How many sharks have the project rescued and released till date? What are the company’s future plans for the project?
As a group, we are known for fighting to save the animal kingdom from the consequences of shrinking habitats and a fragile ecosystem. One of the most successful conservation programmes, is the ‘Save the Whale Shark’ campaign at Mithapur launched in 2004 partnering with the Wildlife Trust of India and the Gujarat State Forest Department. It focuses on habitat study and research on migratory patterns and breeding biology of sharks. In the year 2020, 34 whale sharks were caught accidentally in the fishing nets along the Saurashtra coast in Gujarat. They were rescued and released to the sea taking the total rescue figure since the inception of the campaign to over 843.
The campaign took an emotional route, naming the fish ‘vhali’, or dear one, and likening it to a prodigal daughter returning to her native place. For the coming future, the company is going to continue working with the Eco Clubs in schools at Mithapur to raise awareness on environment conservation.
The chemical industry is impacted by volatility in energy prices and availability, which causes growing concern for the environment. What is the company doing to reduce this impact of volatility?
Since the company was formed 83 years ago, it has served as the custodian of public good, calibrating its mission to address the world’s most urgent needs. The company continues to follow those high standards of governance and transparency. We practice energy management through energy audits, improvement in operational efficiency, and shift to renewable energy like in our Nellore plant we added solar power capacity. The plant achieved high energy optimization by increasing solar power generation capacity by 65% and reducing maximum grid power demand by 20%.
A total of 11,53,371 kWh of power savings were driven by the implementation of IIoT, usage of LED lights, and variable frequency drive conversion for HRT, HCT, and slurry feed pump. Double effect evaporator in plants converted to quadruple effect evaporator resulting into 14,976 MCal/hr energy saving equivalent to 47,641 TPA CO2 emission reduction.
Tata Chemicals USA has several projects underway to reduce environmental load, increase safety, automation and digitisation. Could you give us more details on these projects?
Tata Chemicals USA (TCNA) achieved a total power reduction of 450 kWh in Boilers’ electrostatic precipitator (ESP) post implementing findings of energy study, which indicated potential to lower operating powers and comply with the boilers’ environmental limits in its current permissible levels leading to energy conservation.
We voluntarily reduced particulate matter (PM) emission limits from 0.039 lb/MMBtu to 0.030 lb/MMBtu to create a bank of PM emission offsets for pending and future permitting. Also replaced the old Continuous Emission Monitoring system (CEMS) for all regulated pollutants for better compliance enforcement, credible pollution monitoring, and reporting practices.
Tata Chemicals actively engage with the communities in their regions of operation to create sustainable social and economic development. So, what are your CSR priorities for this year and how is the company going to ensure environmental integrity?
Our integrated approach is underpinned by the Tata ethos and aligned with UN SDGs, making an impact in all areas ranging from nutrition to farm excellence to women empowerment and gender equality to livelihood. Our priorities have always been in the line of serving society by enriching the quality of life by creating sustainable livelihoods, maintaining and conserving the environment and biodiversity, enabling better health, sanitation, nutrition, and education, and building Social Capital for the long-term progress on all fronts.
Overall 1 lakh people have been covered under CSR initiatives and a total of 6,084 people have been covered through our environmental projects, continuing such initiative we are securing the environment through climate action, life below water, life on land, and renewable/sustainable energy.
Being the enablers for social, economic, and environmental development, how is Tata Chemicals ensuring the health and well-being of communities as they are committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate social responsibility?
Tata Chemicals strives to be the neighbour of choice in the communities in which we operate and contribute to their equitable and inclusive development. Community development is at the core we adhere to in the company. Under our greening programme we have planted 1.15 lakh mangroves across various sites along with conservation of local plant biodiversity at Mithapur.
We implemented a ‘Holistic Nutrition’ project in Amrawati and Barwani, targeting child health in the first 1,000 days. Health and nutrition camps were organised covering about 14,000 women and children. During the pandemic, 23,000 children benefitted from online classes, scholarships, videos, and WhatsApp groups set for education continuity.
Our Learning and Migration Programme helped above 6,000 children by enhancing their learning capabilities and strengthening the community school management system. Under our Swachh Tarang project in the year 2020, over 1,110 households got access to clean water. Rural sanitation was improved through our behavior change programme, Swachh Bharat Mission Cleanliness Drives, and the construction of toilets and sanitation units.
To sustain the initiatives, the focus has been on “by the people“ concept i.e. owned, managed & governed by the people through various self-sustained committees. For e.g., Pani samiti, Village health and water sanitation committee, education committee, etc. These committees will help in looking after the social development of the village, whereas for a livelihood the SHG formed are converted into federation & finally into a section 8 company which is developed into entrepreneurship. Also, the art of Okhamandal transforming into a company for the Artisans of India which is known as “OKHAI” having transformed more than Rs. 10 Crore with the involvement of more than 25,000 artesian.
The work on water from “stress to accessibility” is under progress where more than 800 small, medium and large structures have been built due to which additional water conservation of 441 mcft of water stored & additional 13000 acres of land is covered under irrigation.
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(CopyRight@IndiaCSR)
