UltraTech has been recognised as a leader in ‘climate change’ by Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global non-profit environmental organization, for its 2022 CDP disclosure. UltraTech received an ‘A-’ score for implementing best practices and for taking concerted action on climate issues, securing a place in the Leadership category.
UltraTech’s score of ‘A-‘ in FY22 by CDP is a significant improvement from its previous score of ‘B’ in FY21. UltraTech’s score on ‘climate change’ by CDP has been consistently improving over the years reflecting the significant progress made by the Company in driving its decarbonisation agenda.
This improved score highlights UltraTech’s stewardship in setting competitive benchmarks, being committed to reducing its carbon footprint and taking action to mitigate climate change. The company focuses on using globally emerging technologies, enhancing product mix with environment-friendly products, increasing green energy usage in its operations and digitalisation of processes, in addition to adoption of carbon pricing.
Championing Climate Action
UltraTech is a signatory to the GCCA Climate Ambition 2050 and has committed to Net Zero Concrete Roadmap announced by Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). UltraTech has taken a holistic approach to embed sustainability across its value chain. It has integrated low carbon strategy into its business conduct. It is scaling up investments in the development of innovative products and services, improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, and scaling up the use of alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) in its manufacturing operations.
UltraTech has taken ambitious targets for reducing Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The Company has committed to reduce Scope 1 GHG intensity by 27 per cent by 2032, from the base year of 2017. UltraTech has also committed to reduce Scope 2 GHG intensity by 69 per cent by 2032, from the base year of 2017. These GHG emission targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Under its commitment to The Climate Group’s RE100 initiative, UltraTech targets to meet 100 per cent of its electricity requirement through renewables sources by 2050. It also targets to double energy productivity by FY35, from the base year of FY10, as a part of its EP100 commitment.
UltraTech is leveraging Green Energy as a key enabler for decarbonisation. The Company aims to scale up its green energy mix to 34 per cent of its total power requirement by 2024. It is doing this by continuously improving energy productivity, scaling up use of renewable energy and reusing heat from its own operations through Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS). UltraTech currently has 510 MW of Green Energy capacity, which includes 191 MW of WHRS installed capacity and 319 MW of contracted renewable energy. As of Q2FY23, green energy accounts for 19.5% of total power consumption for the Company.
CDP’s rigorous assessment criteria
CDP disclosure and scores play a key role in keeping companies on a journey of continuous environmental improvement. CDP requires companies to disclose on governance with regards to climate change related issues, risks and opportunities arising from climate change, strategy to address issues, carbon emissions and targets to reduce emissions. CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognised globally as the best standard of corporate environmental transparency. A detailed and independent methodology is used by CDP to assess participating companies, allocating a score of ‘A to D-‘ based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets. Participating companies that do not disclose or provide insufficient information are marked with an F. More than 15,000 companies disclosed their environmental data through CDP in 2022, making CDP the largest environmental database in the world.