ITC’s Businesses are actively working towards achieving ITC’s Sustainability 2.0 vision. During the year, over 50 percent of ITC’s total energy requirements were met from renewable sources. With this, ITC has already met its 2030 commitment of achieving 50 percent renewable energy share in FY 2023-24 itself i.e., seven years in advance. Commendable progress has been made in line with 2030 targets relating to specific energy, specific GHG emissions and specific water consumption across Businesses as well.
As a responsible corporate citizen, ITC has made a commitment to reduce dependence on energy from fossil fuels. Accordingly, all factories incorporate appropriate green features and premium luxury hotels, and office complexes continue to be certified at the highest level by either the US Green Building Council (USGBC) or Indian Green Building Council (IGBC).
During the year, despite significant increase in scale of operations, over 50 percent (previous year: 43 percent) of ITC’s total energy requirements were met from renewable sources such as biomass, wind and solar. In line with ITC’s continuous thrust on expanding renewable footprint across both thermal and electrical energy, this achievement was driven by the commissioning of state-of-the-art and future-ready High Pressure Recovery Boiler at the Bhadrachalam mill of ITC’s Paperboards & Specialty Papers Business in the previous year which replaced conventional soda recovery boilers thereby reducing carbon footprint through lower coal consumption (by apprx. 25 percent).
In addition to this, ITC has installed and commissioned 205 MW of solar and wind power capacity across the country to meet its electrical energy requirements.
ITC continues its efforts towards meeting 100 percent of purchased grid electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2030 and sustaining 50 percent renewable energy share in its total energy consumption based on a mix of energy conservation and renewable energy investments, despite significant enhancement in its scale of operations going forward.
Pioneering the Green Building Movement in India
In order to continuously reduce ITC’s energy footprint, green features are being integrated in all new and old constructions including hotels, manufacturing units, warehouses and office complexes. ITC is a pioneer in the green building movement, with 40 buildings having received Platinum certification by USGBC/IGBC. Several of ITC’s factories and office complexes have received the Green Building certification from IGBC and the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED®) certification from USGBC. In 2004, the ITC Green Centre at Gurugram received LEED Platinum® certification by USGBC, making it the largest Platinum rated building in the world at that point in time. The data centre at Bengaluru, ITC Sankhya, is the first data centre in the world to receive the LEED Platinum® certification by USGBC. Large infrastructure investments such as the ITC Green Centre at Guntur and the ITC Green Centre at Bengaluru (both LEED Platinum® certified) continue to demonstrate ITC’s commitment to green buildings. Virginia House, Kolkata and ITC Centre, Kolkata – the headquarters of ITC, are also certified at the highest ‘LEED Platinum®’ rated Green Building by USGBC.
Reaffirming ITC’s commitment to the ethos of ‘Responsible Luxury’, 23 of its hotels have been awarded the LEED Platinum® Certification by USGBC, the highest number of hotels in the world to have achieved this feat, making ITC a trailblazer in green hoteliering globally. ITC Grand Chola, the 600-key super-premium luxury hotel complex in Chennai, is amongst the world’s largest LEED Platinum® certified green hotels.
Furthering ITC’s Responsible Luxury ethos, 12 of its iconic hotels have received LEED® Zero Carbon Certification, the first in the world to achieve this feat. Further, ITC’s Sankhya data centre in Bengaluru became the first data centre in the world to be awarded the LEED® Zero Carbon certification.