Building solutions for a sustainable future

Aditya Birla Group (ABG) has institutionalised a sustainability framework with three strategic pillars: Responsible Stewardship, Stakeholder Engagement, and Future Proofing. As a flagship cement business of ABG, UltraTech follow this framework in letter and spirit to make its business sustainable.

UltraTech, the largest cement and concrete manufacturer in India, has been at the forefront in adopting sustainable processes in its business operations. The focus areas of sustainability are decarbonisation, energy transition, circular economy, biodiversity management, water positivity, safe operations and community development. 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 environment friendly products, improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of renewable energy, increasing green cover to nurture biodiversity, and scaling up the use of industrial and municipal waste in its manufacturing operations to drive circularity.

UltraTech is a founding member of Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). It is a signatory to the GCCA Climate Ambition 2050, a sectoral aspiration to deliver carbon neutral concrete by 2050. UltraTech has adopted new age tools like the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), Internal Carbon Price, Renewable Energy (#RE100) and Energy Productivity (#EP100) as part of its efforts to accelerate adoption of low carbon technologies and processes across its value chain and thus reduce carbon footprint over the life cycle. UltraTech is the first company in India and the second company in Asia to issue dollar-based sustainability linked bonds.

Progress during FY2023

During financial year 2022-2023, UltraTech has made significant progress on its sustainability focus areas. Here are key highlights.

Decarbonisation :

UltraTech’s CO2 emission targets are validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). Its key decarbonisation commitments include:

• Reduction of Scope 1 CO2 intensity by 27% by 2032, from the base year of 2017.

• Reduction of Scope 2 CO2 intensity by 69% by 2032, from the base year of 2017.

   

With 557 kg/tonne of cementitious products in FY23, UltraTech’s Net CO2 intensity has decreased by 12% from the base year of 2017, in line with our commitment of a 27% reduction by 2032.

Biodiversity :

UltraTech’s biodiversity policy is based on the ‘No Net Loss’ approach. Since 2017, UltraTech has been assessing the biodiversity of its sites through the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) in collaboration with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Green Future Foundation and Terracon Ecotech Pvt Ltd.

During FY23, UltraTech completed biodiversity assessments of four more integrated cement manufacturing units. With this it has completed biodiversity assessment of 12 integrated units so far. UltraTech is working to complete biodiversity assessments in all its 23 integrated units by 2024.

Water Conservation : UltraTech has a well-defined water conservation plan implemented across all its manufacturing units. Zero liquid discharge plants have been installed at various manufacturing units to help in the reuse of 100% treated water within its sites.

UltraTech has reused, recycled, harvested, and recharged more than 85+ million cubic meters of water in FY22-23. UltraTech is 4.17 times water positive, in line with its commitment to be 5 times water positive by 2024.

Circular Economy :

The circularity of materials is a priority for UltraTech in tackling the issue of overutilization of resources, the rising cost of natural raw materials and disposal of waste generated from human activity.

UltraTech uses municipal solid waste and other industrial waste as alternative fuel in its kilns through co-processing. During FY23, UltraTech co-processed 4.1 lakhs tonnes of industrial waste and 1.59 lakhs tonnes of segregated Municipal Solid Waste as Alternative fuels During FY23, over 20% recycled material has been used by UltraTech for cement manufacturing. UltraTech is now 2.44 times plastic negative.

Green Energy :

UltraTech is on a path to build a green energy ecosystem for its business operations. As part of UltraTech’s RE100 commitment, the Company aims to meet 100 per cent of its electricity requirement through renewable sources by 2050.

UltraTech currently has 555 MW of green energy capacity, which includes 210 MW of WHRS installed capacity and 345 MW of renewable energy. In FY23, UltraTech achieved 25.74% increase in WHRS with 43 MW capacity addition and 28.25% increase in renewable energy (solar+wind) with 76 MW capacity addition.