The first solar-powered airplane to fly around the world, powered only by the sun's rays has been hosted in India by the Aditya Birla Group.Commenting on SI-2’s landing in Ahmedabad on the 10th of March, Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, detailing the rationale said - “The Aditya Birla Group is delighted to be the India host to Solar Impulse 2 on its groundbreaking flight around the world. Our Group’s sustainability strategy is to integrate sustainability issues into our business strategies for the future. To do this, we endeavour to link with leading thinkers and practitioners who stoke out-of-the-box approaches to ensure that businesses get geared to meet the demands of the future. Solar Impulse fits in with our strategy. Creativity, innovation and drive are the defining features for success. Solar Impulse epitomizes these characteristics, and most importantly drives the message of synergizing growth with responsibility. This is our common philosophy which will guide us as we aspire to be the leading Indian conglomerate in sustainable business practices across our global operations”.
The Aditya Birla Group is already into Solar Power. The Group’s Solar business, which commenced operations in 2011, represents the first step in renewable energy, a pivot towards a green world. Up until now, the Solar business has completed 7 projects totalling 80 MW in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Telengana, way ahead of schedule. These are ranked among the top performing plants in the country. On the anvil are the Group’s plans to take the capacities to a far higher level as a measure of its commitment to alternate energy sources.
Speaking at the media conference on the 11th of March at Ahmedabad, Mr. Rajiv Dube, Director, Group Corporate Services, highlighted the principle of sustainability as embedded in the Group’s businesses – “At Novelis, the largest drink can stock supplier in the world, we have set an ambitious target to use 80% recycled aluminium for our raw material input by 2020. This has the significant advantage of reducing the CO2 footprint by 95% compared to using prime metal. We are already seeing the benefit of reaching 50% recycled content and have been awarded a major contract to supply body panels for the new Ford F150 all aluminium body pickup truck”.
Likewise, at its Pulp and Fibre business, which is the world’s largest producer of Viscose Staple Fibre for clothing, certifying its forests to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council standards, have been accomplished. By doing so, Aditya Birla Group ensures not only that the fibre will be available indefinitely due to the cropping rotation but that they also manage to maintain the forests as a substantial carbon sink.
At UltraTech, India’s largest cement producer is benchmarked as one of the most energy efficient plants in the world. UltraTech is improving further by locating and introducing larger percentages of slag and fly ash and by developing consistent supply sources for alternative kiln fuels such as biomass, used tires and municipal waste.
In all of the Aditya Birla Group’s operations sustainability is on top of the agenda, concluded Mr. Dube.
About Aditya Birla Group
The Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate operating in 36 countries with over 120,000 employees worldwide. A US$ 40 billion corporation, The Aditya Birla Group is in the league of Fortune 500. Over 50% of its revenues come from its global operations. The Group enjoys a leadership position in the sectors in which it operates, such as metals, carbon black, cement, viscose staple fibers, chemicals, insulators, telecom, branded apparels, fertilizers, financial services and retail among others. It is the largest Indian multinational with manufacturing operations in the USA. Beyond business, the Aditya Birla Group reaches out to 7 million people in 3,000 villages largely in India, South East Asia, Brazil and Egypt through its community outreach. www.adityabirla.com
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