New Delhi: ITC Limited, one of India’s leading multi-business conglomerates and a global exemplar in sustainability, has set itself the target to meet 100% of purchased grid electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2030. In line with its philosophy of ‘Responsible Competitiveness’, the Company has adopted a low carbon growth strategy which encompasses a large renewable energy footprint. At present ITC meets over 40% of its electrical energy requirement through renewable sources like wind, solar and biomass. As a part of its Sustainability 2.0 Vision, ITC is planning to invest further in strengthening its renewable energy portfolio in order to contribute meaningfully to the fight against climate change.

Investments in renewable energy

In its endeavour to contribute to a ‘cleaner and greener’ environment, ITC has been expanding its renewable energy footprint over the past two decades. The company has already made significant investments in renewable energy assets (Wind and Solar projects combined). This will improve Renewable Energy share of company by additional 6% from current levels.

Current renewable energy portfolio

The current renewables portfolio of ITC consists of 138 MW of wind power plants and 14 MW of Solar plants with ~53MW of additional solar capacity under execution. Projects are also underway in the area of other sources of renewable energy like solar boiler or biomass boilers.

At present, ITC uses renewable energy across 20 factories, 9 hotels and 6 office buildings spanning states such as Telengana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Punjab.   

In 2018, ITC became the first private sector entity to wheel renewable energy across states through Inter-State Open Access mechanism. Currently, the 46MW Wind power plant in Andhra Pradesh owned by ITC supplies power to over 15 ITC establishments in 8 states. This has led to a higher Renewable energy utilization for the company.

Emission Reduction Targets

Besides investing in new renewable energy assets, ITC also aims to achieve a 50% reduction in specific emission and 30% reduction in specific energy consumption by 2030 over a 2014-15 baseline. Such efforts in decarbonizing energy consumption through low-carbon energy solutions will be met through large-scale digitalisation and R&D initiatives, cross-sectoral collaborations and partnerships.

Talking about company’s resolve to mitigate climate change risks, Mr Sanjiv Rangrass, Group Head –R&D, Sustainability and Projects, ITC Limited said,” As a sustainability pioneer and an exemplar in environment stewardship, ITC has been emphasizing on the need to decarbonize energy consumption through green energy solutions in order to mitigate climate change risks. Since making sustainability a core objective in all business operations two decades ago, we have worked on a low carbon growth plan, in which expanding our renewable energy portfolio is our top priority. To pursue continuous improvement in energy and emission related performance, we have taken up specific energy and Greenhouse Gas emission reduction targets. The results of our 360-degree sustainability initiatives are manifest in the Company’s decade-long achievements even as our businesses expand rapidly together with the creation of 6 million sustainable livelihoods.”

Details of new renewable energy projects

Offsite Solar projects

ITC is currently executing several offsite solar projects totalling 50 megawatt in several states such as Bihar (5.1 MW), Uttar Pradesh (9 MW), Karnataka (13.4 MW), Haryana (7 MW) and Tamil Nadu (14.9 MW) to expand its renewable energy footprint further. It is also pursuing an offsite solar project in West Bengal to meet the huge electricity needs of ITC’s establishments within the state.

Rooftop & on-site solar projects

Driving innovation further, large areas of the ITC’s Integrated Consumer Goods Manufacturing and Logistics (ICML) facilities and rooftops of factories and warehouses are being used for solar power generation. ITC also executing onsite solar projects in West Bengal (2.7 MW) and Tamilnadu (3 MW)

ITC Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy

ITC, as part of its initiative to channelize knowledge-sharing and collaboration between different teams with valuable and varied experiences in green energy projects, constituted a Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy (CoE RE) in 2014. The CoE RE currently consists of over 100 members from different divisions and units actively taking part in initiatives to drive the green objectives for the company.