Cement is one of the most widely used substances on earth after water. However, the cement industry is also one of the highest contributors of carbon dioxide that is approximately 8% of the total CO2 emission. As a member of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA), we are committed to GCCA's visionary roadmap for achieving Net Zero concrete by 2050.

We demonstrate our commitment towards net zero through following :

• The first company in the global sector to have committed to all the three campaigns of The Climate Group i.e. RE100, EP100 and EV100 in one go.
• Committed to Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in July 2022.
• Signatory to the Global Framework Principles for Decarbonising Heavy Industry, which provides clear steps to reduce emissions in heavy industries across the world to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
• Signatory to the UN Energy Compact, a voluntary commitment of action with specific targets and timelines to achieve SDG7 in line with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
• Member of UNIDO’s Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative’s (IDDI) advisory group since 2022.
• Member of Development Council for Cement Industry (DCCI), set up by Government of India in 2021.
• Signed the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Climate Charter and became a member of CII Climate Council in 2022.

As a part of our climate action strategy, we keenly focus on 4 levers which played a big role in achieving our carbon reduction targets:

• Clinker substitution: We continue to use industrial waste, such as blast furnace slag/fly ash, to substitute clinker in the production of cement or cementitious products; more than 90% of our products are slag-based.
• Alternative Fuel and resources: In FY 2022-23 we witnessed a rise in our thermal substitution rate (TSR) from 7.1% to 8% owing to increased consumption of industrial waste, plastics/RDF waste, and biomass waste at our Nandyal plant. Our target is to reach 30% by 2030. We have initiated AFR utilization at Shiva plant also.
• Clean and Green Energy: We are progressively increasing our clean and green energy portfolio. We have installed 12 MW of Waste Heat Recovery System (WHRS) at Nandyal in FY 24. The 9 MW WHRS at Shiva Cement meets almost 70% of its energy needs. Further, we have secured solar power, through JSW Energy, from the 15.5 MW solar plant at Nandyal, 8 MW at Vijaynagar and 3.5 MW at our Salboni unit, which are helping us decarbonise our footprint. Thus we have built ~ 48 MW of Clean energy portfolio.
• Energy efficiency: We take periodic upgrades and initiatives to achieve better energy efficiency in our processes. This helps further in decarbonisation.
  In addition, we are aggressively developing low carbon products such as Geopolymer cement, LC3 cement etc.
  Owing to all above initiatives, in the past 10 years, we have quadrupled our production while we have reduced our carbon emission intensity to almost one-third. From FY-14 to FY-23, CO2 emission intensity (Scope 1+ Scope2) has reduced by 65% from 596 kg/T to 206 kg/T of cementitious material wherein major reduction was in scope 1 emission intensity which dropped from 522 kg/T to 173 kg/T. We are proud that we have the lowest average net CO2 emission intensity of 173kg/T of cementitious material (scope 1) which is much below the global average of 585 kg/tonne and national average of 540 kg/tonne, leading the way with low-carbon products to combat climate change in a hard-to-abate sector.
  We recognize the role that finance can play in supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy, particularly for industries such as the cement (hard-to-abate) sector that have a key role to play in economic and social development, yet historically have been highly carbon-intensive. As such, we signed our first Sustainability Linked Loan (SLL) of $50 million with Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) in October 2022. We plan to deploy these funds as capital expenditure to achieve our capacity expansion, with increasing focus on sustainability. In June 2023, we also signed our SLL deal with BNP Paribas Singapore to raise a further $50 million.
• We, as a responsible organization towards climate change, have initiated a Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, TCFD assessment in March 2023 to disclose our climate related risk and opportunities. Please find a summary report here.
• We have disclosed our climate change and water security report with the help of CDP, which is a non-profit Organisation and scored well in both climate change and water security questionnaires. We have secured A- score for FY23 climate change disclosure.

Policy Advocacy

We have a defined framework and management approach towards administering our lobbying activities and trade association memberships. The association and participation in forums is overlooked by the CEO and the CSO. Our CSO is also a part of the Board for GCCA in India. We are associated with Cement Manufacturing Association, GCCA (India and Global) for policy advocacy.

During the year, we contributed a total of INR 98.83 lakhs towards trade association memberships out of which INR 65.90 lakhs was for GCCA Global, GCCA India and Innovandi, and INR 15 lakhs for The Climate Group. Other large contributions included INR 12.50 lakhs towards Xynteo which is a Think Tank.

We are partnering and supporting on topics such as decarbonization of the built environment in partnership with various organizations as listed above. As part of our initiatives towards circular economy, we are constantly communicating and partnering with the International Council for Circular Economy. In addition to this, we are working closely with engineering colleges, engaging students for sustainable construction. We regularly monitor and review our practices and initiatives in order to align with the Paris Agreement.