Birla Carbon Charts Path to Net Zero with Release of 2025 Sustainability Report

Birla Carbon, known as the world leader in carbon black manufacturing, has published its 13th annual Sustainability Report, showcasing significant progress across safety, environmental responsibility and growth. The 2025 Sustainability Report entitled 'Connected to a Greener Future’ reaffirms the company's commitment to its long-term sustainability, circularity and innovation focussed approach called 'Share the Future'.

The report shares the company's continuing roadmap towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The report also recounts another year of incredible accomplishments driven by the company's focus on responsible growth and key stakeholder collaboration. The company's leadership reiterated the importance of having sustainability embedded into the core operations of service provisions. From getting to the business of circular solutions like its Continua™ sustainable carbonaceous materials, to using digital systems to help assess and manage the environmental impacts of operations, sustainability is clearly more of a priority than it has ever been.

Progress was also made towards improving the pathway to net zero over the past year, ambitious capital investments to demonstrate global expansion, and new precedents achieved for safety in the workplace and inclusion. The pertinent initiatives of the past year reflected the ever-evolving needs of its customers, and a commitment to establishing a safer and more innovative organization to support its employees.

One notable success reported was the level of safety performance. The company's Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) reached its lowest level ever during the financial year 2024-25. Many of the company's manufacturing sites have consistently maintained excellent safety performance over an extended period of time. In Egypt and Italy, the facilities operated without a recordable incident for almost 1,500 days, and the plants in Spain and Patalganga, India, exceeded 2,000 days without a recordable incident. The company's focus on safety culture was also recognized by the International Carbon Black Association (ICBA), which presented Birla Carbon with 13 Gold Safety Certificates - the highest number awarded to a single company among its six member companies.

With respect to global expansion, Birla Carbon is implementing its most ambitious capital investment program in the company's history. In October 2024, the Asia Post Treatment plant in Patalganga, India, commenced operations producing ultra-high-performance specialty grades utilized in the coatings and inks sectors. Expansion projects in Hungary, in addition to greenfield projects in India and Thailand, are currently in progress. These investments will enable the company to serve both regional and global customers more effectively and efficiently.

Environmental milestones are an important foundation for the report's narrative. One of the operational highlights of the year is Birla Carbon's manufacturing sites now draw 100% of their process water from recycled and/or harvested rainwater, greatly reducing the company's reliance on freshwater for manufacturing processes. Also in Q4 FY2025, the company reported a decrease of 11% in CO₂ equivalent emissions from shipping relative to the same period in FY2024, showcasing its continued commitment to optimising its logistics footprint. 

The company also won an Environment+Energy Leader Award for the Seawater Scrubbing Project at its Franklin, Louisiana, USA facility. The project significantly reduces emissions of sulphur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) by more than 90%.

The report also emphasizes Birla Carbon's commitment to product quality and manufacturing excellence. All 16 of its carbon black production facilities have received the ISCC Plus certification, which signifies leadership in sustainability and traceability for the circular economy. Additionally, every production facility also has the IATF16949 certification for automotive quality management to assure its customers of product excellence, in addition to sustainability.

Looking to the future, the company states that its commitment to the fundamentals of innovation, sustainability, and operational excellence will continue. It believes that the world's move toward sustainability will create a fundamental shift in the way business is done for the coming decades, and Birla Carbon has the continued ambition to lead in this space, creating solutions that empower our customers, communities, and generations ahead on the path towards a net zero world.

The complete Birla Carbon Sustainability Report 2025, "Connected to a Greener Future," can be viewed on the company's website. It notes that the report provides a holistic view of the company's performance against its environmental, social, and governance pillars.