We Strive To Obtain 30% Renewables In Our Energy Mix By 2030: Sunil Gupta, COO, Vedanta Aluminium
In an interview with ResponsibleUs, Sunil Gupta, COO, Vedanta Aluminium outlines ways the company supports biodiversity conservation, carbon mitigation, and community development
The mission of the company pivots on working with communities while advocating for sustainable water and waste management methods. To support their activities, Vedanta Aluminium recycled over 15 billion liters of water across operations during FY24, achieving an 11% reduction in freshwater withdrawal and saving 1.5 million cubic meters of water therein. Whenever possible, these companies also engage in over 60 rural community water body restoration projects. They plan to reach 30% renewables in their energy mix by 2030.
In an interview with ResponsibleUs, Sunil Gupta, COO, Vedanta Aluminium outlines ways the company supports biodiversity conservation, carbon mitigation, and community development.
How will Vedanta Aluminium's recent partnership with PWC contribute to biodiversity conservation and carbon reduction? And how will you measure the impact?
Our collaboration with PwC underscores our continuous focus on leveraging expert insights to achieve tangible environmental and community benefit in the vicinity of our operations. Through this effort, we are committed to leading the global aluminium industry through a strategic focus on sustainability, innovation, and operational excellence, ensuring responsible growth.
Under this partnership, a variety of innovative environmental projects will be executed to restore ecological balances, lessen climatic impact, and develop community well-being at the site in Odisha. The company has been utilizing pioneering carbon sequestration projects for carbon credit generation and offsetting emissions.
Using Geographic Information System (GIS)-based mapping techniques, we are systematically replacing invasive species with native flora to restore ecosystems. We will also distribute 2,000 energy-efficient cookstoves in local communities to reduce biofuel use and lower carbon footprints. In addition, densely populated forests created under the Miyawaki method contribute to enriching biodiversity and fast-tracking carbon sequestration. Land restoration efforts and biodiversity management with local NGOs and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) aim toward No Net Loss of biodiversity.
PwC shall provide thorough supervisory support in project execution through and including feasibility studies, designing implementation strategies, and monitoring progress and adherence to project goals through periodic reporting. These measures will ensure that long-term sustainability and measurable impact shall be reached. In tandem with global biodiversity assessment tools and periodic ecological surveys, progress will be tracked with a view to measuring impact and ensuring compliance with No Net Loss targets.
What roles do global best practices and local collaboration play in Vedanta Aluminium's ecological restoration activities?
We believe that any mission statement is credible only if it contains three pillars: transforming communities, transforming the planet, and transforming the workplace. Vedanta Aluminium's partnerships on all the sustainability and advancement programs are designed considering these three goals. For example, they are working with CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) and many other top research organizations in the world for the development and validation of technologies for bauxite residue utilization together with enrichment and recovery processes. Such endeavours are benchmarked with global peers and involve our participation in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2024, in which we ranked second globally within the aluminium sector.
On the ground, with communities and their involvement, we pursue sustainable water and waste management practices in tandem with biodiversity projects. In FY24 overall, we recycled more than 15 billion litres of water across our operations, an impressive achievement of 11% reduction of freshwater withdrawal, equating to 1.5 million cubic meters of freshwater saved. In FY23 alone, our by-product utilization increased by 200%, thereby greatly aiding the circular economy. We are also engaged in more than 61 restoration projects in rural community water bodies, which strengthens our concerns regarding environmental stewardship and community wellness.
The role of renewable energy in catapulting Vedanta Aluminium into business and a guarantee for power supply?
We strive to obtain 30% renewables in its energy mix by 2030, which is a milestone critical to its quest for Net Zero emissions by as early as 2050, while utilizing a mix of state-of-the-art technologies and sustainable practices in all its operations to achieve this. The next on the table for us in collaboration with Serentica Renewables is 1.3 GW of solar and wind energy power to our facilities in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.. We are including alternative fuels such as biomass briquettes made from crop residue, which give additional income to farmers, once this initiative is rolled out. Also, in our collaboration with GAIL Gas, we intend to introduce natural gas at our Jharsuguda smelter by 2025, which will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by approximately 47292 tonnes yearwise. These projects are alongside ongoing energy efficiency improvements that promise to provide a seamless transition into renewable energy in support of our wider sustainability goals. Aluminium translates into a greater demand in the world of solar, wind, and electric vehicles for Vedanta.
Aluminium had a key role to play in India's transformation into a clean energy economy, and we at Vedanta Aluminium are most excited to play an active leading role in this transition. This form of its importance in renewable energy is beginning, but it is going much further: electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric installations-all have applications to safeguard sustainable power generation. Besides, we see a strong potential for other sectors like power and transmission and automotive. So as we grow the renewable share in our energy mix, we will be able to have bigger volume offerings of green aluminium to meet the rising market demand. And we are increasing the share of value-added aluminium products in our total portfolio up from 68% now to over 90% in the future, thus catering to bespoke applications across several sectors. Also, the expansion of production capacity from 2.37 million tons to over 3 million tons is being carried out by ramping up capacity at the Bharat Aluminium Co. facility.
Is Vedanta making mining and supply chains greener and more responsible?
Sustainability is integrated into everything that Vedanta Aluminium does. Our commitment is captured in the principles of "Zero Harm, Zero Waste, Zero Discharge," which shape our sustainability strategy and focus on energy efficiency, resource optimization, and biodiversity protection. We have developed an Operational Dashboard, which enables data-driven decisions to reduce waste and enhance governance practices of our mining. The dashboard has been created by in-house teams and implemented internally, and gives insights into important mining parameters, including coal exposure, overburdening, machine time utilization (TUM), and stock levels. Plus, we attempt to reduce our environmental footprint through afforestation activities. By introducing advanced technology and by better monitoring of data, we ensure efficient and sustainable operations at every level.
What innovative practices are being used to minimize water usage and pollution during aluminium production?
Our Water Management Standard ensures systematic monitoring, scenario analysis, and stakeholder collaboration to promote transparency. We have built substantial on-site reservoirs to store effluent and surface runoff, conserving water and minimizing environmental discharge. Our water conservation efforts also include improving condensate return, stormwater utilization, and increasing the use of recycled water. We have implemented IoT-based technology for real-time water quality monitoring and deployed multiple water-saving systems across our facilities. By investing in robust water management efforts, we are driving sustainable water management practices across our operations.
How is the company advancing in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in aluminium extraction from ore?
This dual-path strategy towards achieving zero CO2 emissions by 2050 involves reducing carbon impact first while offsetting the footprint after. Among other things, we expect to increase the proportion of renewables in our energy mix and transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources, including biofuels among others. For offsetting, our focus will now stride ahead to develop new and large carbon sinks, while expanding our afforestation initiatives. Aluminium henceforth will play an important part in reducing carbon footprints from the cleaner energy transition towards more sustainable future development.
We have also included innovative technologies like Vedanta Lining Design (VLD), which uses the most sophisticated volcanic modeling to understand and optimize the electrical and thermal behavior of smelting pots. Or even better, it makes them into pots that last longer and use less energy, while producing less waste. This reduced energy use by a fantastic 5%, doubling as a major shrinker of our carbon footprint from aluminium production. In-house developed patented technology increases energy efficiency while granting longer lives to vital plant equipment and smoother, more reliable operations. Recognized also with the honors at the 2023 National Energy Efficiency Innovation Awards (NEEIA) by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
We have reduced our greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 28.5% for the financial years 2011-12 to 2023-24. To this end, we are utilizing modern technology such as the Industrial Internet of Things for emissions monitoring, material wastage prevention, and energy consumption savings across our operations.
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