Challenges emanating from our operations notwithstanding, we have made it a point to develop our business strategy around sustainable growth.

As a responsible corporate citizen, we try to create value for our stakeholders, while striving to preserve our environment. We are consciously trying to reduce our carbon footprint, minimise waste generation, and manage water resources better. We are working towards realising our vision to power our business with greener technologies, recycled materials and zeroliquid- discharge plants.

With the adoption of more environment-friendly solutions such as Flue Gas Desulphurisation and Selective Catalytic Reduction technologies, we will provide greener products and services to our customers, enabling them to minimise their adverse impact on the environment.

We plan to accelerate the pace at which our sustainability objectives are met, by ensuring the full integration of our sustainability initiatives with our business strategy.

Technological advances are being accompanied by a growing awareness of the importance of sustainability, especially in the last decade and the Construction industry is no exception.

Construction activities have a major impact on the social, environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. We at L&T, have always endeavoured to use and develop assets with a long, useful life and with minimum reliance on non-renewable resources. Infrastructure must be sustainable if it is to benefit the generations to come and make a positive contribution to the future. Providing such infrastructure now is an investment that will pay for itself many times over in the future. L&T plays a major role in the development of sustainable infrastructure in India and other countries. We recognize our privileged position of gathering and integrating knowledge and experience from around the world to help create better infrastructure, more responsibly.

The Indian economy is among the fastest growing in the world, but the sluggishness in global markets did have a dampening effect on India’s business growth story. Plans for major new investments were slow to take off from the drawing board, leading to a lowerthan- expected growth rate of the electrical industry in general.

Our strategy for addressing the concerns of profitable growth is viewed through the lens of sustainability. Being efficient in resource use is, therefore, built into the strategy. Our major manufacturing locations are now certified for ISO 50001, and we are planning to steadily increase the use of renewable energy at our locations. While three of E&A bussiness locations are water-positive, we are looking to further improve our water conservation through better measurement and monitoring mechanisms.

Innovation is critical to the process of integrating sustainability into our business. We have in place a programme that encourages employees across functions to experiment with their ideas. Our newgeneration products are designed with smart features such as use of less material and lower energy requirements.

Initiatives are being implemented to increase the use of IT and automation in some of our operations, such as logistics, to increase efficiency and enhance customer experiences. We plan to increase digitalisation in more areas of our operations. We consider our suppliers as our partners, and extend these LEAN practices to our supply chain.

Sustainability and Climate Change is a key subject matter of discussion across the governance segments, be it Corporate, Social or Political. It is topical and has acquired a sense of urgency unparalleled in recent memory. It has been L&T’s endeavour to be a benchmark in terms of its environmental footprint. Our commitment to sustainability is not limited to its ecosystem.

The Company’s efforts towards energy conservation and climate change mitigation were showcased as a case study at Paris, COP 21 – India Pavilion, exemplifying India’s initiatives on climate change through its responsible corporates. L&T is also the first Engineering & Construction Company in India to release a sustainability report.

“Rooted to The Future” is our 9th report in as many years, underscoring L&T’s pioneering transparency initiative. The report describes the process of identification of material issues and the past performance. A unique feature of this report is releasing the Sustainability Roadmap 2021, which reaffirms our commitment to resource conservation and climate change mitigation. The effort is to inculcate sustainability as part of the long term strategy and business plan of the Company titled “Lakshya 2021”.

The Report has been developed completely in-house by our Sustainability and Corporate Brand Management & Communications teams – adding to our own sustainability quotient.