‘Carbon Positive’-
5th Year in a Row
 ITC continued to consolidate its ‘Carbon Positive’ status for the 5th year in a row through concerted efforts in energy conservation, enhanced use of renewable energy resources and large scale carbon sequestration through farm & social forestry initiatives.
ITC’s focused energy conservation initiatives continued to yield significant benefits to a large number of Business Units during the year. Most Units achieved significant reduction in specific energy consumption (energy required per unit of production) through a rigorous process of third party audits and benchmarking.
ITC’s paperboards factory at Bhadrachalam, already highlighted as the most energy efficient factory of its type in the country (reference “All About Paper” by Centre for Science and Environment, 2004) further reduced its specific energy consumption by 2.5% over last year. The specialty papers factory at Tribeni also achieved a reduction of 9% in its specific energy consumption. These two factories account for 82.7% of ITC’s total energy consumption.
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Specific energy consumption at the Haridwar Units of the Personal Care and Foods businesses reduced substantially as illustrated in the chart below:
| Business |
Product Portfolio |
Percentage
Reduction in
Specific Energy |
| Personal Care |
Soap |
20.4 |
| Shampoo/Cream |
31.0 |
| Foods |
Biscuit |
21.3 |
| Snack Foods |
16.8 |
Similarly, specific energy consumption reduced by 9.7% and 16.3% at the leaf threshing Units in Chirala and Anaparti, 8.7% at ITC’s largest cigarette factory at Bengaluru, 22.6% at Hotel ITC Windsor and by 17.3% at Sheraton, New Delhi.
Flowing from its commitment to the triple bottom line philosophy, ITC has chosen renewable energy as a focus area for enhancing its positive environmental footprint.
During the year, it commissioned an additional capacity of 6MW in wind energy and installed a 90 TPH (tonnes per hour) bio-mass residue fired boiler. These investments have helped offset the enhanced energy consumption of 11.2% as a result of increased production. Around 30.9% of ITC’s energy consumption is now from renewable sources and carbon neutral fuels.
ITC businesses have 8 CDM Projects under the Kyoto Protocol, registered with the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). The Certified Emission Reductions, generated by these projects have helped offset some of the investments made towards reducing specific energy consumption and enhancing the renewable energy portfolio. ITC’s large scale social forestry project, the first of its kind in India, has also been registered with the CDM Executive Board of the UNFCCC. This project has ensured that poor tribals in rural India will also be able to benefit from carbon credits traded across the world. Several other projects are in the process of being registered. |
