Greentech Lead India: IT major Infosys has been committed to corporate sustainability. The company invests approximately 100 crore every year for sustainable initiatives. Infosys’ sustainability strategy focuses on areas like improving energy efficiency through innovation, water conservation, green building, waste management, and promoting renewable energy programs.
The company has set a target to plant 170 trees per acre across all its campuses in India. Infosys engages its employees in all sustainability initiatives and educates them on the need of building a sustainable lifestyle. The core focus of Infosys’ sustainability practice, however, is to reduce per capita electricity consumption and the company has made significant achievement in this regard.
Rohan Parikh, head of Green Initiatives and Infrastructure– Infosys, in a telephonic interaction with Greentech Lead, said the company has reduced overall per capita electricity consumption of its employees by over 40 percent across its offices in India since the launch of its sustainability initiatives in January 2008. In its new buildings which have been fitted with innovative technologies, the company has been able to reduce per capita electricity consumption by about 60 percent without any extra capital cost.
In 2012-13 the company has improved per person energy conservation by 12 percent and water consumption by 13 percent.
Infosys’ sustainability goals for December 2017:
· To become carbon neutral – the company will reduce its per capita energy consumption by 50 percent over 2007 levels by the year 2017 and will source 100 percent of all its electricity from renewable resources
· To become water neutral
· Efficiently manage waste to ensure that less than 10 percent of the waste the company generates goes to the landfill.
Infosys has identified each area that consumes electricity and implemented disruptive ideas that change the way things are happening today, Parikh said. Cooling accounts for nearly 45 percent of Infosys’ energy consumption while IT infrastructure eats up 35 percent. Lighting consumes nearly 16 percent.
Infosys has retrofitted its campuses with innovative technologies to reduce energy consumption. Instead of air conditioning, the company is using radiant cooling by which the company is able to bring 66 percent energy efficiency in cooling.
The new green buildings constructed by Infosys are day-lit, completely eliminating the need for lighting during the day. They are also equipped with wireless sensors that can be controlled remotely. The volumetric lighting fixtures with controllers are designed to optimize lighting. The lighting system now mainly consists of P5 and LEDs. The company has replaced old computers with new, energy efficient systems that produce better results.
A highlight of Infosys’ green buildings is the smart controllers and wireless energy harvesting technology that enable remote monitoring, diagnostics and controlling of various equipments.
Infosys’ waste management efforts have got a boost over the last few years. The company is setting up biogas and composting plants to convert organic waste to clean fuel. The Mysore facility is already up and running, and the remaining facilities in Mangalore and a couple of other places will be operational soon, Parikh said.
Infosys’ ultimate goal is to recycle 100 percent of waste generated in its facilities and send less than 10 percent of its waste to landfills by 2017. The company segregates dry waste into separate categories and sends them to recyclers. Also, Infosys has recently set up a plastic recycling facility in Bangalore. This is a testing facility that converts plastic and rubber waste to into light diesel oil. It can recycle all common plastic wastes found in a company including bottles, wrappers and rubber tires. The oil thus produced is used for running the boilers and lawn movers.
When asked about the cost of running such plants and the returns they yield, Parikh said they are highly profitable. “This in fact generates money for us. Raw materials are totally free of cost. Instead of buying oil for Rs.100, you spend only Rs. 50 for producing the oil.”
Further, Infosys’ e-waste management team responsibly segregates the waste and sends to responsible e-waste recyclers, said Parikh.
Being a water positive company, Infosys has invested heavily in water conservation. Its buildings are fitted with rain harvesting systems and injection wells. The company recycles 100 percent of its sewage water on site and uses this for landscaping and flushing. Also, the management has implemented flow restrictors in all taps and showers and has trimmed down the capacity of flushing systems.
As part of its environmental and social commitment Infosys is exploring renewable energy sources like solar, wind and biomass. The company, in association with CII and WRI, has engaged in a renewable energy initiative by which it aims to meet 25 percent of its energy needs by 2017. The initiative is supported by several like-minded organizations.
Infosys’ sustainability funds are largely utilized for retrofitting. These expenses, according to Parikh, are not a burden; rather they yield immediate returns to the company. For example, over the last 5 years, the company has brought down energy consumption from 300 units per employee per month to 170 units per employee per month. In other words, the company has saved 465 million units of energy over the last five years.
To put in a different way, Infosys has increased its headcount by 70 percent over the last five years, but electricity consumption has increased only by 16 percent, Parikh said.
Responding to our question why Indian companies still lag behind in adopting sustainability measures, Parikh said it’s the lack of awareness that is preventing companies from going green. “We have proven that our buildings can be more than 60 percent efficient without spending anything extra. If they are not doing it now, they are losing an opportunity. Decision makers don’t know the benefits in quantifiable data. Very few businesses have shared the data.”
Parikh further said, “Earlier our buildings used to consume 250 units of electricity per square feet per year, now it’s reduced to 85-90 units per square feet per year. Even today most decision makers do not know what to ask for, and there are very few case studies, and even the design community is not aware of the possibilities.”
A major part of Infosys’ sustainability funds goes for retrofitting of existing facilities, implementing new design, new technologies and equipments. Investing in energy efficient equipment is very profitable because these equipments run for 15-20 years, so they yield high economic value, Parikh said.
When asked where Infosys stands in terms of sustainability when compared to global counterparts, Parikh said Infosys’ sustainability practice, specifically on green buildings, is far ahead of most developers and companies in developed countries.
Rajani Baburajan