BENGALURU: Recently, IT major Infosys released its 12th Annual Sustainability Report that provides detailed information on the company’s responsible business practices across environmental parameters. Conserving the environment and promoting the use of renewable energy seems to be prime focus for other firms in the city too. Companies coming forward with initiatives include MNCs like Intel to companies like Sasken Technologies. They are also formulating several activities for employees to actively take part in.
For example, Intel India’s new green building, SRR4, located on Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru, ensures optimum use of light systems. In addition, the campus uses renewable energy sources, like solar and fuel cells, for power generation, which is estimated to support up to 90 per cent of the building’s electricity consumption.
“We invest in technologies to help reduce carbon footprint and we have installed energy-harvesting tiles and 15,000 IoT-based sensors for optimum use of lighting systems and water and infrastructure equipment,” says Jitendra Chaddah, senior director, Strategy & Operations, Intel India. In addition, employees volunteer for different environment-related causes in the community. “Our employees have contributed over 1,00,000 volunteering hours over the last three years to address issues on environment, education and healthcare through technology interventions,” added Chaddah.
Nupoor Sharma, an engineer at Intel’s new building, says her favourite part of the office is the energy harvesting tiles at the entrance, which generate and store energy as people walk in/out of the building. “Working here gives us the feeling that we are contributing to the environment every day,” she beams.
These initiatives don’t just help employees feel good about their efforts, but also translate into real change as well. According to Infosys’ sustainability report, in the fiscal year 2019, 46.17 per cent of electricity required by the company across campuses in the country was met by renewable sources.
Rajiv C Mody, chairman, MD and CEO of Sasken Technologies Limited, believes environmental sustainability and protection is the key to the future. He shares that the company has been practising eco-friendly initiatives across all their India facilities. “This is carried out under the umbrella of environment management systems led by Prakriti, a focused group of in-house volunteers. Our community-focused initiatives, such as reduce-reuse-recycle, water conservation, neighbourhood clean-up, using renewable energy, organic/terrace gardening, etc, have been instrumental in earning us the ISO certificate for environment management, year-on-year,” he explained.
Employees at Sasken Technologies enthusiastically welcome such initiatives, not just because they feel it helps them contribute to society, but also because it gives them platform to voice their conservation ideas. Pulkit Arora, engineer, application software at the company, is an active member of company’s green initiatives. He says, “The initiatives, be it e-waste collection drives or increasing the green cover around, influence you to give back to society. Our ideas are heard and implemented here.”