As a responsible corporate citizen, we strive to create a positive impact on the environment and society through robust and sustainable processes. Our business strategy incorporates the triple bottom line approach to people, planet & profit, and we are committed to growth in an inclusive manner. Our community programmes are targeted in the areas of water and sanitation, education, health and skill development. These aim to create a meaningful change in the lives of the communities we work with.

We continue to invest in our facilities towards a reduction in energy consumption, the utilisation of renewable energy and implementation of energy efficient processes. We are committed to the judicious use of resources, and we invest in minimising waste generation and managing treated wastewater utilisation. Our unwavering focus is on adopting the 3R (reduce, reuse & recycle) principle at our facilities and project sites.

Strong ethics and a robust governance structure form the backbone of our business processes. As the L&T Group, we operate with a purpose to take proactive steps for potential changes in the regulatory and business environment. We take management decisions which provide an impetus for growth, be it restructuring, opening new business lines or considering environmental and social safeguards. This year, we combined environmental, social and governance aspects into the Code of Conduct for suppliers, to build an environmentally conscious and socially responsible supply chain.

Sustainability is all about preserving our natural environment which is the source of our survival and well-being. We view sustainability as a way of creating value for our stakeholders in a responsible and a socially acceptable manner. Conserving resources, reducing the use of hazardous substances, minimising air, water and land pollution; are our primary objectives.

We had our own share of achievements and challenges last year. They have helped us make the organisation more robust and sustainable. We adopted digitalisation to improve the efficiency of core business processes, to serve and interact with our stakeholders in innovative and sustainable ways.

For addressing the business potential of new customers and market through newer technologies and innovations, we have focused on customer requirements in-line with revised environmental regulations through Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technologies.

We are supplying equipment and services to refineries which are undertaking initiatives to meet the BS-VI fuel emission norms. We also participate in programmes to develop and supply indigenous equipment for defence, nuclear and aerospace requirements of India.

The last decade has witnessed an increasing level of attention for sustainability and sustainable development across all sectors. The construction industry has not been an exception. The elements of sustainable construction – design, material performance, construction technology and processes, energy & resource efficiency, occupational health and safety and working conditions are being continually monitored and reviewed. The 3Rs – ‘Reduce, Reuse & Recycle’ have always been a hallmark of our operations, and are now being looked at with renewed vigour. Be it value engineering for reduction of quantities or adopting Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), the search for new avenues continues. Digitalisation is another promising area. It is beginning to translate into improved efficiency in Utilisation of resources – Man, Material and Machinery. The possibilities are endless.

The Indian infrastructure industry is looking at considerable growth in the coming years, with flagship programmes driven by the Government of India, like ‘Housing for All’, ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart Cities’. Augmenting the growth story are promising developments in aviation and healthcare sectors. This growth, in turn, will propel demand in Steel and Aluminium, directly benefiting the metallurgical sector.

L&T will continue its commitment towards providing best-in-class construction solutions while scripting the growth story of the country. The solutions will comprise world-class quality and safety practices. Design and build solutions has always been our forte, with focus on cost optimisation, faster construction procedures, and energy conservation. L&T has constructed more than 49 million sq.ft. of building space across 35 certified green buildings. Most of these buildings are Platinum and Gold rated.

L&T’s Metallurgical and Material Handling business’ sustainability initiatives include:

• Premium quality sand manufacturing plants to replace usage of scarce river sand.
• Advanced material-handling machinery such as blast-free surface miners, spillage-free pipe conveyors and Doppelmayr Ropecon conveyors to reduce the carbon footprint of industries.

Last year, many global events weakened economies, fuelling business uncertainty. However, at L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), business consolidation progressed well, as new projects took off. Several initiatives which were undertaken earlier started bearing fruit.

We have launched major initiatives in Digitalisation, operational excellence and capability building to take LTHE to the next level. These initiatives will enhance efficiency and productivity across our value chain. Our safety performance has remained exemplary, having worked 160.48 million man-hours without any significant incidents, this year.

Sustainability has been an integral part of LTHE’s progress over the years, and our commitment was recognised by Frost & Sullivan (Certificate of Merit – Challengers Category) and a TERI Sustainability 4.0 2017 Award.

Sustainability is an all-encompassing value and not just about preserving our natural environment – which is the source of our survival and well-being. For an organisation, it embraces a continuing model of creating value for stakeholders in a responsible and socially acceptable manner. Being engaged in core, high impact sectors of the economy with integrated capabilities and downward leverages across the value chain, sustainability needs to be looked at holistically.

Defence technologies are strategic by nature. Their development is a high cost, laborious exercise and requires support and commitment from the Government, and associated national infrastructure. L&T Defence has teamed up with DRDO across domains and built a bouquet of home-grown technologies, which has cemented our stakeholders’ trust in a sustainable manner. Our forays in digitisation date back to 1994, when we adopted integrated 3D Design modelling for simulation, analysis, and production of drawings to improve the efficiency of core business processes. Since then, we have undertaken several initiatives such as digital manufacturing to sequencing simulations, pipe bending, cable pulling, composite hot work, laser projection systems, equipment laser scanning and laser measurement systems to replace the conventional piano wires and cross-referencing equipment. All these have enabled us to build a sustainable productive and efficient environment.

L&T Defence continues to invest across work centres towards conserving and utilising alternate sources of energy, bringing about efficient processes, minimising/avoiding duplication/rework, and bringing about enhanced utilisation of resources while minimising ‘Waste’.

E&A’s sustainability journey has helped us identify opportunities to turn more efficient in operations, and identify areas of growth. We are guided by key materiality issues of retaining a competitive advantage in the market. Our strategies include the introduction of new solutions, responsible use of resources, expanding product portfolio and creating new markets in India, and overseas.

Our operational excellence initiatives produced significant results in optimising resource Utilisation and improving cost competitiveness in the market. We plan to cover more businesses in the coming year. This approach extended to the responsible use of natural resources like water, where our absolute consumption has decreased. We stepped up our use of renewable energy and were able to reduce the carbon footprint of our operations. Our customer-focussed approach to business over the years helped us retain our market leadership and we continue to improve our standards of customer service. We enhanced our use of IT-enabled processes and automation across functions like procurement, manufacturing and logistics. Our channel partners aided us in this journey to improve speed and efficiency, enhancing customer experience. Our products and solutions for energy management contributed in helping our customers reduce their carbon emissions.

We recognise that the community is a key stakeholder in our sustainability journey. We put emphasis on education, health and skill building. Our community programmes cover 46 schools and nearly 18,000 children, and help them grow into responsible members of the society.

Sustaining the environment is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but as all the evidence suggests, has become a ‘must do’. Corporations, entities and individuals who use the resources of this planet have to make the effort to minimise degradation of resources and focus on renewal. This is a debt that we owe for the generations to follow. This is the focus that L&T has, i.e., to operate in a sustainable environment-friendly manner and utilise resources efficiently, minimise waste and reduce emissions. Equally, safety and wellbeing of our workforce remain the highest priority.

An important achievement this year has been the water footprint assessment which led to a unique achievement of all 24 L&T campuses in India becoming Water Positive. This is a result of our constant effort in the field of water conservation, recycling water and creation of community watershed structures. We have come a long way since achieving zero wastewater discharge status to making all campuses water positive. Also, L&T was conferred the ICC Water Stewardship Award 2017 as a commendation for our work in water conservation.

Last year, we released our Sustainability Roadmap 2021 - a commitment to implement company-wide sustainability targets. This report presents the status of our efforts and progress on the roadmap.