#BackToZero- Together towards zero emissions, carbon neutrality & sustainability

June 2022 saw some record-breaking heat waves across countries, making the month one of the hottest months observed in decades. But it doesn’t end here!

The average global temperature is expected to rise above 1.5°C in the next five-year period between 2022 and 2026 owing to the catastrophes proposed lately by climate change all around the world. Pope Francis also called on world leaders to heed the Earth's 'chorus of cries of anguish' stemming from climate change, extreme weather, and loss of biodiversity; more & more countries are working together to mitigate such consequences. From the US to China to recently in the UK, some countries have been experiencing severe heatwaves while others have been coping with flash floods & landslides like Pakistan & recently India. The shortage of coal due to the Ukraine-Russia war & hike in energy prices are in-line to become prevailing reasons for corporates to consider alternatives.

India too is taking extensive measures to tackle climate change. Fighting off its biggest contributors to the same like pollution, water wastage, deforestation & plastic consumption, the nation is gearing up at every step to reduce its carbon footprint. Racing towards net zero emissions, the government took its first steps towards sustainability with this year’s budget. Targeting investments in green infrastructure & building an energy-resilient ecosystem, new policies & budgets have already been allocated. The recent amendment in the Energy Conservation Amendment Bill 2022 predominantly focuses on the integration of renewable energy for the C&I sector. It mandates minimum use of fossil fuels followed by an attempt to reinforce an effective carbon credit market. This will allow investors & businesses to buy carbon credits & trade carbon allowances.

In addition to the endeavors initiated by the government, the rest of the race to zero can only be accomplished with a collective effort by all; businesses & citizens.

At the COP26 Summit, besides the government, many businesses pledged to reinforce their carbon-free goals. A lot of Indian tycoons such as Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Adani, ITC & even Indian railways committed to net-zero emissions. Ever since the demand for RE in the Indian economy has increased substantially making the country the second largest growth market for corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs). Amongst the C&I sector, construction, infrastructure, automotive & textile companies have been found to be the driving forces for procurement by reaching a total of 165 MW of RE.

To help the corporates meet their renewable energy adoption targets, Indian RE developers are consciously innovating & adding to their capacity to smoothen the transition process & maximize benefits for the corporates.

ReNew Green Solutions (RGS), ReNew Power’s B2B wing, is at the forefront to expedite the ‘grey to green’ transition for businesses. Since last year, it has increased its capacity by 12 times, from just 74 MW in 2021 to 868 MW to date in 2022. Today RGS has become the green energy partner to many leading national and international business conglomerates across industries, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Suzuki, Toyota, Grasim (Aditya Birla), NTT Datacentres, DCM Shriram, Mahindra & Mahindra to name a few.

With diversified experience in facilitating the adoption of RE across various states of India, it can be proven that the focused effort to mitigate corporate carbon footprint can be commenced with a long-term strategy constituting multiple short-term goals. Here’s an effective 3-step strategy that can help your business race #BackToZero .

The ideal way to go about it is to first set a strategy for energy efficiency, followed by the integration of renewable energy and carbon offset mechanisms. Reducing scope emissions while mapping out current usage can kickstart this process. The three scopes to look out for include- Scope 1 (direct emissions from controlled sources), Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased electricity sources), and Scope 3 (other indirect emissions).?

The next step is committing to an infusion of capital investment in clean energy. Defining an energy mix at the initial stage to ensure a round-the-clock, reliable energy supply to maximize efficiency & minimize costs, becomes imperative. Choosing technologically-advanced solutions based on your industry type & scale of operations not only makes adaptation easy but also guarantees effective ROI.?

For some hard-to-abate sectors and particularly for tackling scope 3 emissions, corporates can continue their decarbonization journey with the help of carbon offsetting.

The path to a significant reduction in GHG emissions will not be easy but will be worth it. Making India a green energy powerhouse & setting an example for the rest of the world to follow is a dream not too far from our reality. Especially, as each state expands its RE portfolio, the market for EV & in-house production of solar modules grows manifold, Green Hydrogen picks pace & corporates’ commitment to ESG goals fortifies, and we get closer to the global net-zero targets.

With the availability of expertise and the right technology across geographies, ReNew Green Solutions (RGS) has become the perfect green energy partner to some of the finest Indian conglomerates today and helping their businesses to take the first step towards energy transition. RGS has added more than 1.6 GW of RE to the corporate sector in the last 1 year and looks forward to mitigating ~26 lacs tonnes of carbon emissions annually through this.? Our recent initiative, #BackToZero is another attempt to recapitulate the act of switching to green energy for the C&I sector and leading them in the right direction by deploying relevant information & effective solutions that can help them kickstart their #GreenJourney & bring them closer to zero emissions.

Ahead of COP27, let's pledge to sustainability with #BackToZero . Learn more about the benefits and techniques to achieve #NetZero by connecting with us. Visit now: https://renewpower.in/business-to-business-solutions-for-corporate-ppa/