Welspun India's philosophy of growth and responsibility

At Welspun, we care about our impact on the planet and on people. We view embedding sustainability as a responsibility and an opportunity to reinvent our business and the textiles sector. ESG is the topmost agenda item on global boards today and at Welspun too, conversations around our environmental, social and governance issues are top of mind.

Welspun India has adopted a philosophy of growth with responsibility. We have laid out a roadmap for our business to not just take on environmental and social issues, but to effectively solve them. To achieve our vision and set the highest standards of best practices we are in the process of adopting a Science-based targets initiative (SBTi). With this, we have joined the Business Ambition for 1.5°C - the world’s largest and fastest-growing group of companies that are aligning with 1.5°C by helping to halve global emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions before 2050.

100% Renewable energy use in operations by 2030 - India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, committed to five measures to fight climate change during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, including plans to ensure that half of the nation’s energy mix comes from sources other than fossil fuels by 2030. He also promised to shave one billion tonnes from the country’s projected emissions and reduce the economy’s carbon intensity to less than 45 percent compared to 2005 levels by 2030. At Welspun, we believe that within the multiple parameters that form part of ESG, climate action is a big focus area and we are aggressively moving towards renewable energy adoption for our operational energy needs.

By 2030 we will have 100% sustainable cotton in our world-class textile products while being zero waste to landfill - We believe that textiles can have a significant contribution to creating a more sustainable world. Welspun strives to minimize the environmental burden on raw materials and create a positive social impact by obtaining sustainable cotton-like BCI (Better cotton initiative) and organic cotton. We have also recycled factory waste like yarn and fabrics to fibres and used recycled polyester made from post-consumer PET bottles as sustainable raw material. For some of our programs, we have used waste fabric cuttings as packaging instead of plastic. Our 2030 goal is to ensure we obtain 100% sustainable cotton, including organic, BCI etc. By 2030, we will also ensure to not generate any waste that will go into landfills.?

Harnessing the power of women - India needs to reduce its energy intensity while alleviating poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Empowering women could help us in achieving both these goals. McKinsey Global Institute has estimated that India could add $770 billion to its GDP by 2025, simply by giving equal opportunities to women. To reduce the energy intensity of the Indian economy we need to move towards circular systems, and we need to empower women and girls to make long term changes in how our cities and villages function. The production of handicrafts is (after agriculture) the largest source of income among rural populations – an estimated 17.79 million Indians will be engaged in craft production by 2022. What is even more important is that many Indian crafts are the sole domain of the women in the household. With the right kind of inputs, the craft sector can be developed into a powerhouse of rural skill and enterprise.

SPUN by Welspun India aims to do just that. It blends in important elements of circularity, livelihood for women and traditional crafts. It has recently been named as one of the Top 100 Corporate-Ready Social Enterprises, in a list by World Economic Forum’s COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs. The recognition was won on the back of SPUN’s various community-centric initiatives, such as employing over 2,200 women in the Kutch and Bhuj areas, as well as its focus on using upcycled textile waste and natural fibre to create handcrafted home décor products that reflect India’s rich cultural heritage. SPUN has helped local communities spin a new future, providing women with opportunities that have increased their incomes while empowering them, personally and professionally. We will continue to expand this path we have taken in 2022.

Responsible and Sustainable Designs - Designing with sustainability at its heart can help us choose better materials, systems that allow reuse and recycling and overall better value chains and processes. But it’s not exactly that simple. You need to evaluate the entire system and its implications. That’s exactly what we have done at Welspun. We have carried out the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of our products range, including towels, bedsheets, rugs and TOB (Top of Bed), to help us identify additional opportunities to reduce environmental impact across the value chain. Based on the insights from the assessment, we align product design and innovation towards reducing environmental impacts from cradle to grave Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and OEKO-TEX? Standard 100 ensure our textile products are manufactured in a responsible way, right from the harvesting of raw materials to manufacturing processes.

Fresh Water Positive - Our efforts to conserve, reuse and recycle water are path-breaking. We identified 3 towns Gandhidham, Adipur and Anjar to explore the possibility of collecting and recycling sewage post-treatment to meet the present & future water requirements. Based on the current water demand for the Anjar facility, Welspun set up a 30 MLD STP to treat and reuse the entire city sewage for industrial use in Welspun city. This is however just the beginning of our journey towards using no freshwater for our operations. We aim to be fresh Water Positive in Production operations by 2030.

Taking everybody along the ESG Journey - Innovation and engineering and processes will solve many problems, but they won’t change the system. This is why Welspun has now created the Supplier code of conduct. Welspun India Limited (WIL), is dedicated to providing a fair, humane and healthy environment to the persons who are directly or indirectly involved in the manufacturing of our products. In addition, we expect similar principled conduct from our business partners in the value chain.?Our Supplier Code of Conduct is applicable to all our suppliers, along with contractors, sub-contractors (through the relevant contractors), logistics partners, service providers, business partners, or any other entity entrusted that provides goods and services to us, across geographies. This Code of Conduct is aligned with the regulatory requirements, principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), United Nations Guiding Principles on Human Rights and the relevant International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions.

Today, ESG is one of the key enablers in shaping organisations’ future growth and must now be a pillar in every company’s business strategy. If organisations come together to collectively embed sustainability and circularity across their value chain, we will be creating a sustainable future for all.?I hope you join me in the ESG journey and keep raising the bar higher, to set the tone for building sustainable, inclusive businesses, as we lead tomorrow, together.

?Dipali Goenka