Bringing The Carbon Down

In a year of sluggish cement demand, exacerbated by the general economic slowdown and the outbreak of Covid-19, UltraTech Cement recorded net revenues of Rs. 42,125 crores and EBITDA of Rs. 9,930 crores. During the year, the company also acquired the cement business of Century Textiles and Industries Limited. 

With a capacity of 116.75 MTPA, the company is now the market leader in India and the third largest cement manufacturer in the world, excluding China. New products like UltraTech Super, UltraTech Premium and UltraTech Weather Plus were added, with sales of these scaling to over eight per cent of UltraTech’s total sales in FY20. 

In sustainability metrics, the company is a high performer across 29 out of 31 sustainability KPIs assessed, losing out only on three KPIs: lives negatively affected as a result of business, fatalities, and CEO-average employee ratio. UltraTech has pledged to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix to greater than 350 MW. In FY20, only 12 per cent of the company’s electricity consumption was met through a combination of renewable energy sources. The company has also set a target of 145 MW by FY22 for green power capacity from waste heat recovery systems (WHRS). During this year, the WHRS capacity was doubled to 118 MW. According to a 2019 MIT report, the production of cement — the world’s leading construction material — accounts for about eight percent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In order to keep its carbon footprint under control, the company has defined its 2021 targets for sustainability in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It pledged a 25 per cent reduction in GHG by FY21 as compared to the base year of FY06. At 19.14 per cent reduction, the company appears to be well poised towards achieving this target. 

UltraTech has factored in an internal carbon price of US$ 10 / tCO2 for its project and capex evaluation, which has helped in accelerating decarbonisation. Indicating the presence of climate risks assessments, the company has developed a proprietary tool, GeoSust for a comprehensive analysis on the risks associated with climate change and water in its operations. 

UltraTech uses waste materials such as fly ash and slag as alternative materials in the cement product ion process. Industrial waste, municipal solid waste and agricultural waste sourced from recyclers and municipal corporations are used as alternative fuel. The company also sources plastic waste which is then used as fuel in its operations. It was 2.11x plastic negative, which means that the volume of plastic consumed was lower than that which was recycled. Over the last 3 years, UltraTech’s use of alternative raw materials has increased almost two-fold.