Embark on a thought-provoking expedition into sustainability within the fashion industry with our series Sustainability Strides. This week, IMAGES Business of Fashion explores the sustainability initiatives by Welspun World, unveiling their innovative strides in reshaping the fashion industry.
Welspun World is one of India’s fastest growing global conglomerates with businesses in Home Textiles, Flooring Solutions, Advanced Textiles, DI Pipes, Pig Iron, TMT bars, Stainless Steel, Alloy, Line Pipes, Infrastructure & Warehousing. Founded in 1985, the company is headquartered in Mumbai and does business with 50 countries and has a distribution network in 32 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.
Sustainability at Welspun
Welspun believes that all of us have the pivotal responsibility of passing on a healthy environment to the future generations. Hence, they have concentrated their efforts in crucial areas, segregating them into Water, Air, and Land. Their core motto is the restoration of ecosystems and the maintenance of ecological balance. Their ESG strategy neatly aligns with their core philosophy of inclusivity. Let’s take a look:
Air
Climate change is inescapable and Welspun understands the importance of swiftly and pro-actively lowering the energy and carbon footprint. How do they achieve this? They are working on phasing out their dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation and adopting renewable energy sources. They track every ounce of fossil fuel used and electricity consumed in their operations and report them under the Scope 1 & 2 emissions. They are also replacing virgin raw materials with more recycled materials. Their plans in this area:
- 20%: Energy mix from renewable sources by 2025 (WIL).
- 100%: Energy from resources with carbon neutrality by 2030 (WIL).
- Tracking: Strict emission regulations across operations with pollution control equipment and periodic reporting and tracking.
- EVs: Promoting cleaner and more efficient transportation like EVs.
- Industries: Local ancillary industries for lowering inward-transport emissions.
- SBTi: Adoption of the SBTi framework for creating the GHG reduction blueprint (WIL).
Water
Here’s a list of steps Welspun has taken to tackle with issues related to water:
- Judicious and careful water use in processing operations.
- Innovative water management project at Anjar with 40 MLD sewage treatment plant for recycling purposes. In a prime example of sustainability, the project is a partnership with the Anjar, Adipur, and Gandhidham local municipalities.
- Welspun collects, transports and treats public sewage at the plant and uses the treated water for their operations, thereby recycling close to 7 billion litres of sewage water every year.
- They are also focused on lowering their water intensity/kg of processed items, taking it lower than the average threshold in the Industry.
- They have set up a rainwater harvesting pond at Anjar, enhancing availability not only for them, but the entire local community as well. The project is steadily attracting migratory birds, turning into a pleasing biodiversity hub in its own right.
Land
Welspun believes that we are all sons of the soil and owe it to their nation to combat land pollution. This is what their land blueprint looks like:
- Minimising disposal of wastes to land
- Increased use of recycle material–focus on circularity
- More sustainable and organic raw materials for production.
- They’ve undertaken tree plantation drives throughout their plants and surrounding zones. Anjar alone has close to 300,000 saplings till date.
- They’ve set up a training program for more than 16,400 farmers, teaching them all about Good Agricultural Practices.
- Agronomy team supports and encourages sustainable cotton farming in Telangana, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, switching to natural pesticides and fertilisers alongside.
But that’s not all; Welspun is also looking at cutting down on the waste being dispatched to landfills. They’re converting waste fabrics to cotton fibres and repurposing the same. They are also swapping virgin polyester with its recycled counterpart that is created from disposed-PET bottles. They’re also reusing and recycling high-calorific waste, deploying it for generating power. They’ve successfully avoided over 80% of these wastes from being sent to landfills.
The best part is that they’ve implemented a responsible procurement policy across the different businesses and a clear-cut Supplier Code of Conduct. They also evaluate their suppliers on their ESG quotient, with their screening procedure encompassing supply chain management, ISO certification, safety, labour practices, service ratings, and overall quality.
ESG Compass
As a part of its commitment towards upholding the highest ESG standards, the Welspun World has executed a new technological tool for ESG reporting and data monitoring called the ‘ESG Compass’. ESG Compass takes care of performance data collection throughout all the Group’s business entities and sites/plants. Data is securely gathered and collated throughout 30+ ESG KPIs in the E, S, and G domains.
Vital KPIs include electricity and fuel consumption, waste generation, GHG emissions, environmental emissions, governance parameters, diversity ratios, and more. ESG Compass streamlines reporting to all stakeholders on the Group’s ESG metrics, while using a maker-checker framework for capturing data with complete traceability. SAP helps automate data collection while providing scope for individual data entry. And that’s not all; there is a helpful dashboard outlining the Group’s shift towards de-carbonization in relation to Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
ESG At Welspun
Welspun believes it is their mantra to track performance not only through the narrow prism of financials, but also ESG. For them, it is about adhering to evolving standards of environmental and social responsibilities, while exceeding the brief of ROI to take these holistic aspects into consideration. After all, social, environmental, and governance components are crucial cogs in their business wheel. They not only help them meet their social responsibility needs, but also contribute towards creating a more inclusive, balanced, and sustainable organisation at large. This also has a positive impact on business performance, while keeping them in sync for the future as well. Through an ESG-compliant blueprint or business model, any business can position itself better for future challenges.
Welspun’s Commitment
Welspun is already on course towards mainstreaming their ESG blueprint:
- They have been integrating consumer-driven and innovation-led ESG initiatives into their operational paradigms for a long time now, inspired by their pro-active & committed leadership team.
- Their global home textiles presence is just the tip of the iceberg; they are also focusing on syncing with global best practices on ESG, with higher transparency, better social and community outreach, and environmental protection measures.
