UST achieves Carbon Neutral accreditation

Leading digital transformation solutions company UST has achieved the ‘Carbon Neutral’ company certification in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol, a leading global framework for carbon neutrality.

The CarbonNeutral Protocol is the first set of clear guidelines for businesses to achieve carbon neutrality, set up by Natural Capital Partners in 2002. It has since been continually updated with input from an advisory council of external experts to ensure it reflects the latest industry and scientific best practices.

Pledge to climate action

“The latest accreditation is aligned with UST’s commitment to act responsibly and minimise the impact of its activities on the environment,” a company spokesman said here. “It also underscores the company’s unwavering pledge to climate action”, he added.

This is the latest in UST’s Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and social responsibility initiatives, including joining the Amazon-led The Climate Pledge, a cross-sector business community working together to crack the climate crisis and solve the challenges of decarbonising the economy.

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As a signatory to The Climate Pledge, UST is taking science-based, high-impact actions to tackle climate change by innovating in supply chain efficiency, sustainable transportation, circular economy, and clean energy solutions, the spokesman said.

Krishna Sudheendra, Chief Executive Officer, UST, said that the company is honoured to be recognised as a certified CarbonNeutral company as it furthers its commitment to decrease the carbon footprint and support additional carbon-reduction projects.

Saskia Feast, Managing Director, Global Client Solutions, Natural Capital Partners, said that “in this critical decade of climate action, we need to use all the solutions available to deliver the change we need.” UST’s CarbonNeutral company certification and commitment to environmental stewardship demonstrate how business can deliver meaningful action on climate change.

Nandagopal Ramachandran, General Manager-Operations, UST, said that the company has made it crystal clear that it will act to protect the planet and commit to transforming the communities it impacts every day. “At the same time, we are committing to further emissions reductions, with a target for Net Zero by 2040,” he added.

Plans various initiatives

From its humble beginnings in 1999, UST has always invested in improving society through corporate sustainability and social responsibility actions positively impacting the world, the spokesman said.

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Some of the current and upcoming initiatives include:

• Plans to install a 1.2-MW on-grid solar power system in UST’s Thiruvananthapuram campus which will reduce the dependency on traditional power sources for the campus by 35 per cent.
• Creating a large waterbody at the same campus with a surface area of 1,74,240 sq ft where rainwater is harvested. As much as 80 per cent of water consumption in the campus is from this waterbody which has helped reduce dependency on the urban water supply system.
• Utilising battery-operated vehicles for traversing across UST campus that leads to a cleaner and healthier working environment and reduces carbon emissions.
• Working with suppliers that use zero or low emission vehicles.
• Measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
• Switching to renewable energy for 25 per cent of the power needs by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.
• Undertaking several afforestation projects by planting tree saplings to promote dense foresting.
• Taking actions to neutralise any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.