Our Environmental Technical Standard encapsulates our approach, where all our operations are obliged to avoid if possible, or otherwise minimise, adverse impact on the environment from our operations through effective management systems and processes that work towards continuous improvement of our environmental performance. We conduct intensive audits and monitoring of processes and practices to continually streamline and improve our units’ sustainability performance. Collaboration with the country’s premiere technical institutes, global experts and technology consultants enable us to assess and improve the company’s sustainability initiatives.
Water
Our approach is outlined in our Water Management policy and delivered through implementation of our water management standard. We have put in place several water management best practices to ensure minimal freshwater intake, while we treat, recycle and reuse as much water as possible in our processes. We facilitate the integration of water management into our decision-making processes and are rigorous in implementation of our ‘ZERO DISCHARGE’ policy, which helps us focus on effective utilization of water and minimization of wastage.
Biodiversity
Our biodiversity policy guides our actions in a manner that allows biodiversity conservation to be integrated throughout our projects’ life cycle, including decommissioning, closure and restoration. Our aim is to achieve a minimum of No Net Loss (NNL) of biodiversity and Net Positive Gain (NPG) of biodiversity (in case any critical habitat is present) at all our operations. We apply the UN Environment Programme’s Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) to screen for risk, screening and assessments, based on which Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) is developed for each of our locations.
Energy
Our Energy and Carbon Policy commits our operations to adopt and maintain global best practices in carbon and energy management and minimise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We carefully consider our approach to energy use, including investing in best-in-class engineering solutions and smart technologies to maximise efficiencies. We are also exploring and experimenting with renewable energy sources to build capacity and create a viable & sustainable energy mix for our operations.
Carbon
Our Energy and Carbon Management Policy and Performance Standard commit our operations to adopt and maintain global best practices in carbon and management and minimise Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Our ‘Carbon Forum’, comprising representatives of all business units, has been tasked with developing and overseeing the implementation of Vedanta’s carbon mitigation approach. We are in agreement with the recommendations made by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Our GHG intensity reduction goals are aligned with the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of GHG intensity reduction of the Government of India.
Air
We closely monitor the extent of any impact that our operations have on air quality, and the effects and implications that this may have on employees, the communities local to our operations and the broader environment. All of our operations have deployed continuous Environment Monitoring Systems which acquire real-time data for various environmental parameters to monitor the impact of our operations on the airshed quality and effectiveness of our controls.
Waste
Our Resource Use and Waste Management Standard commits our operations to minimise resource use across the lifecycle of each site as well as requiring sites to demonstrate a commitment to apply the waste management hierarchy principles. Accordingly, priority is given to avoidance and minimisation of waste generation followed by recovery, reuse and recycling.
