Infosys is the first Indian company to join the RE100 club committed to renewable power and becoming carbon neutral by 2018. It joins the list of 17 global companies, including Ikea and Swiss Re, which are part of RE100 launched at the Climate Week in New York last September. RE100 helps companies create a tipping point for renewable power.
“We’re working towards building a clean energy future. By 2018, we will be 100% on renewable energy. Our per capita power consumption on the baseline of 2008 will be reduced by 50% by 2017. We’ll reduce water consumption by 50% during the same period. Last year, our power consumption across India was 257 million units. We procured up to 30% of our power from renewable sources,” said Ramadas Kamath, executive vice-president and head of infrastructure and sustainability, Infosys.
The company reduced its per capita energy consumption from 197 units per person per month in 2008 to 159 units per person per month. The company has set a target to reduce energy consumption to 98.5 units per person by 2018.
Infosys is leveraging solar power across its campuses. It has installed solar panels on its rooftops capable of producing 2.2 megawatts of energy. “This year, we will commission 15 megawatts of solar plant across campuses in Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. We have planned to set up 40 megawatts of solar plant in the state for captive use that will be completed in a year,” he added.
The company has lined up an investment outlay Rs 400 crore corpus to achieve carbon neutrality by 2018. “By 2018, we have to offset 3.74 lakh tonnes of carbon. We want to achieve this by afforestation, distribution of smokeless cooking stoves in villages, setting up biogas plants in villages and rural electrification,” Kamath.
