“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”
– Robert Swan
There is growing momentum for ‘sustainable leadership’ today. The scorecard of leaders includes markers for conducting business responsibly for a better and equitable world. Our actions impact businesses, society, and the ecosystem in which we operate.
In an era where young minds like Greta Thunberg implore world leaders to act on climate change mitigation with a solid plan and sincere actions, we need to be more mindful of how we interact with the environment. Can we be kinder, and less demanding? There is no shortage of inspirational stories and people working towards making the world more accessible for people with disabilities or imparting digital skills to disadvantaged groups to ensure equal access to opportunities.
Hence, with a similar spirit of giving back to the community sustainably, we at Infosys actively advocate integrating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance efforts) into our business operations. It’s a part of everything we do. Our development goals for ourselves, our business, our clients, and our people must be commensurate with the ecosystem. The proof lies in that Infosys turned carbon-neutral 30 years ahead of 2050, a timeline set by the Paris Agreement. It doesn’t happen in a day. It takes small and big actions and conscious decisions, every single day. Be it curbing food wastage in the cafeteria or recycling plants, building green campuses, generating our own electricity through renewable resources, and using cycles and e-vehicles for the in-campus commutes, we try our best to do our bit.
We were also recognized and applauded externally for setting high ESG benchmarks. Infosys was ranked number three on the 2019 Forbes ‘World’s Best Regarded Companies’ list based on its trustworthiness, honesty, social conduct, fairness to employees, and performance of its products and services. Our long-standing commitments focus on core areas such as climate change, technology for good, diversity, and inclusion, energizing local communities, ethics and transparency, data privacy, and information management. And they have made a difference.
Our Initiatives
- Our green efforts ensure we are building a sustainable future by judiciously preserving, using, and recycling available resources. We have established robust waste management practices, including segregation of waste at source, secondary segregation, efficient collection and handling, recycling, and effective disposal of all wastes in adherence to applicable legislation.
- We are actively making efforts towards afforestation. Infosys BPM recently celebrated the 20 glorious years of our existence by planting 50,000+ trees marking the count of employees we have.
- We have also integrated our biogas plants into our Building Management Systems (BMS) at Bengaluru, Mangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, and Hyderabad SEZ locations with a view to converting waste into resources.
- We have democratized learning for everyone through our free online platform – Springboard, which focuses on digital literacy, competency, and proficiency, especially for talent in Tier 2 /3 cities and rural areas. We have the best learning solutions for young minds to make them job-ready as well as learning and teaching interventions for faculty to impart skills for the future.
- Our exclusive programs for fostering employability for women and our PWD are contributing to building an equitable future.
- The Infosys Foundation has helped the poor by addressing their needs in education, healthcare, nutrition, and shelter as well as providing a shoulder to the efforts of local governments during times of disaster (e.g. COVID vaccination drives recently).
However, the buck does not stop here. We will continue to strengthen our ESG stewardship practices in our operations and extend our efforts to the community. And in our commitment to usher in a better tomorrow, we have now set more aggressive ESG goals for ourselves and are committed to making conscious and consistent efforts to preserve the environment.
