Sustainability Report (continued)
Through a formal and structured
process, materiality was determined by
considering significant legal, regulatory,
social and financial impacts, business
policies, the performance of peers and
competitors, and intensive discussion
with our stakeholders across the board,
inclusive of both internal assessments of
risks and opportunities to the business.
Key material issues identified were:
- People development
- Environment and energy management
- Impact of company operations on adjoining communities, including Resettlement and Rehabilitation
- Occupational health and safety of our work resources
- Access to natural resources
Sustainability Performance
Environmental Stewardship
Energy
Energy is one of our principal resources and our focus is on its conservation and efficient use. We use energy in its different forms like coal, coke breeze, pet coke, fuel oil, LPG, diesel, and electricity, besides energy from renewable sources like biomass, and through recovery of waste heat. Specific energy consumption continued to show an improving trend during the year. Against target reduction of 5%, the actual reductions for the year at Sesa, HZL and Balco were 28%, 9% and 4% respectively.
On the Green energy front we have increased our installed capacity of the wind farms from 107 MW to 123.2MW. The same are operating at design levels.
Climate change
We utilize carbon intensive fuels, generate captive power for all our major operations and also import electricity which contribute to direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions. We have strengthened our focus and are getting independent carbon foot-printing done. This year HZL’s Wind Power Plants, at Gujarat and Karnataka were registered as CDM projects by the UNFCCC, with CER potential of 2, 23,164 per annum. About 58,000 CERs realised from the earlier registered waste heat recovery projects were also sold during the year.
Raw material consumption
We continue to manufacture metals by extraction of ore from our mines and then processing the same in our smelting operations. This year the focus was on productivity and process improvement, benefits of which will be reflected in the forthcoming quarters.
Water management
Similar to energy, water is another crucial resource in our operations. We have put in structured efforts to reduce fresh water consumption and increasing the recycle and reuse of treated effluent. Across our operations, we have taken forward host of initiatives, notably being reduction of specific water consumption at the zinc operations by 18%.
Waste management
We focus on a ‘4R’ waste strategy – Reduce, Recycle, Reuse and Reclaim. We believe that actions to reduce waste, either by encouraging material efficiency, reducing the generation of waste, or enabling the recovery and reuse of discarded material is a critical element of sustainable development.
Biodiversity
We conduct an environmental impact assessment study for all our projects as well as our expansion activities. We strive to take the utmost care to protect the biodiversity which may be affected by or is adjacent to any of our operating locations.
Social
Nurturing People
Recruitments
Vedanta’s operations have grown several folds over the last few years and so has its demand for high quality human resources for its operations and up coming projects. Every individual who joins the organisation has the “right to grow’’ is the fundamental principle that drives the Talent Engagement Process at Vedanta. We believe in inducting large number of fresher’s from campus and provide them with accelerated global career opportunities. We hire science graduates, engineers, qualified finance professionals and other functionally qualified professionals directly from reputed campuses. We have also initiated special recruitment drive of Ex-Servicemen from Defence Forces for various roles in security, administration and core and strategic support roles.
Growth and Development
The Group has a unique and well demonstrated track record of providing career opportunities from within. Hiring predominantly fresher’s and grooming them to take leadership roles. Employees with a performance track record and high potential are identified through a well structured and transparent development process and are given accelerated growth with specialized technical and general management training, periodic job rotations and leadership guidance.
Labour rights
At Vedanta, we ensure that all our
businesses are in compliance with all labour regulations of the land and
we strive to uphold all labour rights.
We proactively and frequently meet
with representatives of labour unions
at all sites to deliberate on employee
concerns and evolve pragmatic
solutions that are progressive in
nature for long term well being
of both employees and all stake
holders associated with the group.
