Let TCS guide you on your sustainability journey
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MINS READ
Sustainability might be the buzz word at the moment, but it is certainly not an alien concept for companies like TCS, which has the idea built into its way of doing business. And with climate change irrevocably altering our current reality, sustainability is no longer a good-to-have – it is a business imperative. That’s why TCS builds on its synergies in this field in order to help its clients achieve their sustainability goals.
Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata articulated this visionary belief more than a century ago: “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in the business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”
This idea of the community as the very purpose of an enterprise’s existence is the north star that guides TCS’ belief in sustainability. It continues to inspire our purpose-led growth strategy, which helps us put people and the planet at the center of all that we do.
Naturally, sustainability is not just a growth strategy for us, it is intrinsic to the TCS way of life, of doing business, of helping clients achieve their sustainability goals in a digital world.
In keeping with our larger goal of giving back to the community, TCS has made significant contributions in the areas of health and wellness, education and skill development, and the environment.
TCS has always strived to lead the way on sustainable development. In 2021, we had set an ambitious sustainability target for ourselves: to reduce our absolute emissions by 70% across Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2025 over the baseline year 2016 and to achieve net zero by 2030. In FY23, we brought down our absolute carbon footprint across Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 71% over base year 2016, meeting our emissions target two years ahead of time.
Our carbon mitigation efforts have also led to in-house innovations such as TCS CleverEnergy™ and our IoT-based Remote Energy Management System. Developed for our own requirements, these solutions now help our clients meet their emission goals.
Often, technological innovations have benefits that go beyond the expected business outcomes. One such example is the lesser-known sustainability benefit of cloud adoption.
As more enterprises adopt cloud, hyperscalers are using renewable energy and energy-efficient infrastructure to power server farms, which in turn is helping companies reduce their carbon footprints. So, when we help our clients embrace the cloud stack, we know that we are also helping them fulfil their sustainability goals.
Among other resource groups, our effort is also focused on reduction in freshwater consumption, zero waste disposal, and zero discharge. TCS optimizes water consumption through conservation, sewage treatment and reuse, and rainwater harvesting. We aspire to recycle 100% of our biodegradable waste by 2025 and eliminate single-use plastics from our campuses.
Our strength lies in our people and the sheer diversity of our global workforce. It is no surprise that in 2021, Top Employers Institute, Amsterdam, recognized TCS as a top global employer for the sixth year in a row.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented disruptions. But it also led to innovations. As lockdowns shut entire countries down, we responded by implementing the transformational work-from-home platform for our over half a million associates spread across 46 countries.
TCS also believes in using technology as a catalyst to empower people and communities. Among the most powerful initiatives undertaken by us is the BridgeIT program. It was created to breach the digital divide in rural India, especially for disadvantaged communities, and is currently active in nine states. The program equips youngsters with digital tools and nurtures them to become entrepreneurs, who then provide online services in their communities.
We are committed to empowering the youth to solve complex societal challenges, and we run several programs through which we inculcate a culture of technologically-focused entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration. Initiatives like Digital Impact Square in India, Leaders with Purpose in the US, and Sustainathons across the globe are a testament to that.
In a world driven by digital technologies, companies are looking beyond immediate gains to identify a purpose. Entire industries need to reimagine their business models to ensure rapid decarbonization, equity, diversity, inclusion, and socio-economic opportunity for all their stakeholders. This entails companies embarking on sustainability-led growth and transformation journeys. And this is where our more than a hundred offerings in the space of sustainability can help you achieve your sustainability goals.
We leverage our contextual knowledge, investments in research and innovation, and technology expertise to help you drive action in the areas of:
Environmental management: Climate change mitigation and adoption measures, climate risk management, curbing deforestation, net-zero pathways and decarbonization, renewable energy integration
Human capital and workforce management: Health, safety, wellness, skilling, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility
Circularity: Product lifecycle assessments, sustainable product design and packaging, sustainable logistics and transportation, sustainable product use and disposal, and re-imagining business models for circularity
Social capital and community enhancement: Smart cities, smart metering, accessibility, and digital health and wellness platforms
Compliance, reporting, and governance: Including intelligence, data management, and strategy for TCFD, ETS, taxonomy regulation, hazmat, REACH, ROHS, and other environmental, health, and safety reporting requirements of your industry and value chain
Our contextual and deep-seeded knowledge of various industries and our expertise across all technology domains means we can help you strategize and embark on a sustainability strategy that is right for your organization. This is the decade of action and TCS is excited to collaborate with all its stakeholders in ensuring sustainable development for a better future.