The revered rating, which is given to industries for demonstrating leadership and commitment towards environment conservation, is recognition for ITC’s core commitment to sustainable business practices and efforts to combat climate change. ITC has been carbon positive for 15 years, water positive for 18 years and solid waste recycling positive for 13 years.

ITC’s Paperboards and Specialty Papers Business, as a leading manufacturer of packaging and graphic boards in South Asia, has long endeavoured to become an icon of environmental stewardship.

The GreenCo Platinum Plus rating puts ITC’s Bhadrachalam unit at par with green standards of other world-class facilities. It is a testimony to the business’ large scale efforts in achieving environmental excellence.

Sanjay Singh, corporate management committee member, ITC Limited, said, “In line with ITC’s Triple Bottom Line philosophy, PSPD’s commitment towards being at the forefront of environmental resources conservation and replenishment has helped it to synergise environmental and economic sustainability. The GreenCo Platinum + rating is a recognition of our Bhadrachalam unit’s large scale efforts towards combating climate change. We are delighted that our consistent green endeavours have made us the only company in the pulp and paper sector to have received this accolade.”

The Green Company rating system is the first of its kind in the world with a comprehensive framework that evaluates performance of green features of companies on 10 broad green parameters like energy efficiency, renewable energy, CHG emissions, water conservation, waste management, material conservation, green supply chain, product stewardship and life cycle assessment, innovation for environment and green infrastructure.

The rating system has been acknowledged in India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) document, submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, as a proactive voluntary action of Indian industry/ private sector towards combating climate change.

ITC’s Paperboards and Specialty Papers Business has implemented an inclusive and sustainable forestry value chain that has created a large green cover and livelihoods for tribals and marginal farmers. The business has adopted a fibre-sourcing strategy through growing plantations owned by marginal farmers and tribal villages. This has enabled ITC to encourage green cover for over 8,00,000 acres of land and provide 147-million-person days of sustainable livelihood to farmers. The efforts also led to the Forest Stewardship Council certification as well as membership of WWF-Global Forest and Trade Network.

Previously, ITC has also been recognised for achieving the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in Indian pulp and paper industry. The business has also achieved and sustained best in class industry benchmarks in energy efficiency and water conservation.

The Paperboards and Specialty Papers Business also commissioned the first ever Bleached Chemi-Thermomechanical Pulp Mill in India, which for the first time made the conversion of hardwood into softwood pulp feasible, enabling import-substitution and agro-forestry promotion for this purpose. ITC has also implemented the Well Being out of Waste (WoW) initiative, a large-scale waste management effort that today extends to over one crore citizens in the country.  All these initiatives spearheaded by the business have indeed contributed to ITC’s position as a global exemplar in sustainability.

ITC is only the second company in the country to have achieved the feat of a first-class platinum plus rating. Over 550 companies spread across 18 sectors are currently working to receive a GreenCo rating with more than 260 companies already having received it.