Lighting Lives: a rural solar power initiative by Henkel

Henkel, an adhesive major, has embarked on a rural solar power initiative as a part of CSR initiative under the project ‘Lighting Lives’. The project is in line with the company’s global sustainability strategy for 2030, which aims to provide electricity to villages in Maharashtra by installing solar panels.

04 Apr 2016 | By Priya Raju

According to the company reports, Henkel has reached the interim targets of its sustainability strategy, setting new milestones for 2020.
 
With the ‘Lighting Lives’ project in India, Henkel intends to contribute to the development story of India while continuing to shape the business responsibly and increase economic success.
 
This initiative, currently in the pilot phase, has seen installations of solar cells in three villages situated in the Palghar district of Maharashtra. According to the company, the solar power generated has supplied electricity to the homes of 150 people and to the schools attended by about 1,600 children. The project will be expanded to include other villages and public facilities.
 
Under the initiative overall, Henkel has improved the relationship between the created value and the environmental footprint by 38 percent. 
 
By 2020, the company intends to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, water use, and waste volume at production sites by 30 percent per tonne of product compared to 2010. Occupational safety is to be improved by 40 percent and sales by 22 percent per ton of product. The achievement of these targets would result in an overall efficiency improvement of 75 percent by 2020 compared to 2010.
 
Besides the solar power initiative, Henkel in India has an ‘Edu-care’ project, which focuses on providing infrastructure support to needy government/municipal schools located close to our plants/offices.
 
Due to Henkel’s contribution towards sustainability was included in the ‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World’ index and was rated “Gold” by EcoVadis among other awards.