German truck and bus maker Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) is working towards achieving 100% self-reliance in energy and water for its manufacturing operations at Oragadam by 2025, said a top official.
“By 2025, 100% of our energy and water requirement will be met through captive sources,” said its MD & CEO, Satyakam Arya during an interaction.
“We have increased the capacity of our Opex solar plant and it is now equipped to generate 4.6 MW of solar energy against 3.3 MW earlier,” he said.
According to him, currently 85% of Oragadam plant’s power requirements are met through renewable energy sources (40% solar and 45% wind from third party) and this would be enhanced to 90% this year, by taking all seasons into account and then 100% by 2025.
With regard to water management, he said that with the use of innovative water management techniques, DICV is already 100% self-reliant as per Scope 1 of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) norms by 2025.
But, the truck maker wants to make an official announcement by sustaining it for two more years after taking into due consideration external factors such as late arrival of monsoon among others.
“We don’t depend on external sources of water or ground water for our manufacturing operations. We store rain water in our lake. It has a storage pond that holds 60,000 kl, while our needs are 18,000 kl,” he said.
Mr. Arya said that the first 10 years of their journey concerned establishing DICV’s presence in the Indian market. The next 10 years is focused on growth and sustainability.
“But sustainability is not just about reducing pollution and using renewable energy. Our ESG aspirations come for a long-term vision that we have for future,” he said.
Talking on road safety, he said that by 2025 over 70% of DICV portfolio would have at least one new safety feature in BharatBenz vehicles, which is not mandated by the Government. And it would be 80% by 2030.
DICV had announced that it would go 100% paperless in its operations by 2023. “We have crossed halfway the mark,” he said.
Published - June 15, 2023 09:44 pm IST
