Tata Power’s commitment to sustainable development goals remain unwavering amid pandemic
The Coronavirus pandemic followed by Cyclone Amphan have sounded the bugle for combatting climate change by rooting for sustainability. While a few countries have been initiating discussions on sustainability, it is not consistently practised. Sustainable development has been defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It is essential to protect and safeguard the world for our future generations. While focusing on collective effort for inclusive development, sustainable development in India aims at universal rural electrification, expansions of clean and renewable energy, sanitation and housing and elementary school education. These aims are integral to India’s global agenda of 2030 and Tata Power, in its last 100 years, has taken these goals very seriously.
As a leader in sustainability, Tata Power’s Sustainability Model stands out among its competitors by being transparent, sensitive and caring. Right in the beginning, our founder Jamsetji N. Tata, held the belief that clean, cheap and abundant power is one of the basic and esential ingredients for the economic progress of a city, a state, or a country. Back in 1915, this belief was behind the commissioning of India’s first hydroelectric project in Khopoli, Maharashtra, where we started off with sustainable generation of power. To emphasize on sustainibility, Tata Power went a step ahead and embraced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by United Nations. In 2015, the UN set these 17 goals to issue a clarion call to end poverty, ensure development of people across the world, protect the environment. Unlike many organisations, Tata Power conceptualized an inhouse methodology on the SDG journey by following the steps of SDG mapping, SDG Prioritization, SDG Roadmap.
For Tata Power, the word sustainability goes beyond climate change and comprises environment, biodiversity and community relations, climate change. It helps the company invest strategically leading to social progress, financial returns, enhanced stakeholder relations, and better environmental management. When it comes to climate change, Tata Power has focused on climate change for decades. It went ahead and set a non-fossil generation capacity target for itself which has been further increased by the expanding renewable portfolio.