Environment
Our aim is to preserve the long- term health of the natural environment affected by our operations. We set and achieve targets that promote efficient use of resources and include the reduction and prevention pollution.
Water Conservation
We have a long term approach to water management that aims to improve our performance, recognize the significance of water and contribute to sustainable water management. Water being one of the key natural resource and of the utmost importance for our operation as six out of seven operating unit are located in Rajasthan which is water scarce state. Hence, we understand its importance and adopt best practices for making the judicious use of water and conserve it.
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We take number of initiatives to reduce the water consumption at the source as well as reuse/recycling the effluent by proper treatment. We have dedicated effluent treatment plant at our smelters. Reverse osmosis plant have been installed at all our smelters, resulting in a decrease of fresh water consumption. We follow Zero-discharge at all our operating locations.
We have a robust system to undertake and monitor our water conservation targets. Water conservation targets of 5-20% are part of our business plan every year, and accordingly our water managers located at each of our site identify water conservation projects in consultation with the operating teams. These targets and projects are reviewed in the monthly business review meeting headed by our Chief Operating Officer (COO). As a result, we have been successful in reducing our specific water consumption by 41%, over a span of three years from FY2006 to FY 2009.
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Energy Conservation
We believe in energy efficiency and optimization, which reduces operating costs and impact on environment by reducing direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.
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Continuous reduction in specific energy consumption is a focus area from an environmental as well as economic perspective. Over the years, it has helped to improve our performance across operations. We consider energy conservation targets of 3-12% at all locations as part of the business plan. Projects for energy conservation are identified and undertaken in a systematic manner and are reviewed in the monthly business review meeting headed by our COO.
Over the years with the in-house excellence and focused approach towards energy conservation, we have achieved 30% reduction in the specific energy consumption, over span of three years from FY 2006 to FY 2009
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Solid Waste Management
We focus on a '4R' waste strategy - Reduce, Recycle, Reuse and Reclaim and 'Eco-friendly' disposal of process residues.
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At mines, waste rocks generated are used in the construction for strengthening of embankment of tailing dams and tailing generated from our ore beneficiation process are disposed in safe manner in tailing dam.
At smelters, Jarosite and Jarofix is the major waste generated from hydrometallurgical plants and slag from pyrometallurgical plant.
At Debari and Vizag, Jarosite is disposed in eco- friendly manner in Jarosite Secured landfill after neutralization with lime. At Chanderiya smelter, Jarosite is stabilized into Jarofix after treatment with lime and cement and then disposed in lined Jarofix disposal yard. Other process residues are disposed in our own secured land fill or at common hazardous waste disposed facilities.
We have done lot of research on the alternate use of slag from our ISF furnace. Our efforts over the years have resulted into successful use of slag for cement manufacturing and in last two years, 3.5 lacs tonnes
of our slag has been utilized by various cement manufacturers, which is more than our generation.
100% fly ash generated from our captive power plants are also being utilized for cement manufacturing
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Biodiversity
None of our smelters and mines are situated near endangered ecosystems or wetland areas or world heritage sites.
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All our operating sites are surrounded with plantation and every year plantation is done to further improve its density and increase the greenbelt coverage. Some of our sites have engaged horticulture experts to restore the wastelands by plantations. The total population of our plantation is more than 900,000 plants across all our operating locations.
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Climate change
Climate change being a global cause of concern, we look forward to mitigate the effect as a part of our social responsibility.
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We have embarked on various measures to check our carbon footprints from all our locations to reduce our Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. We have introduced, as a part of our Management Information System (MIS), reporting of carbon footprints from all our operations. This guides us to evaluate our GHG emissions and focus on the ways to curtail it.
Our smelting and mineral processing operations are energy intensive and these energy demands are met in majority by our own captive power plants and from the State grids. The power plants are coal based and CO2 is being emitted. Our GHG emissions (including direct as well as indirect emissions) in FY 2009 were 3.83 million tonnes of CO2.
Towards our efforts to produce green energy, 123.2 MW of wind power plants have been installed and commissioned at Gujarat and Karnataka in India. We also have 16.7 MW of power generation capacity from our waste heat recovery plants at Chanderiya and Debari. We have obtained United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) registration for both of our wind power plants and waste heat recovery power plants.
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