Industry captains bet on green energy, fuel for road to net zero

New Delhi: Senior leaders across sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and construction believe that companies need to move towards green energy sources and use sustainable raw materials to help reach the net zero emissions target.

Speaking at the Mint Sustainability Summit 2025, executives at companies like ITC, Pernod Ricard India, Larsen & Toubro and iForest discussed how their firms and the industry are trying to use more green energy and materials to ensure that emissions are reduced in their processes.

For the unversed, India has committed to achieve net zero by 2070 with companies starting work to phase out old technologies to reduce emissions.

According to Madhulika Sharma, chief sustainability officer of ITC, decarbonisation and renewable energy use is an opportunity for large companies like ITC as it leads to a reduction in cost.

“This year, we have 52% of our energy coming from renewable sources. It’s a combination of electrical energy, which is largely coming from close to 200 MW of wind and solar that we have, assets that we have been putting up across the country, and also converting most of our few fossil fuel-based boilers to biomass-based boilers,” Sharma said.

Gagandeep Sethi, senior vice president-integrated operations and S&R (sustainability & responsibility), Pernod Ricard India, said transitions like the one industry is currently undertaking can happen through cost-neutral means.

“At a group level, we have taken some bold, ambitious targets for the near future. It’s scope one, scope two, reduction by almost 54% at a group level,” Sethi said. “We can transition to green energy sources. Our suppliers are also ranked based on how sustainable they are, what is their source of energy for distilling the alcohol, is it biomass or is it coal, and that’s the smart selection,” he added.

While the industry has been working towards ensuring green energy sources, thermal energy still makes a large contribution to the generation of electricity. Moreover, industry observers note that initiatives are started by businesses but scale has not been achieved appropriately.

Taking the example of China. Chandra Bhushan, CEO of iForest, noted that China started investing in solar in 2001, which has led to it now producing 80% of global solar panels.

“We start a business and then we stop it there. We do not take it to the exponential curve, and that is where we are failing. So as far as technology development is concerned in the global South, China will be at the top, India will come next,” Bhushan said.

With India investing in increasing its manufacturing footprint, the executives also note that special attention needs to be paid to the sector as it is intensive in emissions.

“If I look at the construction and manufacturing businesses that we have from a revenue point of view, manufacturing comprises around 10-12% and but if you look at it from an energy or emission point of view, then some of them are pretty intensive, so maybe it comprises around 25-30% of our emissions,” Anup Sahay, head of corporate strategy and special initiatives, Larsen & Toubro, said.

But Sahay argued that efforts in the sector cannot be concentrated on green energy and has to expand to usage of clean fuels.

“What we realized was that the bulk of the emissions arises from diesel consumption that we do at these sites, because that is the only source of energy for the various construction equipment, which operate on fuel,” said Sahay.

Recently, the government has been stepping up efforts to mix petrol and diesel with ethanol. According to the industry executives, such programmes can also help in reducing emissions.

“We have also undertaken trials with biodiesel, and dozens of trials were done with different kinds of equipment, and we have been able to achieve a good equipment performance with the blending of anywhere between 5% and 20%, even 25% in a few cases,” Sahay said.

“And now there’s a program made out where we are talking to specific vendors for establishing biodiesel manufacturing across seven or eight states where we have the bulk of our activities. And the aim is to take it to 15% of our diesel use in these sites in the coming six to 12 months,” Sahay added.

But observers note that use of green energy and fuels has still not kept pace with the growth in demand, which is leading to an increase in emissions.

“All the renewables and EVs in the world are not able to even meet the incremental demand. So last year, the world installed 600GW of renewable energy and still the global emission increased,” Bhushan said.