Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) announced its ‘Seven Statements for Sustainability’, a series of goals aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and protecting the local environment. With the aim of making its Chennai plant operations 100% CO2 neutral by 2025, DICV leads the carbon neutrality commitment in the Indian CV industry. The initial set of goals are a part of DICV’s long-term sustainability plan that will be unveiled in multiple phases, setting a new benchmark for the Indian auto industry.

Satyakam Arya, CEO & MD of DICV, said, “Driving sustainability in our production and operations has been a key focus for DICV since our inception. Our efforts so far have already helped us reach 72% CO2 neutrality in our plant, and we plan to push this to 100% by 2025. We will work continuously towards a sustainable future for our stakeholders and society as a whole.”

At the recent Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, India pledged to increase its installed renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts and reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, as well as achieve ‘net-zero emissions’ by 2070. As an environmentally-conscious organisation, DICV is also moving forward along a roadmap that helps tackle climate change while spurring economic growth.

In the first phase of the roadmap unveiling, the company today announced its goals for sustainability in operations, laying out initiatives planned to 2025 and beyond.

DICV’s ‘Seven Statements for Sustainability’ are as follows:

Statement 1: Make DICV operations 100% CO2 neutral by 2025 by…

Statement 1: Make DICV operations 100% CO2 neutral by 2025 by…

Statement 2: Aiming to make entire value chain CO2 neutral by 2047 by...

Statement 3: Increase green cover density of Chennai plant by at least 10% by 2025 by...

Statement 4: Reduce energy consumption of production shop by at least 8% by 2025 by...

Statement 5: Reduce water consumption by 30%, aiming for 100% water self-reliance at the plant by 2025 by...

Statement 6: Continuously reduce waste generated from operations by…

Statement 7: Contribute to betterment of nearby villages and societies

Since the establishment of its manufacturing plant in Chennai, DICV has systematically implemented sustainability initiatives at every level. These include the installation of an energy-generation plant with over 10,000 polycrystalline solar power panels (compensates for around 3300 tons of CO2 emissions/year) and a storage pond that holds more than 60,000 kilolitres. The plant itself is home to more than 17,000 trees and adheres to strict reuse/reduce/replace policies as part of its certification for ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems). These measures contributed to the company winning the 'Best Energy Efficient Organisation' award from the Confederation of Indian Industry in this year's CII National Energy Efficiency Circle Competition.