World Environment Day special feature
June 5 2021: The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is Ecosystem Restoration. Pakistan will act as global host of the day. World Environment Day 2021 will see the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
We bring you a wrap-up of some Indian and India-based corporate initiatives:
Fulcrum Digital, a leading IT services and business platform company is committed towards creating a sustainable impact globally and has announced 5 new initiative for World Environment Day. 
Rajesh Sinha, Chairman and Founder, Fulcrum Digital: “All of us, through our choices, shape the environment. At Fulcrum Digital, our responsibilities lie not only with stakeholders but also the environment. This World Environment Day, in line with the theme of ‘Ecosystem restoration’, we are initiating a series of sustainable practices across our offices. These include installing oxygen generating plants to create a better work environment, transitioning to LED lights and solar powered streetlights outside the premises and taking conscious steps to reduce plastic consumption. As a tech company, we are also conscious of e-waste disposal and have some stringent measures in place. These initiatives are small steps towards our larger goal of reducing our carbon footprint and digitally impacting lives.”
Sustainable / environment-friendly practices initiated at Fulcrum Digital include:
 - Installing 250 oxygen generating indoor plants in our Pune and Mumbai offices to enable a better work environment 
- Shifting to energy efficient technology across all offices. This includes shifting to LED lights and installing solar powered streetlights outside the premises
- In the last 18 months we have reduced our plastic consumption by 12240 bottles. We are replacing all our regular toilet paper rolls globally with environmentally friendly bamboo toilet paper
-  Setting up a sewage treatment plant to treat approximately 10,000 litres of wastewater and use it for our washrooms and gardens
- Recycling laptops and gadgets on a regular basis in compliance with e-waste disposal laws

 Commvault: Ramesh Kalanje, Vice President, Center of Excellence, Commvault:“The pandemic has been a wake-up call for us to examine our actions with the lens of sustainability and mindfulness. While we are making great strides in digital advancements, we also need to be conscious of our efforts in the reduction of greenhouse gases and overall carbon footprint.At Commvault, we recognize that responsible production and consumption extend beyond physical realms, into the digital world. We are working with our partners and customers to increase the responsible management of data and reduce the environmental impact from data storage, mobility to the use of data. With initiatives such as, South Pole Energy Challenge (SPEC) and United Nation’s Business Avengers, we also continue to establish, foster, and evangelize best practices in data management, helping companies use data to think ‘green’.

Dell
Ed Boyd, Senior Vice President, Experience Design Group, Dell Technologies: “Dell has set a goal of using 100% sustainable packaging by 2030, made from recycled or renewable material. With our focus on accelerating circular design, rethinking a closed-loop approach for the aluminium in our products was right in our wheelhouse. “We want to inspire transformation for the entire technology industry in how we  approach design and use resources. It will take industry-wide action to rethink existing approaches and move to designing an entire product for circularity. This is why we’ll engage designers and engineers both in the IT industry and other industries along the way. This new circular design vision accelerates our leadership position and works towards creating solutions that will reduce waste, extend the life of technology, and bring everlasting positive environmental impact.”

HDFC:
HDFC Bank  has announced plans to become carbon neutral by 2031-32. As part of this initiative, the Bank is looking at reducing its emissions, energy, and water consumption. The Bank will continue to incorporate and scale up the use of renewable energy in its operations.As part of its ESG strategy, the Bank will also focus on offering loans for green products like electric vehicles at lower interest rates and incorporating ESG scores in its credit decisions. The Bank is also working on a framework for issuing green bonds.
This announcement, is a part of the bank’s overall commitment to embed ESG principles in its business. The bank has a three-pronged strategy to achieve its objective to become carbon neutral: Reduce consumption, transition to renewable energy, and offset carbon footprint.As a part of this strategy it is planning the following initiatives, amongst others:
-Decrease absolute emissions and energy consumed in line from current level of 315,583 MT CO2 emissions.
-Increase Rooftop Solar capacity in large offices.
-Convert 50% of our total sourced electricity to renewable energy.
-Create single use plastic free corporate offices.
Plant 25 Lakh trees.
Reduce water consumption by 30%.
Ashima Bhat, Group Head - CSR, Business Finance and Strategy, Administration and Infrastructure, HDFC Bank.  “A shared future means that individuals, companies and countries all have to act together to mitigate the effects of climate change.Through this effort, we are supporting the country’s commitment in this direction. The broad strategy is in place and going forward we will fine tune it and introduce new measures if necessary. As a responsible corporate citizen, HDFC Bank is fully committed to help India mitigate the effects of climate change as well as help the country meet its  international commitments under the Paris agreement.”

Mamaearth has been adding a little goodness with their choices. They link a tree to every order on their website, and through this initiative of “Plant Goodness”, more than 1 lakh trees have been grown in the last 6 months already. They aim to plant 1 million+ trees within 5 years. They also ensure no toxins or harmful chemicals in their products with a list of 1,193 toxins on their watch out list when developing products. Over the past 1 year, they have also recycled 1,135 metric tonnes of plastic, which is way more than the plastic they use. (Mamaearth is Asia’s first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin free & natural babyand mama care products.)