In line with its vision of “transforming lives by enabling communication”, the report showcases Indus Towers’ commitment to protecting the environment, enhancing engagement with communities, while continuing to create value for all its stakeholders in a sustainable manner.

 

With a continuous endeavor to be the preferred partner to its customers, Indus Towers is committed to providing the highest level of responsiveness and agreed services consistently to its customer base across the country. Indus Towers’ core values ‘ExCITE – Excellence | Customer | Integrity | Teamwork | Environment’, forms the base of the Company’s journey towards creating common understanding to inculcate Value Related behaviors and their Impact on business.

 

Commenting on the release of the report, B S Shantharaju, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers said, “We at Indus Towers, strongly believe in our philosophy of ‘Putting India First’. To strengthen this philosophy we have created the inaugural edition of our sustainability report; which we believe will help us deliver a focused perspective on the importance that sustainability holds within each and every function of this company, be it CSR, client servicing or enabling our employees. We hope this report will help our customers as well as the general public understand better what sustainability entails for us at Indus Towers.”

 

With focus on correlation among strong economic performance, social responsibility and respect for the environment, this report, based on the Global Reporting Initiative - Sustainability Reporting Guidelines version 3.1, is an indicator of Indus Towers’ focus on sustainability in every aspect within the organization. The report highlights Indus Towers’ bolstered focus in creating a prolific engagement with the environment and the community it operates in, reiterating its pledge towards sustainable development in the country.

 

“People, Planet, Progress” best describes Indus’ commitment to conduct its business in concert with environment, energy, socio-cultural and economic goals that will benefit future generations. Initiatives like Lighting a Billion Lives, in collaboration with TERI, is aimed at harnessing solar power to charge solar lanterns and provide alternate forms of solar energy to off-grid communities and villages thereby reaching out to 165,000 people across 660 villages in India and mitigating 5,000 tons of CO2 every year. Another interesting initiative is the Indus Technical Training Academy (ITTA) which provides skill-based training to the youth, helping to create employment opportunities.

 

The report also serves as a management tool to help identify key sustainability issues and opportunities that the company is facing, thereby providing the company the ability to improve its overall performance and impact on the environment and local communities. 

 

Challenges like myth about tower radiation, waste generation, power supply platforms for towers, scarcity of skilled resource, compliance issues, continue to pose hindrance  to the company’s and industry’s enhanced growth. Indus is working with local RWAs to disseminate knowledge by organizing events to dispel misconceptions regarding radiations. 

 

The company is also developing necessary management systems to ensure compliance to regulations relating to hazardous waste management. Mindful of the environmental impact of diesel consumption of telecom towers, Indus has embarked on a planned mission to make our sites diesel free by adopting alternate/renewable energy solutions, terming it as Green Sites. Indus has thus far created close to 35,000 Green-Sites, which is over 30% of portfolio of towers, thereby resulting in significant reduction in the company’s carbon footprint.

 

Indus Towers currently operates over 1.15 lakh towers across the country and has been a standout leader in the telecom tower industry in India. The company has been very conscious of its role as a responsible corporate citizen and focuses on community development activities - particularly in the areas of customer focused measures, stakeholder engagement, operational excellence, and environment friendly initiatives. Through the report, Indus Towers has clearly identified a way forward for its sustainability initiative which will help the company achieve its objective of putting the community - and more importantly “India first”.