Water management

Water conservation is an integral part of our sustainability program, and we have developed a long-term strategy for preserving this precious resource. Through our CSR programs, we are taking several steps to conserve water by harvesting rainwater within our premises and surrounding areas. Nuvoco considers water management as one of the key assessments under materiality topics. As a natural resource, water needs to be protected. As a result, we have taken initiatives to reduce our freshwater consumption through a well-structured ‘5R’ approach.

Our performance in water management during FY 2022-23

1.5 x

Water Positive Index

100 % reuse

Of sewage treated wastewater into sprinkling, gardening and other processes

58.4 (Process)

Specific freshwater consumption (L/tonne of cementitious materials) in FY 2022-23

0.25 KL/m3

concrete produced in FY 2022-23

Circularity

The main objective of a circular economy is to decouple economic growth from the consumption of natural resources by reducing and recirculating them. Nuvoco fully supports this path to a ‘waste not, want not’ lifestyle. The concept involves extending the lifecycle of products and reusing them in some way at the end of their lifecycle.

Our contributions to circular economy are as follows:

• Through our responsible use of alternative fuel and raw materials (“AFR”), we actively participate in reducing waste generated by other industries by repurposing it for productive use
• Our Waste Heat Recovery Systems (“WHRS”) enable us to significantly increase our utilisation of green energy, accounting for approximately 20% of our total thermal energy requirements.
• We maintain a Cement Clinker ratio of 1.8, effectively minimising waste materials such as fly ash from Thermal Power Plants and slag from steel industries.
• Our Ready-Mix Concrete (“RMX”) plants rely on the availability of construction and demolition (“C&D”) waste. By incorporating recycled aggregates from C&D waste, we have successfully replaced around 10% of crushed sand, thereby conserving natural resources.
• To further promote sustainability, we utilise fly ash and slag, by-products from Power Plants and the Steel industry, as valuable input materials in the production Pozzolanic Cements and Concretes.

8-10 %

Water Positive Index

4.9 %

Alternate material used in total raw materials consumed to produce concrete

27.7 %

Alternate materials used in total raw materials consumed to produce cement

Biodiversity protection

Our mining operations involve working close to natural resource sources. As a result, we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to protect biodiversity, as well as the challenges caused by climate change.

We have developed a Standard Operating Procedure at Nuvoco that focuses on the planting of native species of plants. The presence of native species contributes to the maintenance of the ecosystem by maintaining the flora and fauna.

Prior to the planting of these saplings, we select the sites and prepare the sites carefully to ensure the highest chances of success. We also select the plant species that are most suited to the geographical and climactic conditions at the site.

We choose the right seasonal time for planting the saplings along with ensuring the soil mixture that is most conducive to growth. We also undertake regular watering, care, and plan guarding measures so ensure the saplings are not infested by pests or eaten up by animals. After the plantation, we ensure regular watering and pest control as well as seasonal pruning and regular use of manure. It helps to nurture our plants and grow well into trees that are able to support life.

During the fiscal year, we have conducted an in house study to estimate Carbon Sequestration through the planted trees till now, at Arasmeta Cement Plant. We are targeting to conduct similar studies at our other plants during the FY 2023-24. These studies help us to understand our commitment toward carbon neutrality program and to further enhance native trees plantation, to estimate carbon sequestration potential at Novoco through native tree plantation drive.

Product Social Responsibility

We firmly believe in the power of our innovative capabilities to drive further efforts towards climate change mitigation at the consumer-level. Our product development strategy is embedded with an approach to product social responsibility which makes the use of our products not only safe but also environmentally responsible.

When such products are adopted at scale, it creates a multiplier effect towards green efforts. Moreover, our product social responsibility encompasses our efforts to transport and deliver our products in an environmentally responsible manner, ensuring reach to the end-consumer.

• We have pioneered green products with introduction of cement products like Concreto, Duraguard and ECODURE concrete. Our Ecodure range of products has received the GreenPro Certification from the Indian Green Building Council (“IGBC”), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (“CII”) at 5 (five) locations in FY 2022-23. This certification has been granted to our 6 (six) facilities, demonstrating our commitment to environmental sustainability.
• We are actively collaborating with agencies like National council for Cement and Building materials (“NCCBM”) on Limestone Calcine Clay Cement (“LC3”) which will further improve our C/K ratio.
• We are converting our fleet of vehicles to CNG & Electric Vehicles; we have also launched light-weight aluminium body trucks helping to indirectly reduce our carbon emissions.

Air emissions

• We regularly monitor our non-greenhouse gas (“GHG”) air emissions, which result from the burning of fuels in our cement manufacturing process and power generation at our captive power plants. The burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the release of Oxides of Sulphur (SOx), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), and Particulate Matter (PM). Therefore, we closely monitor these pollutants on a regular basis
• We track emissions as per the regulatory guidelines using the Continuous Emission Monitoring System (“CEMS”). We continuously monitor air quality fugitive emissions as per the regulatory guidelines. During the year under review, our stack and fugitive emissions were within the permissible limits set by the Pollution Control Boards.

Environmental performance indicators as per Global Reporting Initiative Standards are subject to external assurance