In its effort to reduce the energy consumption at its campuses, Infosys is betting on what it calls a disruptive idea: a desiccant that can soak up the humidity within a building. If the idea works, a bulk of the company?s goal of reducing its current energy consumption by 20% is as good as done.
The reason behind this effort, for which Infosys is working with the research teams of different vendors, is that a lower level of moisture inside a building means less energy will be used by the air conditioning systems to cool water. With a desiccant, you probably need to cool water only upto 15 degrees Celsius instead of 7 degrees at present, goes the thinking.
Over the past few years, India?s top-tier IT companies which typically have a large staff count, have tasted success in making their campuses greener. Now, it seems like many of them are confident of pushing their targets further with different initiatives underway.
?We are now working on an entire set of innovations which will potentially take us 20% lower than where we are now. It?s a combination of disruptive designs, smart operations and changes in the behaviour of employees,? says Rohan Parikh, head of green initiatives and infrastructure at Infosys. Their buildings, he adds, currently have an Energy Performance Index (EPI) of around 85-90 kilowatt hours per square meter per annum as against the country?s average of around 250 for commercial buildings, which was achieved through a combination of new buildings and retrofits.
Bangalore?s other IT giant, Wipro, too is stepping up its greening efforts with a target of reducing its 2010 carbon intensity number by half over the next two years. The firm?s large campuses at Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai are now controlled from a single centre in the Bangalore office which analyses the information received through various sensors. It has plans to increase the level of building monitoring to detect water leakages as well.
?We want to ensure that more than half of our total power consumption comes from renewable energy by 2015,? says Dinni Lingaraj, senior manager (sustainability) at Wipro. The firm, which currently gets 19% of its total energy consumption in India from renewable energy sources like wind and small hydro through power purchase agreements, also wants to set up rooftop solar power plants across its campuses to cumulatively produce 5.5 Megawatts of power. That would be nearly 50 times what the company currently generates on its own and could be used to power the street lights and lifts.
TCS, India?s largest IT-services company which employs over 2.77 lakh people, is aiming at reducing its carbon footprint (per capita) by 50% over the 2007-08 baseline by 2020 through a combination of efforts which include upgrading the energy efficiency at the existing offices, green IT, onsite renewable energy installations and procurement of renewable power. In the previous fiscal, these initiatives helped to reduce the company?s energy consumption by 6% over FY12 and 32% over the baseline year (FY 08), according to its latest annual report. During FY13, TCS increased its solar water heater capacity by 55% over the previous year which, it said, helped to reduce the energy used in heating water for use in kitchens and gymnasium washrooms.
When Infosys first metered every building to know how electricity was being consumed, it found that air conditioning consumed the maximum amount of energy at 45%, followed by computers at 35% and lighting at 15%. The company estimates that its energy efficiency efforts have helped save $60 million worth of electricity in the last five years during which when its employee strength went up by 75%.
Infosys normally invests about R200 crore a year for green initiatives. ?The returns on investment are less than 3 years even for the largest investments. So they are very compelling,? says Parikh, adding that the company?s total building area of 32 million square feet spread across various campuses will be managed from a single command centre in the next six months.
Employees form an important part of these plans across companies. ?Right from the beginning we have involved employees. We have eco-chapters which are voluntary groups across the campuses,? says Wipro?s Lingaraj, adding that these chapters were engaged in various initiatives. The company says its energy efficiency programme also goes beyond the campus. Over the last two years, Wipro did a study on how its Bangalore and Chennai campuses, which depend on borewell water and tankers for its water supply, impacted the water table aquifers and the community. It has now finalised a framework of key parameters such as the site of the campus and its energy load to derive an index. Based on this, a pilot study is being conducted this year to carry out detailed intervention which would involve working with the communities around the campuses.
?IT companies are in some sense measured differently because their customers are global. For them, being socially responsibily adds to their brand, and in some ways, how it can get perceived internationally,? says Pradeep Udhas, partner and head, IT-ITeS at KPMG India.
India ranked 10th in a recent KPMG Green Tax Index of 21 major economies that indicated which countries were active in using green tax incentives and penalties to drive sustainable behaviour. The country?s ranking in terms of green tax incentives was at 4 behind the US, South Korea and China though it fell to 17 when it came to green tax penalties.