CIOInsider India Magazine

Icelands are melting, Species are driven to extinction and the Forests are falling apart. Not only mankind, but the entire planet is walking towards its doom, while the mankind is solely responsible for bringing destruction closer through many selfish innovations and the release of hazardous material to everything nature. This has carved holes in the very blanket of the o-zone layer.

The responsibility of saving our planet falls on every human being. The government has to bring in more policies, rules and strides, in order to make a bigger impact, compared to the already existing reforms. All these reforms need to be imposed in all parts of the world evenly.

The Mission of 'Net-Zero Emission'
More than 100 countries have come forward to end their contribution in global warming and start their contribution in the welfare of the ecosystem with the '2015 Paris Climate Agreement' by reaching 'Net-Zero Emissions' by 2050. In order to accomplish this mission, the governments across various nations are making efforts to bring down the 'Carbon dioxide Emissions' (CO2), especially in terms of 'Greenhouse gases' (GHG), which are now out of balance. Thereby, ruining the climate which then poses a major threat resulting in the existential crises of living beings.

This may be a small step towards that change, but it can surely make a difference in the years to come, especially the countries such as the US, China and India, which make higher emissions taking part. In India, which ranks third in the list, the progress towards a safer future is just getting started, where electric vehicles, policies and other measures are steadily coming into force.

Indian IT Companies are Stepping in to Make a Difference The homegrown IT companies such as Wipro and Infosys are joining the bandwagon by enforcing their own set of regulations to reach Net-Zero goals. With respects to 'Earth Day', Wipro, the IT major, has set an intermediate target which is set at bringing down a 55 percent of GHG emissions by 2030. These targets are interconnected with that of the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) along with deep decarbonization and operational changes which will aid the IT giant to drive the change within its value chain. However, the targets are:

•Improving the energy efficiency of facilities for a sustained reduction in energy consumption.

•Increasing use of renewable energy in owned facilities in India through private power purchase agreements and captive solar power.

•Combining behavioural, technological, and collaborative approaches that help reduce the carbon footprint of air travel, commuting and purchased goods and services.

Prior to enforcing these targets, Wipro has been engaged in serving to the welfare of the environment in its own manner where it has cut down on the usage of energy, waste footprint, bio-diversity impact.

The IT giant is also one of the nine founding partners of the TONZ alliance (Transform to Net Zero). The alliance, which was convened by Microsoft, comprises some of the world's leading corporations, with total annual sales of USD 500 billion and assets worth USD 800 billion. The alliance is dedicated to reducing climate impact by assisting partners in determining their Net-Zero priorities and strategies, as well as developing best practise assets.

Along the line, in multiple aspects of climate change, such as GHG evaluation, Climate and Net-Zero Policy, and procurement and supply chain strategy, among others, Wipro is ensuring that its consumers achieve their Net-Zero targets by collaborating collaboratively and using its technologies and domain skills.

The company has made considerable strides in developing and producing “Green IT solutions” for carbon-intensive industries such as energy and utilities, manufacturing, transportation, and consumer goods. These solutions include assisting consumers in exiting their data centres, accelerating virtualization and public cloud adoption, smart grids, waste control, circular procurement and packing, and so on.

“Wipro has long since built ecological sustainability into its operations, and ways of working. Today we are committing to accelerate our actions to achieve net-zero, and the deep decarbonization efforts required to get there. We believe businesses like us have a significant role to play in achieving the global Greenhouse Gas reduction targets”, said Thierry Delaporte, CEO and Managing Director, Wipro Limited.

Infosys is Bolstering its Services in the Segment
Infosys has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BP (British Petroleum), the British multinational oil and gas company, aiming to develop an integrated Energy as-a-Service (EaaS) offering that will include end-to-end management of a customers' energy assets.

In conjunction, the two are seeking to explore possibilities for the management of electricity, low carbon fuels, low carbon heat/cooling and low carbon mobility of campuses, powered by an AI digital network through the use of BP’s energy and mobility experience and digital ability. BP's optimised power package draws on solar and wind technology and companies, as well as gas for power, fuels, charging for electric cars, battery exchanges and state-of-the-art mobility solutions.

The integrated EaaS approach enables Infosys campus, without having to invest in new energy resources, to access reliable low carbon energy and mobility solutions, use energy more effectively and improve the supply and demand across multiple users and properties.

Additionally, the two companies aim to expand this bid on other Infosys campuses and pursue energy management and pollution reduction opportunities in industrial and commercial parks and towns following a pilot at Infosys' Pune campus.

“Integrated energy and mobility solutions have huge potential to enable clean cities powered by low carbon energy, and digital platforms are a vital component. We are excited to work with Infosys to explore how digitally-enabled integrated energy can deliver reliable, efficient and low carbon energy for Infosys campuses. Through this strategic collaboration BP and Infosys can combine our capabilities to manage energy for Infosys in India, and in time take this offer to other campuses, industrial parks and cities, to help the world decarbonise faster”, said Sashi Mukundan, President, BP India and SVP BP group.

In Conclusion
We have put ourselves in a critical juncture. What each one of us does in the present will determine what could be happening in the years to come, to which the upcoming generations must pay the price for our follies. It’s indeed clear how destruction can happen so fast yet fixing those damages take a really long time. The Net-Zero goal, if followed strictly, is a sure bet to follow good changes, though they may be slower in pace.