Planet first

Tata Chemicals is working on multiple fronts to stay the course in its fight against climate change

Three years since it was chosen to join a core team of five companies that would lead the Tata group’s battle against climate change, Tata Chemicals (TCL) has taken huge strides on the combat trail. It has adapted its businesses to become energy-efficient and use less water, and is innovating with new chemical and fertiliser products and agri-services to help maintain the earth’s fragile ecological balance.

The results have been striking in almost every sphere of its business. At the Babrala plant in Uttar Pradesh, energy efficiency has improved by 10 per cent compared to the time it was commissioned in 1994 and CO2 emissions have come down by 5 per cent. At Mithapur in Gujarat, the company has switched to masonry cement for its buildings bringing down carbon emissions significantly. Several new products including the low-cost household water purifier, Tata Swach and biofuel feedstock developed as part of its overall strategy for LIFE (Living, Industry and Farm Essentials) is helping the company extend its policy of enduring care for the environment.

The story of how TCL is dealing with climate change is inspirational, not just for other companies in the group but for the entire chemical industry, which has a big role to play in the war against global warming.

Care and commitment
TCL has a history of caring for the environment. Its vast salt pans in Mithapur are home to hundreds of migratory birds; its Babrala plant is cited as a case study in water conservation and its work with preserving the Gujarat coastline has been universally recognised. Its commitment towards conservation of whale sharks and a host of other species is also well known as is its tradition of employing clean and green production methods. (see box: Green chemistry)

In 2007, the company decided to extend the care and commitment to meeting the demands of climate change. It started to understand the phenomenon and work on an appropriate strategy to tackle the issues through the Climate Change Management Cell.

According to a report by International Council of Chemical Associations, the global chemical industry has a big role to play in the war against global warming. The report titled, “Innovations for Greenhouse Gas Reductions — A life cycle quantification of carbon abatement solutions” prepared by McKinsey & Company says that the industry needs to focus on a few major emissions reduction levers, which are: Insulation materials made from chemicals to reduce heating and cooling demand in buildings. Chemical fertilizer and crop protection chemicals to increase agricultural yields and avoid emissions from land-use change. Advanced lighting solutions such as compact fluorescent lamps. Plastic packaging, marine, anti-fouling coatings, synthetic textiles, automotive plastics, low-temperature detergents, engine efficiency and plastics used in piping. Clean ash One of the largest player in the chemical industry, Tata Chemicals has always shown concern for environment. Since its inception in 1939, the company has been producing soda ash using salt harvested in solar salt pans. Used to make glass, soda ash is a vital part of green buildings. The US Department of Energy estimates that a window-walled office building using special dual-pane tinted glass (made with soda ash) could reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20,000 tonnes over the building’s life cycle. The savings could be more in the future as technology advances help make glass panes that increase reflection of the sun’s radiation thus help cool the building. This cuts down air conditioning costs. Tata Chemicals, with the recent acquisitions of natural soda facilities in Tata Chemicals Magadi and Green River Valley in the US, is the world’s second largest producer of soda ash.

How big is the footprint?
The first step was to quantify CO2 equivalent emissions across manufacturing locations and measure the size and scope of its carbon footprint (see Figure 1: Measuring the footprint). This was done by tracking emissions from manufacturing units including captive power plants, logistics operations and staff travel. This exercise was conducted internally and verified with the help of Ernst & Young.

As the figures indicate, the total emissions have gone up as production has increased over the years, but the emissions per tonne of product have come down. The footprint mapping process was initiated at all India operations and later extended to all geographies. (see Figure 2: Under one umbrella). At the end of the entire exercise, it was found that the TCL’s overall carbon footprint per metric tonne of product matched that of leading chemical corporations and total emissions fell below that of the large chemical producers.

The company dug into the data to understand the potential for energy efficiency, input usage and process efficiency for each activity and sub-activity that forms the backbone of the company’s manufacturing units. It collaborated with McKinsey & Company to identify the business levers that would help with carbon abatement, which were built into a long-term strategic plan.

These efforts have led to huge improvements. The Babrala urea manufacturing unit, for instance, is now considered as a benchmark in energy efficiency and carbon footprint across the world, and the company is well on its way to a carbon-managed future.

A carbon-managed future

Since India does not have any mandated carbon emission cuts, a company can choose from several options. TCL chose the middle path which balances the imperatives of growth while ensuring measurable action on climate change; it leads to a carbon-managed future. The goals under this approach are:

	Focus / Scope: Reduce absolute footprint, with some potential stepouts outside fence.
	Targets: Typically 10-20 per cent reduction over 10-15 years. TCL has chosen a 20 per cent reduction by 2020.
	Growth: Grow, but in a low-carbon / carbon conscious manner.

To meet these goals, the company drew up a three-pronged strategy, which includes: identifying opportunities for carbon abatement, investing in low carbon growth and tapping into opportunities presented by the emerging low carbon technologies (see Figure 3: The three-pronged approach).

Future wise
TCL intends to be among the world’s top 10 per cent of the best chemical plants on carbon footprint and energy efficiency. It has identified abatement levers, low carbon growth opportunities and carbon offset opportunities towards that end.

The carbon abatement measures cover all units in all geographies (see box: Abatement levers) and were chosen on the basis of the cost and ease of implementation, maturity and availability of technology and the magnitude of emissions reduction. On an average, the energy efficiency potential is around 2-5 per cent and the process integration and waste recovery potential, around 5-10 per cent.

Abatement levers

The company is relying on several abatement levers to bring its emissions down to targeted levels. Some of the chemical industry carbon abatement levers are: Combined heat and power (CHP) cogeneration, captive power generation, green power import. Catalyst optimisation / improvements. Process intensification / integration, heat exchange network, improvements, scale ups, waste recovery, efficient controls, asset productivity, efficient logistics. Equipment energy efficiency, energy efficient buildings and offices, new efficient machinery. Recovery of low level waste heat / energy. Switch to low carbon fuels. Apply efficient motor systems. Carbon capture and storage methods — chemical or geological. Nitrous oxide reduction from process emissions or product applications (fertilizers). Alternate renewable raw materials / intermediates / product substitutes and captive renewable energy capabilities.

Low carbon growth is demonstrated by the Tata Chemicals Europe soda ash operation, which has the lowest carbon footprint among synthetic soda ash producers in the world. The natural soda unit at Tata Chemicals Magadi also has a very low footprint and is competitive with the best in the world.

TCL plans to pursue growth in natural soda ash, improve energy efficiency with retrofits and selection of efficient processes and switch fuels in existing synthetic soda ash production. New and eco-friendly products by the crop, nutrition and agribusinesses will also help meet its objectives. Some options
being explored are slow release fertilisers and a farming services business focused on input application practices and water use. These practices could cut GHG emissions by 5 to 10 per cent.

A strong framework

Tata Chemicals set up governance and support structures early on in its climate change journey. A Corporate Sustainability Steering Group and Global Chemicals Sustainability Steering Group monitors and reviews the plans. Both groups report to the Executive Committee of Board, which defines the policy and targets on climate change. A chief technology and sustainability officer with the help of climate change champions and sustainability stewards ensures that implementation is cascaded across the company’s manufacturing units and supply chains. They also track progress on carbon abatement measures through a carbon-focused dashboard with the help of key performance indicators. In order to make climate change and sustainability part of the organisational DNA, sustainability, specifically climate change, has been incorporated into the company’s long-term strategic planning process. Similarly, a green manufacturing index for existing operations and a green filter have been embedded within the capital approval and supplier evaluation and mergers and acquisition processes to ensure that sustainability considerations are a part of all business decisions.

The company has already encashed carbon credits offered under clean development mechanism and has identified several new opportunities: wind and solar energy at Mithapur, biomass at Babrala and Haldia in West Bengal, geothermal at Tata Chemicals Magadi and municipal waste for the UK operations. A large site solar power plant of about 25MW is under review at Mithapur.

At the same time, the company is focusing on biofuels and several new combinations and applications are being researched for their commercial viability. It has also set up an innovation centre around nanotechnology and green chemistry.

TCL has moved rapidly on multiple fronts to come up with a swift response to climate change. And to ensure that plans are not thwarted by lack of information, awareness or support, it has involved its employees in every process and set up a robust administrative and governance structure (see box: A strong framework). As the TCL experience shows, there is no problem, not even climate change, bigger than the combined will of a committed corporation and its people

Sanjay G Choudhary
Chief technology and sustainability officer, Tata Chemicals

Sourced from Quest, Volume 5 , November 2010, in-house Publication of Tata Quality Management Systems.