The Company has a robust governance approach to monitor, review and refine the way it manages natural capital usage. Reliance has deployed Company-wide annual environmental and sustainability action plans, which are monitored and reviewed regularly. The Company follows a holistic Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) policy at a Group level that defines Companywide HSE objectives and processes for plant operations to improve operational discipline and HSE performance. The Company has also designed a HSE audit programme to ensure management standards are adhered to across its operations.

The Group Safety and Operation Risk team periodically monitors the quarterly review of business plans. They also conduct periodic reviews of environmental aspects, independently, at the segment and site levels. The comprehensive review mechanism covers the lifecycle of assets, across their implementation, operating and closure phases. Reliance continues to strengthen its compliance systems and processes through rigorous internal and external audits.

The many impacts of COVID-19 have made people even more aware of the fragility of our environment and the urgent need to take better care of it. By forging new partnerships and leveraging innovation, Reliance is judiciously utilising the precious natural capital that it needs for its businesses and is striving to leave behind a better planet for future generations

Air Emissions Management

To meet India’s growing needs for petrochemical building blocks and materials, in the last decade, Reliance undertook its largest investment cycle in the O2C business. Simultaneously, Reliance invested in creating digital and physical platforms that have sharply enhanced productivity as well as reduced energy intensity for Indian businesses and consumers. Energy and Materials affordability and selfsufficiency, a strong digital backbone and an efficient physical supply-chain infrastructure are key enablers for the next phase of economic growth in India.

The mega O2C projects executed in the last decade, increased Reliance’s downstream production by 65% without materially changing the feedstock requirement of the business. These projects increased crude to chemicals conversion, provided additional feedstock flexibility and optimised energy cost and enhanced self-sufficiency. It cemented Reliance’s position as largest, most complex and energy efficient integrated O2C operations globally.

GHG Emissions

Response to climate change will shape new business models and open-up huge opportunity sets to create value through a new energy and materials paradigm. As societal needs evolve, Reliance is committed to participate and lead in the transition to new affordable climate friendly energy and materials. During the year, Reliance unveiled its target to achieve Net Carbon zero by 2035. It also became one of the early firms to commit to WEF-IBC metrics on sustainability reporting. The WEFIBC framework endorses TCFD and provides for a three-year pathway to achieve full TCFD implementation.

The 6.2% reduction in GHG emissions during FY 2020-21 sets the tenor and trajectory for reduction in Reliance’s carbon footprint. The decrease in emissions is an outcome of several initiatives undertaken by RIL which include:

Over the coming years Reliance will deploy further resources - intellectual, physical, and financial and adopt a collaborative approach, to achieve further reduction in Greenhouse Gas emission. The key elements of our carbon reduction strategy include:

Waste Management

Reliance is a firm believer in the 3Rs of circular economy – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. To improve circularity in plastics, the Company collects, sorts and recycles plastics to reduce dependency on new and virgin resources.

The Company’s waste management strategy undertakes the following initiatives:

For its Digital Services business, the Company has put in place certain energy-saving systems that ensure one of the lowest carbon intensities per TB of data usage compared to other service providers.

Across manufacturing sites, the Company has taken up several energy optimisation projects, waste heat recovery projects, opportunistic equipment upgrades and phase-wise implementation of Advance Process Control & Real Time Optimiser (APC & RTO) systems to improve on energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Contributing to Circular Economy

Reliance recognises the need to transition to a low-carbon economy to grow sustainably while meeting investor expectations. It is taking proactive steps to accelerate this transition and has strengthened its internal governance mechanism to minimise, de-risk and mitigate risk as it moves to low-carbon operations.

Recognising the growing consumer preference for environment-friendly products, Reliance supports initiatives that promote circularity – such as the development of the R|ELAN™ fabric.