Highlights FY 2021-22

Committed to invest in Solar and Hydrogen Giga factories,
value chain, partnerships and future technologies

The Company will also invest in enhancing the value chain, partnerships, and future technologies, including upstream and downstream industries. Its multifaceted projects include:

• Integrated PV manufacturing from sand to PV modules, including building an ecosystem of ancillary units
• Battery chemicals and components, cells and pack manufacturing and energy storage system
• Electrolyser and Hydrogen value chain
• Power generation to ensure round-the-clock availability
• Power generation for production of Hydrogen
• Conversion of Hydrogen to chemicals
• Power electronics systems required to support renewable energy such as inverters, chargers, DC-DC converters
• Renewable energy for mobility

Management approach

Reliance has a robust governance framework to track, assess, and improve how it manages its natural capital consumption. The Company has implemented annual environmental and sustainability action plans that are regularly assessed and revised.

Reliance adopts a comprehensive strategy at the Group level that establishes company-wide HSE objectives and processes for plant operations to promote operational discipline and performance. The Company has developed a well- defined HSE audit programme to verify that management standards are followed across its operations.

The Group Safety and Operational Risk team monitor the quarterly evaluation of business plans. They also regularly perform independent reviews of environmental aspects at the segment and site levels. The asset lifecycle is covered by a comprehensive review system, which includes the phases of implementation, operation, and closure. Reliance continues to strengthen its compliance systems and processes through rigorous internal and external audits.

The Board level CSR and Governance committee has oversight on Foundations and its related disclosures. The Board level monitoring at regular intervals is a testimony to the proactive approach taken by Reliance to ensure responsible and sustainable growth.

Environmental Performance

Managing Environmental Impact

Reducing the environmental footprint across Reliance's businesses is key to its operational performance. The Company's environmental and sustainability stewardship ensures that its manufacturing sites meet consent terms and environmental regulations beyond compliance. Reliance complies with all applicable laws and regulations and periodically audits operations to confirm compliance. The Company ensures that its employees are regularly trained and updated on changing laws and regulations, measures to prevent pollution, minimise waste and other solutions to reduce environmental impact.

The Company adopts comprehensive measures and advanced technology to reduce waste, energy and water usage. It is also focused on reducing and eliminating flaring and venting of feed and product gases, including volatile organic compounds. Reliance tracks, streamlines and manages GHG emissions across its manufacturing units. Retrofitting investments are made across every manufacturing division to reduce the environmental impact and energy consumption. Real-time monitoring of stack emissions through Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) has enabled Reliance to adhere to local standards for parameters like SOx, NOx and TPM emissions. Initiatives like converting organic waste into bio-manure through vermicomposting, stringent monitoring measures to prevent spills during storage, safe handling and transportation of hydrocarbon materials, have significantly reduced the negative environmental impacts of its operations.

The air emissions recorded for RIL includes:

Energy Efficiency of Operations

Reliance recognises its obligation towards climate change-related risks. As a global player, it is incumbent upon Reliance to overcome the challenges of transitioning to a lower carbon regime. The Company has in place best-in-class technologies and good operations & maintenance (O&M) practices that ensure optimal energy consumption at applicable sites. During FY 2021-22, the energy efficiency improvement initiatives resulted in energy savings of 2.11 million GJ for RIL.

Dedicated Energy Teams pursue relentless monitoring of energy performance at all sites and at the group level. The Company uses in-house mechanisms to monitor different energy usage parameters in real-time. Along with tools to facilitate decision-making, simulation and visualisation of energy efficiency, the monitoring system is also integrated with production control systems that make the Company’s energy management system agile, flexible, and effective. Energy audits and benchmarking studies are also conducted periodically to identify performance gaps.

Reliance Retail has undertaken several measures, including the upgradation of conventional equipment and rooftop insulation of warehouses to improve energy efficiency. The Retail team is encouraging the use of day lights and HVLS fans to reduce the overall energy consumption of warehouses and stores.

The Reliance digital business accounts for one of the lowest carbon intensity per TB of data usage with the right energy systems in place. In the last financial year, Jio had a total energy consumption of 6.69 million MWh out of which 65,283.53 MWh was wheeled from renewable sources.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited’s energy efficiency projects and measures are an important part of achieving its carbon reduction goals and Net Zero emissions milestone. As a fast growing telecommunications company in India, it has introduced initiatives and measures to optimise energy consumption at all facilities.

These include:

• Energy saving technology feature implementation in 2.3 GHz Time Division Duplex band which entails turning off radios during non traffic hours (02:00 AM and 05:00 AM).
• Hot Aisle and Cold Aisle separation by installing cold air containment to avoid mixing of cold and hot air.
• Smart lighting system and motion sensors implementation for lighting load reduction in all Server Halls.
• Diesel Generator (DG) demobilisation implementation for identified sites where low utilised DGs are replaced with a 100 AH additional Li-ion battery.
• Optimising DG run hours by prioritizing site operation on battery before DG in absence of grid power.

Climate Change

Reliance has always been cognisant of the impending climate change and the effect it can have on the future. In FY 2021-22, the Company ensured that it will continue its business-wise endeavours so that it is on its track to become a Net Zero organisation. It understands that controlling the increase of global temperatures by 1.50C above pre- industrial levels is no longer a choice but a necessity and Reliance has been extremely proactive in taking exemplary strides to decarbonise its operation. The Reliance O2C business is deploying several energy conservation solutions using next- generation digital technologies. It has integrated Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine Learning (ML) solutions in oil fields, repurposed petcoke gasification to utilise synthesis gas to produce chemicals and hydrogen and generate synthesis gas on a renewable basis through biomass gasification . Reliance Retail has initiated the use of battery-operated equipment for material handling to eliminate fossil fuel consumption. It ensures that idle trucks in waiting areas turn off their ignitions, reducing emissions, noise levels and fuel consumption. The heavy investments have been instrumental in helping Reliance manage its footprint.

RIL's GHG Emissions

Reliance Jio has also been a forerunner when it comes to decarbonising its operation. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) has received its highest ‘A-’ rating in CDP’s 2021 global rating of companies on the way it manages its environmental impacts. Jio is the only telecom and digital services firm in India to receive a leadership rating on CDP’s Global Environment Impact. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has validated the corporate greenhouse gas emissions reduction target(s) submitted by RJIL. In FY 2021-22, the Scope 1 emissions were 0.49 million tonnes of CO₂ and Scope 2 emissions were 3.36 million tonnes of CO₂. Jio also calculates its Scope 3 emissions, which accounted for 4.55 million tonnes of CO₂ in FY 2021-22. Jio has also been able to reduce 51,574 tonnes of CO₂ emission by procuring power from renewable sources.

Reliance continues to meet its growing energy demands with sources that have minimal environmental impacts. The total renewable energy consumption increased by 352% Y-o-Y. Hazira manufacturing unit contributes significantly to the renewable energy generation, and generated 13,60,181 GJ in FY 2021-22. Reliance also co-fired biomass with coal at its Dahej and Hazira manufacturing units to reduce dependence on natural resources.

Speaking at the International Climate Summit 2021, Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Shri Mukesh D. Ambani expressed his optimism that India can become the first country in the world to produce Green Hydrogen at less than US$ 1 per 1 kg in 1 decade to meet the 1-1-1 target. India has set the goal to reach 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Reliance has committed to enable at least 100 GW of solar energy by 2030, leading to creation of a pan-India network of kilowatt and megawatt- scale solar energy producers who can produce Green Hydrogen for local consumption. This endeavour by Reliance is aligned with its vision of making India the first country globally to make hydrogen affordable.

Jio-bp has made strategic engagements to enable the Electric Mobility ecosystem. Jio-bp has tied- up with BluSmart, an all EV ride hailing company operating in Delhi NCR for providing their fleet with state-of-the- art charging facilities.

Jio-bp also operationalised battery swapping service under Vehicle as a Service (VaaS) model with Swiggy, so that their driver partners seamlessly deliver food to customers and reduce carbon footprints.

Jio-bp signed MoU with the Mahindra Group in December 2021 to explore the development of EV products and services, alongside identifying synergies in low-carbon and conventional fuels. A MoU was also signed with Piaggio and moEVing for exploring some of the exciting solutions in electric mobility space.

Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Reliance conducts periodic environmental impact studies for biodiversity and marine ecosystems surrounding its greenfield and brownfield projects to assess the ecological status and mitigate negative impacts, if any, on the neighbouring ecosystem.

The impactful greenbelt development and habitat restoration efforts have borne fruits as more than 2.3 crore saplings have been planted across India, covering more than 2,600 Ha of green belt area till date. In FY 2021-22, 6 lakh + saplings were planted across various sites, and 70 Ha of green belt area was developed.

Waste Management and Circular Economy

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

The Company strongly focuses on responsible and efficient resource consumption. The waste management initiatives go far beyond regulatory compliances to strengthen the circular economy. Some of the initiatives taken by the Company include:

• Recron^® GreenGold^™ Polyester Staple Fibre (rPSF): Reliance recycles over 2 billion PET bottles every year to make Recron GreenGold Fibre. Reliance has adopted an innovative asset-light business model to support entrepreneurs for setting up toll manufacturing plant with minimal market risk and augment its recycling capacity.
• Green Polyolefin (gPO): Reliance is developing green polyolefin products, which are introduced to the market as sustainable packaging solutions for non-food and non-pharma applications. These products can be used in the automotive segment, appliances, paint pails, warehousing pellets, PE films, HDPE blow moulding, HDPE injection moulding and raffia bags.
• Waste to Road (W2R): Reliance has developed an innovative product for hard to recycle end-of-life plastics called ReRoute^™, which is used in preparing roads.
• Reliance has collaborated with India’s CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) to recycle COVID-19 PPE waste. Useful products such as automotive components and flowerpots are being made from the recycled PPEs.
• Hazardous waste from Reliance operations is recycled as alternate fuels and raw material (AFR) for the cement industry.

In FY 2021-22, the volume of waste disposed and recycled across the Company’s operations for RIL and Jio stood at :

Additionally, Reliance Retail is extremely conscious about the waste it may generate and is proactive in managing waste at every stage of its product lifecycle. Re-usable totes and crates are used to a large extent to reduce generation of packaging wastage. Supplier cartons are re-used where possible. Reliance Retail’s vision is to move towards 100% paperless operations at its facilities. Reliance Jewels uses carry bags and envelopes made with recycled paper at its stores.

Towards circularity

To grow responsibly in magnitude and scale while satisfying all stakeholders expectations lie at the core of Reliance’s operation. The Company recognises the need to move to a low-carbon economy. It takes proactive initiatives to accelerate the change and has enhanced its internal governance framework to minimise and mitigate risk. Reliance is working on a multipronged approach covering various aspects of the circular economy through a cradle- to-cradle approach. It has identified short, medium and long term strategies to accelerate the progress of circularity for plastics. In the short term, the focus is on increasing the Company’s PET recycling footprint and usage of Multi-layered Plastics (MLP) for road construction. In the medium term, it is focusing on polyolefin recycling. In the long term, the Company is looking at chemical recycling alternatives such as Waste to Oil (W2O) and Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL), among others.

Green Initiatives - Packaging Design & Application

Water and Effluent Management

Water is a critical resource used in the operations. With Reliance’s philosophy to reduce freshwater dependence, the Company has commissioned state-of-the-art technologies to reduce specific freshwater consumption, maximise recyclability and minimise external discharge. The world-class desalination unit at Jamnagar provides strategic advantage in terms of water management.

Reliance continues to focus on maximising wastewater recyclability and reusability of treated water. The treated effluent is reused in cooling towers, horticulture activities and firewater networks. Rainwater harvesting capacities are being augmented to 3,17,669 kL across RIL. All the manufacturing divisions have water efficient faucets and reuse treated wastewater for domestic purposes.

Reliance Retail in FY 2021-22 has made significant Investments in automation to improve operational efficiency and productivity in its quest to reduce overall water consumption. The Company has employed mechanised crate washers at fruits and vegetable processing centres that have reduced the consumption of water.

In FY 2021-22, the total water withdrawn for RIL stands at 224.19 million kilolitre out of which 32.94 million kilolitre was discharged and 103.54 million kilolitre was recycled. Additionally, the E&P vertical reported on 5.25 million kilolitre of produced water.