Environment

At Asian Paints, we are on a constant vigil to enhance the positive attributes of paint while arresting its negative impact on the environment and maintaining high quality and safety standards.

827 million litres

Of water replenished against 583 million litres of fresh water consumed in FY 2017-18

22+ million

Units of electricity consumed in FY 2017-18 was from renewable sources

31%

Reduction in total carbon emissions in FY 2017-18 from FY 2013-14 (baseline)

CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

Responsible use and protection of natural environment through conservation and
sustainable practices have been the primary areas of Asian Paints environmental stewardship.

Decorative Business Units – India

At Asian Paints, we have laid emphasis on conservation initiatives, especially energy waste, effluent reduction and water conservation and biodiversity

All six units are ISO 14001 certified and have zero liquid discharge operations

Project NEW

Under project NEW, each of our six decorative paint manufacturing facilities have been given a unique ‘theme’ with performance targets (with base year FY 2013-14)

N

Natural Resource Conservation

E

Energy & Emission Reduction

W

Waste
Reduction

Progress Dashboard

Parameter Performance FY 2017-18 (%)* Target 2020 (%)*
Water replenishment 142 100
Reduction in specific non-process freshwater consumption 63 66
Reduction in specific electricity consumption 31 33
Electricity from renewable sources 35 36
Reduction in specific industrial effluent generation 73 75
Reduction in specific hazardous waste disposal 38 45

*In % reduction from base year FY 2013-14

Natural Resource Conservation

Every drop counts – Water Management

Water Management beyond Premises

Water is a crucial natural resource that we share with our communities. As a responsible corporate, we continue to replenish the water we use over time – a complex and a never-ending challenge. We invest and support community water projects across all our manufacturing locations through:

  • Rooftop rainwater harvesting and recharge systems
  • ntegrated watershed development in nearby villages
  • Check dam and lake desilting processes

Lake Desilting – Rohtak

Every year, we work to engage in new replenishment projects to deliver intended benefits to our communities. In FY 2017-18, at our Rohtak plant, we partnered with FORCE, an NGO, to desilt a pond in Kherisadh village, nearly 2 km from our Rohtak plant.

Project Rainbow – Kasna

We helped replenish groundwater in Kasna under Project Rainbow. During FY 2017-18, we assisted in erecting 18 RWH structures with recharge potential of 13 million litres per annum. Since its commencement in 2013, the project has created an overall recharge potential of ~138 million litres per annum.

4.8+ million litres

Water replenishment capacity created in FY 2017-18

180

Rainwater harvesting structures created in Kasna village since 2013

Water Management within Premises

Responsible water usage is a key constituent of our commitment to resource conservation. We have taken numerous steps such as:

  • Introduction of automated Water Management System (WMS)
  • 100% re-use of rainwater in utilities
  • Sensor-based taps and water-less urinals
  • High-efficiency Reverse Osmosis (RO) systems

Reduce and Reuse - Energy and Emission Reduction


Electricity Consumption

All the manufacturing units consistently work towards diminishing specific energy consumption. Some of our major initiatives during FY 2017-18 include:

  • Replacing conventional light fittings with LEDs across manufacturing units
  • Using Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) for pumps and blowers in utilities
  • Substituting ‘reciprocating air compressor’ with VFD-based screw compressor
  • Improving processes to decrease energy consumption

Improved the design for grinding and reducing the Twin Shaft Disperser (TSD) used for raw material grinding cycle time at Sriperumbudur

4,000 KWh

Power saving/month

Cycle time reduction in TSD

Reduction of agitator cowl disc speed during powder addition and grinding in the twin shaft dispersers and also optimisation of mixing time in the TSD

75%

Reduction in power consumption at liquid charging stage in TSD

10-30 KWh

Energy saving per batch

 

Renewable Energy (RE)

Our Green Energy Portfolio

RE36 – aims to source 36% of our total electricity consumption at decorative paint plants through renewable sources by 2020. We have made rapid strides in this direction during FY 2017-18, improving our RE footprint to 35% from 22% in the previous year. We actively invested in upgrading our RE infrastructure by commissioning new rooftop solar and windmill projects that enhanced our total installed RE capacity to more than 24.06 MW.

35%

Reduction in power consumption at liquid charging stage in TSD

Installed capacity location wise

Big measures for big impact

RE Wind Power Portfolio contribution of 20.1%

Installed capacity 13.8 MW generated more than 12.9 million units in FY 2017-18

RE Solar Power Portfolio contribution of 15.2%

Installed capacity 10.26 MW generated more than 9.8 million units in FY 2017-18

Emissions

Emissions in the paint industry stem from various sources such as the manufacturing process, filling and cleaning activities, mixing, storage of solvents and paint application.

During the last few years, we have been able to reduce our emissions by use of alternate fuel, improving our energy efficiency and enhancing our renewable energy portfolio.

31%

Reduction in total emissions despite 37% increase in production volumes since FY 2013-14 (baseline)

Curbing Waste Generation

Wastewater management

We believe minimising waste in our processes helps us reduce our costs and decrease the use of materials, energy, water and land.

Upgrading wash water handling system

During water-based paint processing, significant amount of wash water is produced while cleaning the processing vessels and pigging (transfer) lines. A major challenge remains in handling and reusing this wash water as it is susceptible to microbial growth/ fermentation, thereby having an impact on the product quality. We upgraded the wash water handling systems by automating them.

Significant reduction in trade effluent generation

Used most of the wash water generated during the year

4+ million litres

Wash water reused in Khandala factory in 2017-18

Hazardous Waste Management

Anti-stick coating for processing equipment

We follow the classical '3R' strategy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for waste management

Ankleshwar

Piloted the initiative to apply a non-sticky coating on the process equipment, which led to reduction in hazardous waste generation and reduced the use of water for cleaning

The overall benefit was more than 13 MT of sticking losses in FY 2017-18

Kasna

Anti-stick coating was first applied on emulsion trolleys in FY 2016-17. After this successful application, it was extended to lids of water-based TSD and mixer lids, water-based strainer meshes, sand-mill trolleys, tinter trolleys and strainers

Helped reduce an estimated 70% of hazardous waste and is expected to further reduce about 3.3 MT of hazardous waste generation in FY 2017-18

Rohtak

Anti-stick coating helped us reduce 2.1 MT of hazardous waste in FY 2017-18

Building Green Infrastructure

IGBC Green Factory Rating

The Research and Technology Centre at Turbhe achieved the Indian Green Building certification.

CII GreenCo 'GOLD' Rating, Kasna plant

The Kasna unit became the first unit to achieve the prestigious ‘GreenCo – Gold Rating’ from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Biodiversity

At Asian Paints, we are committed to conserving biodiversity. All our products, whether water-soluble paints with high dependency on water or solvent-based paints depending on petrochemical industries, affect biodiversity. We understand this influence and why sustainable management of these linkages with biodiversity is necessary for mitigating negative impact and reducing dependencies. Hence, we initiated significant steps towards environmental stewardship during FY 2017-18.

51/100

Biodiversity Index Score of Asian Paints, Sriperumbudur

Environmental Stewardship

  • Recognised the importance of biodiversity in operations
  • Assessment of existing biodiversity at the Sriperumbudur factory by CII-IBBI
  • Taxonomic enumeration of biodiveristy
  • Incorporated ecosystem service matrix and biodiversity baseline
  • Natural Capital Action Plan (NACP) made to improve biodiveristy in the coming years

The proposed NCAP will help in improving the biodiversity quotient of the project area and help in mitigating risks.

Key highlights

171

Floral & faunal species

45

Native trees & shrubs species

30

Native herb species

22

Species of butterflies

26

Species of birds

33%

Area is open area available for ground water recharge

Dense forest plantation using the 'Miyawaki method'

Green Supply Chain

Take back programme - Rethink. Recycle.

10,000+ kg

Of total plastic recycled in FY 2017-18

Idea

Recycling our own plastic pales recovered from project site

Challenge

  • Collection from market post painting
  • Aligning paint contractors for recycling
  • Partnering with local waste management
  • Finding an implementation partner organisation

Outcome

  • Recycled plastic using the pellets in making containers for paints
  • Fabricated 2,500 chairs
  • Distributed these chairs among schools (1,300) around our plant and donated to orphanages (1,200) by partnering with NGO Pratham

Stackable jerrycans

To overcome stacking of jerrycans during transportation and storage during pallet or truck load formation, we were forced to use partition plates made from materials such as plastic, wood or Corrugated Fibre board (CFB) in between stacks, or to completely cartonise the jerrycan, all of which are wasteful solutions. Therefore, the team came up with innovative packaging

No requirement of additional transportable material such as cartons or wrapping films

Less packing material intensity Less wastage

Recognised at INDIA STAR 2017, ASIA STAR and WORLD STAR for Excellence in packaging at both national and international platforms

International Business Units

Our International Business Units (IBUs) in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, the UAE, Egypt , Fiji, Jamaica, Nepal , Oman, Singapore and Sri Lanka, are included in the scope of reporting in FY 2017-18. As these units have different targets and performance levels compared to our India operations, we are reporting them separately in this section

Environmental threats, concerns and opportunities exist globally. Energy, water, waste, emissions and material management continue to be our major focus areas across IBUs. Our targeted approach has helped us reduce our environmental impact except reduction in hazardous waste, where we are working on various 3R initiatives such as wash water reuse, recovery of waste solvent, etc.

Parameter Performance
FY 2017-18		 Target 2020
Reduction in specific water consumption - Total 22%* 29%*
Reduction in specific water consumption - Non-process 31%* 38%*
Reduction in Specific Power Consumption (SPC) 10%* 14%*
Reduction in Specific Effluent Generation (SEG) (Industrial) 31%* 37%*
Reduction in hazardous waste disposal 14% increase# 20%#

*Baseline: FY 2014-15
#Baseline: FY 2015-16

NEPAL

Energy Management

In Nepal, we undertook specific power consumption (SPC) reduction initiatives:

  • Optimised heating for resin storage
  • Equipped processing machinery with Automatic Power Factor Controller
  • Reduced the time of heat tracing system for the resin storage from 24 to 10 hours
  • Operationalised the new compressor with power-saving and low sound generating features
  • Installed timers for process equipment at eight locations
  • Replaced tube lights / mercury vapour lights with LED at the administrative block and production floor
  • Introduced-use of energy-efficient motors
  • Organised awareness programmes such as plantation at plant periphery to increase greenery during World Environment Day

17%

Reduction in Specific Power Consumption (SPC) in FY 2017-18 as compared to the previous year

BANGLADESH

Revamped ETP in Bangladesh

  • Replaced existing Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) equipment with new tanks to optimise effluent treatment process in the Bangladesh plant.
  • The new ETP equipment is designed to be monitored continuously for efficient operations and deliver enhanced parameters of treated water with improved reliability.

FIJI

Rooftop Solar Installation

70 KWP grid-on solar power plant was commissioned at APCO, Fiji, as a part of facility expansion.

Features and benefits

  • APCO coatings factory is generating 50% of its total energy requirements from solar
  • Carbon offset of 67 tonne/year, which is equivalent to planting 1,750 trees
  • Diesel avoided: 28,360 litres/year
  • Yearly electricity bill saving of approx. $20,000 expected

50%

Total power consumed in FY 2017-18 through solar energy

Through phone app and online ‘Sunny Portal’, it is now possible to monitor the performance from anywhere in the world