Indus Valley Times

Greentech Award – 2022 for environmental protection

India CSR Award – 2022 for healthcare and education initiatives

By Pramod Sahukar

Lanjigarh, Sept. 3: Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh, India’s premier producer of metallurgical grade alumina, has bagged a trio of awards for its initiatives in environment, healthcare, and education. The company bagged the first prize for ‘Environmental Protection’ at the 22nd Greentech Environment Awards, 2022, and also stood first with its impactful initiatives in ‘Promotion of Healthcare’ and ‘Promotion of Education’ at the 9th Annual CSR India Award 2022.

Congratulating the respective teams whose endeavours garnered the company these awards, Mr. GG Pal, Dy. CEO – Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh, said,“Sustainable development through excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance practices is central to the way we run our operations at Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh. We believe that our progress as an organization should create in long-term positive impact on the environment and the community. Therefore, guided by our ethos of ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste and Zero Discharge’, as we strive for operational excellence, we also continue to enable our neighbouring communities with deep interventions in livelihood, skill development, healthcare, education and women & child development, for improving their quality of life.”

Vedanta Lanjigarh’senvironment-first policy was appreciated by the jury at Greentech Awards. The company’s endeavours echo the sustainability targets of Vedanta’s Aluminium Business, which includes best-in-class ESG practices and initiatives such as:

•             First in India to implement dry stacking method of storing bauxite residue, ensuring zero chances of ground-water contamination

•             Recycled more than 44 lakh litres of water in FY22 for reuse within plant & township, ensuring zero liquid discharge

•             Energy savings of 2.15 lakh GJ in FY22 through robust energy conservation initiatives

•             Plantation of nearly 10 lakh saplings till date, with more than 15,000 saplings planted in FY22 alone, creating large carbon sinks in and around the plant operations

•             Industrial by-products like fly ash and bauxite residue are being supplied to cement & concrete producers, brick manufacturing MSMEs, etc. for utilization in construction purposes

•             Digital monitoring of all environment parameters like ambient air quality, water usage, etc. to ensure benchmark environment performance standards

•             Rainwater harvesting and voluminous water reservoirs for optimizing freshwater intake

The CSR India Awardsrecognized Vedanta Lanjigarh’s endeavours to enhance the quality of life of local communities of Kalahandi through deep interventions in healthcare and education. In the ‘Promotion of Healthcare’category, the company stood out for its initiatives like:

•             Project ‘Arogya’, under which the company provides healthcare facilities to over 36,000 beneficiaries in FY22

•             Vedanta Hospital, a 20-bed state-of-the-art medical facility at Lanjigarh, well equipped with doctors, physiotherapists and visiting specialists, and 24X7 ambulance service for referrals. Over 60,000 people visit the Vedanta Hospital every year.

•             Free of cost cataract treatment and multiple health campsfor local communities

•             Mobile Health Units provide doorstep healthcare services to hundreds of villages in and around Lanjigarh

•             Free of cost healthcare services by Vedanta Aluminium and awareness campaigns have helped decrease the prevalence of malaria in Kalahandi as well

The DAV Vedanta International School, Lanjigarh, stands as a testimony tothe company’s interventions for ‘Promotion of Education’ among rural communities:

•             Vedanta Aluminium established Kalahandi’s first English medium school – the DAV Vedanta International School – which today has 1,200 students, 90% of whom are from local communities

•             This school created an aspiration for quality education among local communities, which is reflected in the rise in literacy levels in Kalahandi from 38.4% in 2001 to 50.9% in 2011

•             40,000 children and youth have benefitted till date from the company’s interventions quality education, career counselling, midday meals etc.

•             The company also oversees the operations of252 Nand Ghars, which are modernised anganwadis that act as centres of women & child development in Kalahandi and nearby areas. More than7,800 children access quality pre-school education and over 2,100 women are supported through the Nand Ghars.

Vedanta’s operations at Lanjigarh have always worked with the motive of society and environment first and it has successfully managed to do that over the years. The organization is still not limiting its work towardsenvironment and society, constantly finding new and innovative methods for creating a better world for people to live in, be it in terms of basic facilities like education and healthcare or towards the environment we live in.