Green Giants: How India’s Biggest Conglomerates Are Steering Climate-Conscious Growth

In 2019, Hindalco’s Birla Copper plant in Dahej, Gujarat, faced a massive challenge when heavy rainfall caused flooding, disrupting operations. The company carried out an assessment of the plant’s vulnerability to extreme weather and identified areas of improvement to protect it from future climate risks. But the impact of the initiative went beyond plant upgrades. It cultivated a forward-thinking mindset across the organisation and embedded climate adaptation and sustainability into its DNA.

This was one of the several weather events over the past few years that have stalled factories. The impact, in fact, goes beyond operations. The Reserve Bank of India said in a report in December 2024 that climate risks have started impacting the financial system and pose systemic risks by causing direct damage to assets, leading to loan losses, business disruptions and supply chain issues.

Realising that climate events may hit growth plans, India Inc. has started integrating sustainability into strategic planning, investment evaluation, risk management, and supply & demand projections. Take Project Aalingana by Tata Group for becoming net zero by 2045 under which all businesses—from auto to technology—will align operations to achieve the goal. Or Aditya Birla Group’s Sustainability 3.0, which involves digital integration of the foundation built in the two earlier versions, aligning it with a four-dimensional approach—sector of operation of the company, geography, value chain and time.

Among corporate biggies, Reliance Industries (RIL) has set one of the most ambitious targets; it wants to become net carbon zero by 2035. This means that in a decade from now, all its operations, including refineries and chemicals, will be carbon neutral. It is building a new energy ecosystem by investing Rs 75,000 crore.

India Inc. is not alone. Businesses globally are facing losses due to extreme weather events such as storms, floods and heat waves. Climate change could lead to a 16.9% loss in GDP by 2070 across the Asia Pacific region, with India projected to suffer a loss of up to 24.7% of GDP, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank released in October 2024.

India, though, is still at a nascent stage, with only a handful of conglomerates showing a commitment to mitigate the impact of climate change. It is a long journey ahead, says Sujata Mody, Founder CEO, ENVESYA, an environmental services company that helps industry decarbonise and transition to circular economy models. “Conglomerates are present across a spectrum of industries right from iron, steel, chemicals, paper and fertiliser to new-age technology and telecommunications. They have a large share in consumption of raw materials, energy, power and water. Any disturbance in availability of resources and infrastructure affects their operations and economic stability,” says Mody.

The Way Forward

Growing vulnerability to unpredictable weather events and changes in long-term climate patterns could affect companies and their supply chains. Aware of the risks, RIL has implemented strong business continuity management strategies under which each business conducts its assessment and makes tailored plans for risk management. Its facilities have been designed to withstand climate-related challenges. The company also implements prevention programmes to ensure the well-being of the workforce from climate events and maintains diversified supply chains for operational continuity. “India is confronted with a pressing energy trilemma—availability of affordable, sustainable and self-sufficient energy. This trilemma will become more acute as India’s economy becomes larger and grows faster. In 2023, India generated nearly 1,600 billion units of electricity. To meet growth projections, this number needs to double in the next 10 years. Obviously, green and clean energy will need to provide the lion’s share of this growth,” RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company’s 2024 annual general meeting.

RIL is advancing the clean energy transition by undertaking major developments at the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar with the construction of a fully integrated new energy ecosystem. This includes polysilicon to solar PV module manufacturing with 10 GW per annum capacity, integrated advanced chemistry-based battery manufacturing with 30 GWh initial capacity, renewable energy on round-the-clock basis, fully integrated green hydrogen to green chemicals multi-GW electrolyser manufacturing and 55 integrated compressed biogas plants by 2025.

Every company is devising its own strategy to hedge against climate risk. Take the Aditya Birla Group (ABG), which has a consolidated market cap of over $100 billion and is present in cement, mining, carbon, financial services, fashion & retail, and textiles. Given this diversity, the group has, over time, evolved its initial site-based manufacturing-oriented approach into what it calls Sustainability 3.0. This allows it to contextualise for the diversity in sectors, geographies and maturity level of different businesses. Now, digital technology and innovation are playing a bigger role in driving the agenda.

“We implemented the sustainable business framework with Sustainability 1.0, while 2.0 put quantitative performance targets in place. As we move to 3.0, we have deployed more digital tools. We’ve worked closely with our in-house data analytics team and now have an ESG data lake. The platform is being implemented to strengthen and streamline sustainability efforts across the organisation by enhancing data integration, monitoring and reporting capabilities,” Deeksha Vats, Group Chief Sustainability Officer, Aditya Birla Group, tells Business Today. Vats says all group companies are working on their own transition to sustainable pathways based on their sector’s uniqueness, geography and value chain approach to include key stakeholder expectations, and short- and long-term time horizons.

The Tata group’s sustainability policy articulates how companies can create long-term stakeholder value by integrating economic, environmental and social considerations. The aim is to help all group companies integrate sustainability considerations into all decisions and key work processes, mitigating future risks and maximising opportunities.

Since the start of Project Aalingana, all companies in the group have taken steps towards low-carbon transition. Tata Power, one of the country’s largest power players, is focusing on making its generation portfolio 100% clean and green by 2045. “The company’s decarbonisation journey follows a clear path to scale up renewables while ensuring the resilience of the system. At present, 44% of our generation comes from clean and green sources. By 2030, we aim to reach 70%, with a goal of 100% clean and green energy portfolio by 2045,”

tells BT. He says plans for continued expansion of solar, wind and hybrid projects will be strategically supported by energy storage systems and pumped hydro projects for grid flexibility.

The Funding

The futuristic technologies for shifting to a low carbon ecosystem requires huge investments amid uncertainty around energy and battery solutions. The key is to strike a balance between energy security, sustainability and socio-economic development in a developing country like India, aspiring to become developed by 2047. “Financial sustainability is fundamental to sustainability. If you do not make money, you wouldn’t be in business,” says Aditya Birla Group’s Vats. The group has started mapping its value chain, initially piloting with three businesses, and has onboarded critical suppliers on a digital platform to understand the challenges in becoming sustainable and how they can be resolved.

“We got all heads of sustainability and procurement together to ask, ‘what are the issues that you’re facing?’ There is a lot of cohesive working across departments—procurement, marketing, research & development and sustainability—so that sustainability is everybody’s baby. The respective teams need to understand why we are mainstreaming sustainability,” says Vats.

This means turning challenges into opportunities. External stakeholder expectations, interest from investors and rise of climate-conscious consumers are making companies walk the extra mile to green their operations. Tata Power has earmarked Rs 25,000 crore in capital expenditure in FY26, with the lion’s share of 60% directed towards renewable energy generation, including solar, wind and hybrid projects that are central to the company’s net-zero ambitions. “A sustainable future hinges on robust green financing to drive large-scale infrastructure and innovation. Tata Power has signed an MoU with the Asian Development Bank to explore $4.25 billion funding for clean energy projects, demonstrating how strategic financing can fast-track the energy transition. We are also actively partnering with government and academia to further R&D in efficient technologies that can fast-track the pace of the transition,” says Sinha. Apart from finance, other industry-specific challenges need to be addressed too. He says India’s energy transition can be accelerated by overcoming the challenges of timely execution of extensive projects, which remains a key hurdle, particularly given the complexities associated with land acquisition, regulatory clearances and local stakeholder engagement. “In the face of global tariffs and economic volatility, supply chain—especially in the sourcing of solar modules, batteries, and other critical components—operational risks and cost pressures are present as well,” he adds.

According to Mody, with growing pressure from investors, regulators and customers to achieve sustainability targets, companies are coming around to a uniform agenda of acting on decarbonisation and better resource utilisation. “More pressure for transparency has resulted in initiatives for streamlining primary data collection and validation before reporting. Robust systems and processes are being put in place to ensure that accurate, real and timely data is collated,” she says. It’s a long journey with a common goal to become carbon neutral while remaining profitable. 

@krishnagopalan, @richajourno