ABB India's three-pillar strategy for building a sustainable business

For years, sustainability was largely associated with reporting frameworks, disclosures, and compliance mandates. But for ABB India, the local arm of the Swiss engineering giant, the conversation is increasingly shifting towards operational efficiency, circularity and long-term industrial resilience.

The company has been recognised as the Most Sustainable Company in Capital Goods in the category of Sectoral Excellence in Manufacturing in this year's BT India’s Most Sustainable Companies. Guided by a three-pillar framework focused on enabling a low-carbon society, preserving resources, and driving social progress, ABB India is embedding sustainability into everything from factory operations and customer solutions to supplier engagement and community development.

“Our sustainability journey is linked to our core purpose, creating an ecosystem that is more sustainable and resource-efficient, while helping industries transition through technology-led solutions,” says Rajesh Jha, Country Sustainability Manager, ABB India.

In 2020, the company laid out its 2030 sustainability targets, aligning them with broader global climate and ESG commitments. Since then, it has increasingly focused on integrating sustainability into core business operations. From energy-efficient motors and AI-led building management systems to water-positive factories and supplier ESG programmes, ABB is positioning sustainability as both operational imperative and business opportunity.

At the centre of this strategy is the focus on energy productivity, or generating higher economic output while consuming less energy. According to Jha, the firm is looking to double energy productivity from its 2019 baseline by 2030.

Alongside, ABB has also committed to an initiative to operate on 100% renewable electricity. The company says it has already achieved this target across its operations, as disclosed in its Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) filing.

However, it acknowledges that sustainability investments are increasingly being scrutinised through a commercial lens. Jha notes that return on investment remains a key factor in evaluating several initiatives, particularly renewable energy adoption, where payback often takes four–five years.

“A similar approach is being adopted for energy-efficiency measures. As part of this, ABB is upgrading motors across facilities to more energy-efficient ones to improve operational efficiency and lower energy consumption,” Jha adds.

The company’s sustainability push also extends to customer-facing technologies. ABB says its electrification and automation solutions are helping industries reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The company’s recently launched i6 motors, for instance, are designed to improve energy efficiency while reducing dependence on rare earth materials, thereby strengthening supply-chain resilience.

The second pillar of ABB’s strategy focuses on preserving resources through circularity, waste reduction and water stewardship. Nearly 70% of its sites are now certified zero waste to landfill, while around 15% of its products undergo lifecycle assessments to better understand their environmental impact and improve product circularity.

It recently secured certification under the Alliance for Water Stewardship framework, a global standard focused on sustainable water management involving factories, suppliers and communities.

The third pillar centres around social progress. This includes employee health and safety, supplier engagement, diversity initiatives and community development programmes. ABB says it has undertaken groundwater restoration initiatives across nearly 70 villages, alongside education and diversity-focused programs in communities around its operations.

Supplier engagement, particularly among MSMEs, is increasingly becoming a critical part of the company’s sustainability agenda as firms attempt to meet stricter emission reduction mandates. ABB says it has engaged suppliers accounting for nearly 51% of its procurement spend as part of its sustainability and ESG initiatives.

According to Jha, all of ABB India’s factories are now certified as platinum-rated Indian green buildings—the highest level under the certification framework of the Indian Green Building Council. The company also says it has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 86% from its baseline levels and is targeting a 100% reduction by 2030.

As sustainability conversations evolve from compliance-driven mandates to long-term industrial transformation, companies like ABB are increasingly positioning sustainability as a core business and operational strategy tied to efficiency, resilience and future competitiveness.  

@PalakAgarwal64