Talanoa Stories: Mahindra on driving positive change
Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mahindra GroupAnirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer at Mahindra Group, shared his experience of planting more than 10 million trees while helping communities, as part of the Talanoa Dialogue at the UN Climate Conference in Bonn this May.
“Bula! You may have heard that 13 Mahindra Group companies have committed to the Science Based Target initiative. This is our latest commitment in our desire to drive positive change. It has been possible because, as we’ve gone along, we’ve discovered that new possibilities have kept opening up and it was possible to do more than was originally envisaged.”
“Take the story of afforestation. The Mahindra Group had a desire to enhance the tree cover of the country. So it set itself a target of planting a million trees each year. Along the way we discovered that plantation was only one part of a larger story – a story of livelihood and development with carbon sequestration for good measure.”
“This discovery took us to a remote part of India populated by indigenous tribes in vast tracts of open land. The tribals grew coffee in a rustic sort of way and earned precious little from it. The Mahindra project helped them grow better coffee and earn more money. It also helped them grow fruit trees on land that was earlier barren and diversify their income.”
“By and by it has become the largest organic coffee growing effort in the world with the product being sold in France, Ireland and Japan. More than 10 million new trees have been planted and 10 million old trees preserved. Annual household income has more than doubled and more than 100,000 people have experienced transformational positive change. The project has delivered on all the three dimensions of people, planet and profit.”
“Then there is Suryashakti, a story of empowering women as renewable energy spread through the country. Mahindra had a desire to enable the renewable energy journey of the country and set up a business to do so. We soon discovered that the work allowed us the opportunity to do much more than solar power.”
“Setting up solar PV cells for utility scale projects requires a lot of land. The land is often acquired in remote areas where women are underprivileged and not a part of the regular workforce. In the course of project implementation, Mahindra has trained local women to become solar technicians. This has transformed many households and the women have become change agents in the area. The money they’ve earned has given them independence and self-respect. Practices like these have helped the business install more than 1,700 MW of solar power already.”
“And lastly there is the story of energy efficiency. What started as a desire to do good for the planet has become one of the largest sustainability projects in the business. We discovered that new technologies and innovative practices could enable transformational change in energy efficiency. After some early successes the business joined the EP100 program and expressed its ambition to double energy productivity by 2030, on a base of 2009.”
“Progress has been remarkable. Key partnerships have helped us access key technologies and more than $5 million is being invested each year. Returns are in excess of 24%. The power saved by one Mahindra company can light up more than 15,000 homes. And vehicles are now produced with an 87% increase in energy productivity compared to nine years ago.”
“The desire to give back more than we take is helping build ambition. Like the ambition to transform mobility. But we can’t do all the stories in one session! Thank you for the opportunity to share some stories on how to get there with you in this Talanoa Dialogue to enhance climate ambition.”