Millions of people are at risk globally from water scarcity and pollution. The need to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems and to seize the potential of sustainable and efficient management of water, has never been greater. Ecofa understands that water is a key resource and over the years, it has adopted ‘4R’ (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse & Regenerate) principle for protecting and conserving water resources through excellent water management practices and it is integral part of its commitment towards water stewardship.

Climate change is leading to several natural calamities or weather events that may affect our operations, especially in countries of high water stress. Some of the impacts of climate change are water availability and droughts due to shifting rainfall patterns, forest fires leading to deforestation of existing forests and can reduce access to wood, floods due to uncontrolled rains, irregular monsoons, cyclones / storms as a result of changing wind patterns, crop failure etc. Use of coal will become expensive due to green cess or carbon tax. GHG reduction would be mandated by regulators. Availability and cost of renewable energy is improving gradually as new innovations make renewable energy more feasible. Climate related risks are tabulated in below table:

Consumers are driving force for global fashion industry. Awareness towards pollution by fashion industry, circularity and climate change and its ill effects is taking a major share of headspace of consumers, so a change in preferences of consumers is a risk. Ecofa strategy is to lead in sustainable practices and convert this risk to opportunity to participate in increased demand of sustainable product. Ecofa’s business strategy incorporates sustainability best practices applied in its operations and across the supply chain to meet customer expectations. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to understand and improve products.

There is a growing demand from consumers and stakeholders for increased visibility of sustainability credentials across the entire product supply chain. Any non-compliant partner in the supply chain is a major risk to reputation and business operations. Ecofa always updates fully transparent information so that consumers can trace the origin.

There are increasing demands from external stakeholders such as customers, non-profits, governments, investors to transparently report our environmental, social, and governance performance. governance, compliance and countless other issues. Social media influence also plays a vital role in quickly steering consumers towards such issues. Ecofa’s website is fully updated with important policies, performance, audit reports, certifications and many documents related to the sustainability aspect of the business.

Right to operate in a particular geography requires to follow the law of the land and all the regulatory compliances. Any gaps in compliance or awareness of the local laws can lead to risks to carrying out business in that geographies. We have a system of tracking compliances where the regulatory framework of region and countries where we operate are mapped out and tracked. A series of internal and external audits are performed to ensure we comply to all the current legal requirements and capture any new requirements that may come in future.

Health and Safety of employees, workers, contractors, surrounding communities of an organization is of highest importance as incidents like fire, injuries, leakages, work related stress may pose a risk to them and also a growing concern among stakeholders. At Ecofa, health & safety committee is in place and we have a well-defined roadmap to reach the goal of ‘Zero Harm’. Regular monitoring of vital health parameters for all employees and contractors working in the facilities is being done. 

Loss of reputation, can happen due to a several reasons and can put serious issues for the organization. A loss of reputation on any account would mean that customers, investors, regulators and other external stakeholders may quickly distance themselves from the company with soiled reputation. Ecofa consistently monitors its sustainability performance by putting in place strong systems for governance with multi-level checks and internal and 3rd party audits. We have established mechanisms for grievance management and ensure to address them suitably. We engage closely with all stakeholders to improve communication and trust.

Failure to adapt new technologies can pose risk if company loses its competitive edge and technological leadership in the market. Ecofa is among the leaders in the industry and its cutting edge technologies help it to maintain the leadership in market as well as sustainability best practices. Birla Cellulose is investing significantly in in R&D activities to develop new products and evaluate new technologies. It also collaborates with technology focused institutes and suppliers to continually upgrade its processes and products, so that it maintains its leadership in this area.

Communities are becoming more sensitive to environment and community impacts are being monitored and studied in more details than ever before. The expectations are for higher level of engagement and sharing of information and disclosures and also active feedback and grievance management, absence of which can create a negative sentiment that can have impact on site operations. Birla Cellulose has deep engagement with surrounding communities and community engagement is very closely embedded with its business values. Our community engagement programmes are focused on the upliftment of the community and partner in the overall development of the society.

In the backdrop of Covid-19, a new risk has emerged which has potential to disrupt not only businesses but the global economy. Covid-19 has impacted almost all the nations and led to a disruption in the business and life of the people. Covid-19 which started as an epidemic in China had soon turned to a pandemic. It was beyond imagination that Covid-19 could soon turn into a disaster for the economies and supply chains. Ecofa has developed Business continuity plans where such scenarios are developed with clear mitigation plan to protect our employees, customers, surrounding community and stakeholders from such threats as well as actions that would facilitate safe operations of business units in such prolonged situations.