An Aditya Birla Group Commitment 41 Our companies response to water management Most of our businesses have targets on their water performance and goals to reduce (specific or absolute) their consumption. As such, activities both inside and outside plant boundaries to help minimise fresh water consumption have been initiated. These include reuse and recycling programmes to manage ground water usage and dependency. The vast majority of our water usage is in our Pulp & Fibre business which had a total water consumption of 180 million kL. The business is working on various initiatives to reduce their fresh water use, prevent waste water generation and maximise reuse and recycle. The business approach has moved from looking at waste water treatment from ‘end of pipe’ to ‘source segregation and treatment’. In April 2018, UltraTech was certified as a water positive company by the consultancy DNV GL. The assurance audit process included all UltraTech existing units including Birla White but excluded its international operations. Target setting to drive performance Our businesses understand the need to shape their performance through data capture and target setting. Each company is therefore responsible for setting their own water targets and tailoring their performance accordingly. Hindalco and Grasim Chemicals (India business) are both striving to achieve a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) target by 2020 through process modification, reuse maximisation and reverse osmosis units. In addition, Hindalco has a 40% reduction target in Specific Water consumption by 2025 (against a base year of 2011-12). Through efforts like minimising leakages and increasing the reuse of waste treated water in different processes, Hindalco has reduced its specific water consumption by 35% in 2017 and is on track to exceeding its target. Novelis has also implemented initiatives that have reduced the business’ overall water intensity by 22% against its baseline (FY 07-09). Birla Carbon has developed a water management process that not only looks to minimise the amount of water it draws from natural and municipal sources but also increase the amount of rain water it collects and process water it reuses. Such mitigation techniques are helping the business to reach its 2030 target of reducing its water withdrawal by 50% for its most at risk production sites. ABFRL has a target for FY 2018 to make 60% water recycling and reuse and 30% water from renewable source at own factories. The company is targeting to become water neutral across its own facilities by 2020. Integrating best practice tools in to our operations The Aditya Birla Group is an active member of the WBCSD India Water Tool Working Group that is now in its fifth year. The tool is designed with international standards in mind to help organisations map and measure water risks and to enable them to develop action plans to transform their work practices, manage sites effectively and also provide consideration for future decision making with regards to business growth. The Water Tool, with data from 19,000 bore wells across India, is being used across all of our Indian locations and we have found that the data has helped our management teams to understand the importance of tracking future trends in local water availability. The latest version of the tool is being currently tested and is expected to be released in Q3 of FY 2018-19. 03 Responsible Stewardship WATER WITHDRAWL BY BUSINESS (KL) FY 17 FY 18 BIRLA CARBON 15,918,878 17,020,916 CHEMICALS 16,360,116 17,201,232 FERTILIZERS 6,634,665 6,847,519 HINDALCO 90,592,901 96,951,296 INSULATORS 460,115 478,804 MINING 894,605 818,820 NOVELIS 8,206,276 8,394,546 PULP & FIBRE 185,110,574 180,536,934 RETAIL 165,787 146,769 TEXTILE/AF/OS 8,679,624 8,027,034 ULTRATECH 11,146,383 14,690,000 TOTAL 344,169,924 351,113,869