Second Edition of its Sustainability Report By Indus Towers Unveiled

Building on its philosophy of ‘Putting India First’, Indus Towers, India’s largest telecom tower company, recently launched the second edition of its annual Sustainability Report for FY2014-15. In line with its vision of ‘transforming lives by enabling communication’, the report showcases Indus Towers’ commitment to protecting the environment, enhancing engagement with communities, while continuing to create value for all its stakeholders in a sustainable manner. Reinforcing its commitment to providing a robust and well-connected mobile telephony infrastructure, Indus Towers showcased its efforts towards creating an efficient, cleaner and greener network system in the country.

Bimal Dayal, CEO, Indus Towers said, “The second edition of this report demonstrates our commitment towards innovation and sustainability for the environment; and all stakeholders.”

Commenting on the occasion, Manoj Kumar Singh, Chief of Regulatory Affairs & Sustainability, Indus Towers added, “Indus Towers is religiously working towards strengthening the telecom backbone, enabling high-quality communication services across India. Our second Sustainability Report 2014-15, is a showcase of the sustainability practices that we follow and while creating value for our customers.”

With a focus on the correlation between strong economic performance, social responsibility and respect for the environment, this report is an indicator of Indus Towers’ on sustainability in every aspect of the organization. The report highlights Indus Towers’ bolstered focus in creating a prolific engagement with the environment and the community it operates in, reiterating its pledge towards sustainable development in the country.

Indus Towers currently operates over 1.19 lakh towers across the country and has been a standout leader in the telecom tower industry in India. The company has been very conscious of its role as a responsible corporate citizen and focuses on community development activities - particularly in the areas of customer-focused measures, stakeholder engagement, operational excellence, and environment-friendly initiatives. Through the report, Indus Towers has clearly identified a way forward for its sustainability initiative which will help the company achieve its objective of putting the community - and more importantly “India first”.

Building a Green Economy

Working on its core values of ExCITE (Excellence, Customer, Integrity, Teamwork, and Environment), Indus Towers continues to be responsible and sensitive towards the environment and the communities it operates in. While maintaining highest standards of health and safety, Indus Towers maintains over 50,000 ‘Green Sites’ in India. These Green Sites use innovative solutions like Free Cooling Units and fast charging battery banks like Li-on batteries to reduce energy consumption and to reduce the carbon footprint. Through this, the company has been driving its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint in the circle as well as across the country.

Furthermore, through its ‘Shut AC’ initiative Indus Towers has converted over 50,000 sites from indoor-to-outdoor (Non-AC) by shutting down ACs across the country, resulting in a significant reduction in carbon emission and pollution.

Local Community and Training Initiatives

As a part of its initiatives to grow and sustain the local economy, Indus Towers continuously aims to improve the skills of all its employees by way of various training programs such as technical trainings, in association with NTTF, for its nearly 2500 field force technicians as well as mandatory 2.5 man-days training programs for each employee every year.

Reiterating its focus on the community, Indus Towers, in association with SOS Children’s Villages of India (SOS India), supports a total of 28 families - 280 children across the country. Indus has also partnered with Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a not-for-profit social enterprise that empowers people at the edge of information, including marginalized and underserved communities. Indus also has partnership with TERI to sponsor clean energy and rural entrepreneurship through the Lighting a Billion Lives Program (LaBL) that reaches over 165,000 people across 660 villages in India. Indus is also working with NGO ‘Goonj’ to collect and distribute old clothes amongst the poor.