Henkel’s commitment to leadership in sustainability is deeply embedded in our values. Maintaining a balance between economic success, protection of the environment, and social responsibility has been fundamental to our corporate culture for decades. This approach applies to every business unit and function, and our around 53,000 employees all over the world have firmly embraced the principles of sustainable development in their daily work and think and act accordingly.
Strong commitment to sustainability at Henkel in India
Henkel in India, like the company globally, is committed to leadership in sustainability. We have activated the global sustainability strategy, in all our activities along the entire value chain, from production to customer partnerships to community welfare and employee development.
Our sustainability strategy: achieving more with less
To maintain this lead in the future, we have developed a long-term sustainability strategy and set a straightforward yet ambitious goal for the year 2030. By then, all Henkel products and processes should be three times more efficient than they are today.
This aim addresses one of the central challenges we will face in the future: decoupling growth from resource consumption. Instead, we want to create more value – for our customers and consumers, for the communities we operate in, and for our company – while reducing our environmental footprint at the same time. Achieving more with less – this is the idea at the heart of our sustainability strategy which guides all of our business processes and activities.
Protecting the environment
Yearly targets are set and, more importantly, there is a year-on-year reduction target for water, waste and energy. Separate capital investments are earmarked for projects, in order to achieve the targets. During 2017, we reduced energy by 2.69%, water by 11.41% and waste by 10.53%, in comparison to the respective reductions in 2016. The average reduction for water, waste and energy was 8.21% during the year under consideration.
Key achievements /projects implemented across our manufacturing plants:
- Chennai Plant become the first site in India to recycle its entire Hazardous Waste. The site tied up with Gujarat Enviro Industries Pvt. Ltd. engaged in co-processing of waste to convert it into fuel for Kilns in Cement Industries.
- Parwanoo Plant also started disposing waste to a disposing agency engaged in co-processing.
- All our sites in India achieved the status of Zero Waste to Land Fill Sites.
- Turbhe Plant eliminated use of Ethyl Acetate as cleaning agent by using Nitrogen inertization.
- Gurgaon Plant improved its Power Factor from 0.97 to 0.99 for energy saving.
- Chennai Plant made process changes such as changing from single bead to double bead in extrusion and doubling productivity with marginal energy increase to gain overall specific energy reduction.
- Sitarganj Site eliminated generating drinking water through RO by purchasing it from market; thereby, reducing overall water generation. The site also started drying sludge to reduce overall specific waste generation.
Go Safe with Henkel Campaign
In an effort to address the topical issue of safety standards on the road, Henkel India has been running a road safety initiative that has far reaching effects in curbing fatalities and accidents in the country. The Go Safe with Henkel Campaign on Road Safety aims to create a behavioral shift amongst transporters and heavy vehicle operators by bringing about a change in the attitude towards compliance to safety regulations in India.
With this initiative towards Road Safety, Henkel has embarked on a journey in partnership with every stakeholder to achieve awareness that has far reaching implications and can make a difference to drivers who lose their lives every day due to lack of training as well as pedestrians who are innocent victims of negligent driving and non-compliance to regulations.
Sustainable innovations @ Henkel India
At Henkel, sustainability is anchored in its innovations. Here below we showcase a few milestones indigenously developed either at the Pune Innovation Center or the Product Development Center, Thane.
Loctite PC 7000 is sustainable and safer for the user and the environment. This high temperature abrasion resistant coating, used for protecting components against abrasion up to 1100°C, primarily finds application in coal power plants and mining. Loctite PC 7000 not only extends the life coal tip burner by up to 2 times but is also cost effective.
Water based chloroprene rubber adhesive for the sports and fashion industry was developed to replace solvent based products with an aim to offer health and safety benefits to our customers.
Another example is the foamable water based adhesive for litho lamination, which improves mileage, accelerates drying and minimizes warping.
Aquence CD 381 (IN) is a water based interior lamination adhesive for bonding foam type substrates. Foams are used in seating areas, hand rests, headliner areas and felt bonding in the interior of an automobile. It also finds application in wood bonding, wood to carpet bonding and foam to felt bonding. Aquence CD 381 (IN) provides quick bonding at room temperature (3 to 5 Seconds), excellent green strength and good heat resistance.
External Assessments
Henkel India’s Jejuri production site won the National Safety Council’s Suraksha Puraskar (Bronze Trophy & Certificate) under the MSME sector category.
Frost & Sullivan’s Sustainability ‘Leaders Award‘ under Large Business - Corporate Category was presented to Shilip Kumar, President Henkel India and other team members from the company.
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