OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
CIA 3-B
SUSTAINABILITY AT RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LTD.
By
AKANKSHA RANJAN
SEC-M 2028039
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Prof. Siva Kumar Pujari
MBA PROGRAMME
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY), BANGALORE
DECEMBER 2020
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is something that we come across in our everyday life. In the modern era, we
are consuming all the natural resources blindly without caring about the future. Considering
the urban life as compared to the rural lives, we consume more power by keeping our street
lights on, by using household power, heating, or basically powering our appliances. But
sustainable development is not only needed in the urban areas. It is estimated that we use
about 40% additional resources every year than we can put back and that is something that
needs to change. Sustainability or sustainable development balances the fine line between our
needs and wants get everything we desire to moving to be better technologically and
economically as well as the need to protect the environments not only for us, but for future
generation as well. We must keep in mind that sustainability is not only about environment, it
is also about society and making lives easier and healthier for people.
The natural resources available in the present scenario are limited and are incredibly
essential. Being socially responsible, it is the duty of an individual as well as an enterprise to
maintain a balance in consumption and avoid the exploitation of the natural resources to
make sure that the resources exists in a long run and not exhaust with time.
INTRODUCTION
Natural resources are a gift to humankind, but the scarce availability of these resources has
still not been able to stop the humans to exploit it. Natural resources like water, oil, coal,
natural gas, metals, and many more, have been supporting life on the earth forever. They
have accelerated the civilization on the planet and have made our lives easier. Since these
resources are not available anymore in abundance, it is very necessary to use them efficiently,
conserve them and more than anything not exploit them intentionally or unintentionally.
Resources like water, oil, gas, etc. are being overused by the humans. It is essential to save
these resources and use them efficiently so that the future generation does not remain
deprived of its availability.
There are three essential pillars that contributes to the sustainable development. These are:
1. Economic Development: It is very difficult to identify, what is it like being
economically sound and how economic conditions affects businesses. It helps in
providing employments, job extension, as well as providing incentives to the
businesses in order to support them. Economic development is all about providing
consumers with whatever they require without compromising the availability of the
scarce resources.
2. Environmental Protection: It is quite evident from the aforementioned statements,
that we need to protect the environment. Now the question might arise that how are
we supposed to protect our environment? It can be done by recycling, reusing and
reducing the consumption of the natural resources and power.
3. Social Development: It is necessary to spread awareness of the protection of the
health of people from pollution and harmful chemicals and toxins released by a lot of
factories. Nowadays, something called “sustainable housing” is a hot topic for many
people. Encouraging people to participate in sustainability and teaching them about
the importance of the sustainability on the environment as well as protection from the
problems related to the unavailability of natural resources along with their ill-effects.
Primary goals of Sustainability:
Sustainable development is aimed at making life for the people worth living while at the
same time providing them with the things that are required by them in a manner that the
scarce resources doesn’t get worn out even more. There are certain targets for sustainable
development which constitutes of: the reduction of hunger and poverty, gender equality,
proper hygiene, quality education, economic growth, tackling the effects of climate change
etc.
How does Sustainability work?
Sustainability encourages organizations to carefully use the scarce resources and set the
organization goals in such a way so that the environment doesn’t get affected. They take
society into account as well and profit generation is not their sole motto. Organizations have
started to set sustainability goals like: zero-wastage, or even reducing the emissions of toxic
chemicals in the environment, or plant a certain number of trees every time they cut one, or
by ensuring right disposal of waste.
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED AND SUSTAINABILITY
The core of Reliance Industries is sustainable development and making quality of life better
for everyone. The main strategy of RIL is not just profit generation, but doing business in a
way in order to benefit the society as well as boosting the economy and being ethical at the
same time. This requires proper planning and effective decision making which is done
flawlessly by this industry which eventually minimizes the risk and maximizes the return.
The operational framework of RIL has integrated six capitals: natural resources, human,
manufacture, intellect, finance and social & relationships. By giving importance to the
society as a whole, this industry creates value in the eye of the stakeholder. On the operations
side, the industry is working to maximize the use of clean energy and minimize carbon
footprint with the help of advanced technology (RIL Sustainability Report, 2017-18). Life
Cycle Analysts studies the pollutants, waste, and much more during the production process.
A complete impact assessment is done to assess the product's impact on human health,
environment, and natural resource depletion.
STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
Apart from being a global player by making logical and responsible investments, RIL also
adopts world’s best practices by cutting edge technology, efficient and safe operations and its
ethical practices. They continuously march on investing in sustainable technology in order to
ensure growth and development of society as well as the industry itself. They generate values
for their shareholders as well as the employees and the customers.
They generate consumer value by its innovative nature and application of proper and well-
structured decisions to make the consumer experience better and hence improving the overall
reputation of the organization, hence making it a brand with one of the largest recall values.
The brand promises made by the organization has always strengthened consumer’s trust in
the brand.
Society plays an important role in making this industry what it is today by providing it with
the license to operate. In return, RIL creates societal value by job creation as well as by its
products and services in addition to its respect and concern towards the environment and
society both directly and indirectly.
Reliance creates value for its employees by ensuring their growth in the industry as per the
growth of the organization. It provides the employees with continuous learning, career
opportunities, continuous progression and employee value proposition. It also creates value
for the shareholders by its active portfolio management in order to enhance the quality of
their portfolio and to be focused in a long term to provide good shareholder return.
CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY AT RELIANCE
With the help of certain fashion brands and designers, RIL has started reusing plastic bottles
to make “sustainable clothing items” which will be widely accessible as well as extremely
affordable to the customers. This trend has brought a new enthusiasm in today’s youngsters
as they are well aware and highly conscious about the protection of the environment and
finding out ways to reduce carbon footprints and benefit the nature.
In order to be a responsible corporate industry in India, Reliance Power formulates strategies
to preserve the natural resources and reduce the harmful impacts of its products and services
on the environment, throughout their lifecycle.
Reliance believes in investing in the best technology in order to reduce the impact of their
product on the environment, hence, promoting the usage of super-critical and ultra super-
critical technology. Out of the 4000 acres of land available for the company, they used
minimum possible area to build up their plant and utilized the rest for strengthening the green
belt by planting trees. They wanted to give it a feel that they built up a power plant in a forest
(“Reliance Power”, n.d.).
Reliance is continuously marching on the path for achieving excellence in the management of
the sustainability and adoption of sustainable practices. Reliance remained committed to the
Environmental Management System (EMS) in order to control and reduce environmental
impact.
For Reliance Industries, sustainability is not a fashionable word, it is the time they invested in
developing sustainable environment going out of their ways for the benefit of the society.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
It has been mentioned a number of times that RIL puts its major focus on safe disposal of its
e-waste, it is made easily possible by an exchange scheme operation. As per this scheme, the
customers are supposed to bring their old, used items to avail new items at discounted price.
This helps the company to collect used electronic gadgets so that they can ensure that these
electronic items are disposed safely in order to reduce the chances of emission of harmful
gasses by carelessly disposing these products.
RIL manages their Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in collaboration with Producer
Responsibility Organisation (PRO) (“RIL’s Sustainability Report”, n.d.).
Here, the EPR is executed through reverse logistic mechanism for the safe disposal of e-
waste. The redirection of these e-waste through proper channels controls pollution and
eliminates the possibilities of harmful safety hazards.
REFERENCES
https://ril.com/DownloadFiles/SustainiabilityReports/RILs%20Sustainability
%20Report%202017-18.pdf
https://www.fibre2fashion.com/sustainability-plus/reliance/green-initiative.asp
https://www.ril.com/DownloadFiles/SustainiabilityReports/RIL_SR2009_10.pdf
https://www.ril.com/sustainability/corporatesustainability.aspx#:~:text=Environment
%20Responsibility,-In%20FY%202016&text=We%20are%20recycling%20about
%202,also%20uses%2090%25%20recycled%20water.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/garments-/-
textiles/from-plastic-to-fashion-ril-finds-business-in-
sustainability/articleshow/70868575.cms?from=mdr
https://www.reliancepower.co.in/environmental-initiatives
https://www.thenorthernherald.com/newsdetail/7292/business/reliance-industries-
worlds-largest-polyester-fiber-maker-aims-to-make-sustainable-clothing-affordable
