Tata Chemicals’ approach to resilience

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With the macroenvironment becoming more volatile, complex and uncertain, organisational resilience is becoming increasingly significant part of the business model. Tata Chemicals has established a structured approach to become more resilient. This approach is supported by robust business processes. This has enabled Tata Chemicals to deliver with excellence to all its stakeholders.

Sustainable

Green Chemistry to reinforce business model

Sustainability is at the core of resilience. In the long run, a resilient organisation will necessarily need to be sustainable especially in terms of use of natural resources and energy. Major economies and leading organisations have acknowledged Nature as one of the leading disruptive forces shaping the future of business organisations. Global warming, other changes in weather, natural calamities, water and other material scarcity have been the drivers of disruption. Renewable energy and electric mobility are leading examples of industrial disruptions.

At Tata Chemicals, we are aligning our businesses along the core principles of Green Chemistry to drive sustainability and organisational resilience.

  • We are committed to align our business model and growth along the sustainability dimensions of climate change, circular economy and biodiversity
  • We have committed to reduce our carbon footprint as per the Science Based Target initiatives (SBTi) guidelines by 30% by 2030. Key levers have been identified to reduce, reuse and recycle key natural resources and waste
  • We are investing in Green Chemistry as part of the sustainability commitment to ensure circularity of feedstock, low energy intensity and zero effluents. Our indigenously developed Fermentation Platform for synthesis of chemicals i.e. technology to produce Fructo- Oligosaccharides from sugar is one such example
  • We commissioned UK’s first at scale Carbon Capture and Utilisation facility (CCU) that not only reduces carbon intensity but provides a sustainable inhouse source of critical input

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Agile

Stay Ahead of Change and Be Future-Ready

Resilience requires organisations to have the capacity of agility, to make rapid changes and achieve flexibility of operations in response to the disruptive forces in the external environment and to be able to capture immediate opportunity.

COVID has been one such disruptive force that compelled organisations to respond swiftly. Many changed their business operations and processes and some even had to make paradigm shifts in business models. As the world recovers, geo-political tensions, energy and commodity costs are expected to add inflationary pressures to the global economy.

Tata Chemicals demonstrated its agility in quickly responding to the external exigencies over the past two years with a combination of operational and structural interventions.

  • As the global trade was disrupted during COVID period, we quickly responded with our global supply chain network to ensure availability of material to our key customers
  • We ensured financial health by maintaining positive cash flows. This was done through interventions such as calibrated capital spend, reduction in fixed and variable costs
  • We effectively used digital technology to swiftly shift to work from home. During the sudden COVID lockdown in 2020, we ensured business continuity with swift adoption of new work processes and connectivity for all employees and stakeholders for continuing business as usual
  • We strengthened our customer-focussed ecosystem by detecting, scanning and adapting to the fluctuating needs of the customers. Changed the way we engaged with the customers in terms of our services, pricing contracts and supply chain solutions
  • We modified the working structure to build flexible networks of teams by adopting connected ways of working. Adopted new HR policies facilitating employees to work efficiently from remote locations

Responsible

Drive shared value creation

Employees, communities, value chain partners and other stakeholders are integral to Organisational Resilience. Community is not just another stakeholder but is the very purpose of an organisation's existence. Business activities and operations have direct or indirect impact on natural resources, communities and ecosystems. It is essential that responsible organisations work towards the wellbeing, growth and progress of its stakeholders.

At Tata Chemicals, we have always been a stakeholder-driven organisation and have reinforced our commitment in these challenging times.

  • We empowered communities surrounding our manufacturing facilities and beyond. We cover the areas of Building Economic Capital (promoting and developing farm-based and non-farm-based livelihoods), Ensuring Environmental Integrity (covering natural resource management and biodiversity conservation), Enablers for Social, Economic & Environmental Development (promoting health & wellness, education and drinking water & sanitation) and Building Social Capital (which covers social inclusion, promoting social enterprises, capacity building and leveraging partnerships). Each of these objectives has been laid out to achieve specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • We ensured sustained engagements with customers and used digital tools and other measures to support them in the difficult times of pandemic with quality and supply reliability. We used digital tools to better collaborate and empower suppliers and business partners, thereby ensuring sustained business opportunities.

To read more on CSR, click here