Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has pledged to make India Net Zero by 2070, and this decree has buoyed up the country’s corporate leadership in the carbon market.

Taking the pledge forward, two of India’s largest firms in their own domains have signed an agreement to make this dream a reality. India’s largest multinational company in flexible packaging materials and solutions, UFlex, signed an MOU and onboarded CREDUCE – India’s fastest growing Carbon Credits Consultancy, as its consulting partner to achieve end-to-end carbon neutrality. The scope would encompass an analysis on carbon footprint and neutrality, creating and formalizing carbon and plastic credit balances on an internationally accepted and recognized platform as a part of sustainable development goal. The partnership helps carve out a sustainability roadmap and more.

As a socially responsible corporation, UFlex has been leading the way in creating future-ready, innovation-led, and technology-driven sustainable solutions. In its quest toward a cleaner and greener environment, the company has announced an understanding with CREDUCE Technologies Limited.  With this commitment, UFlex stands to become the largest firm in this category, the company says, taking effective steps to meet its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. This would entail co-creating a time-bound strategy toward carbon neutrality, beginning with its Flexible Packaging division – followed by other divisions of the group.

“We were always committed to steer our group toward sustainable environmental practices, especially to achieve carbon neutrality in Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions. We aspire to cut about 175,000 tons of carbon emission, equivalent by the end of year 2024, across the group. Through our CSR initiatives, we also aspire to implement various community development and outreach programs to achieve the stiff ESG goals that we have set for ourselves,” asserts Jeevaraj Pillai, joint president, Flexible Packaging Business, UFlex.

“Socio-environmental sustainability has always been one of our core organizational values for quite some time now, and we have articulated and imbibed the same in all walks of our functioning,” states Manas Kumar Sarkar, general manager, HR and sustainability, Flexible Packaging Business of UFlex.

Besides this, UFlex, in consultation with CREDUCE, intends to leverage its sustainability initiatives and accrue carbon credits. UFlex has been championing this effort with its global sustainability initiative “Project Plastic Fix,” which includes methodologies such as MLP recycling (converting industrial and post-consumer plastic waste to granules), manufacturing of PCR grade films Asclepius (by upcycling discarded PET bottles) and biodegradable laminates that will convert uncollected packaging waste into fertilizer within a fixed period of time to reinstate the benefits of plastics and create a circular economy. UFlex offers a host of green products across its businesses, namely green inks, water-based adhesives, PCR films, MLP Recycling machines and more.

“It is a huge honor and excitement to see such industry giants taking big leaps towards sustainability and carbon neutrality. At CREDUCE, we see huge potential among organizations like UFlex to accrue carbon credits. We would be able to strategize a path toward complete zero carbon footprint. These accruals of carbon credits would be clubbed with community development initiatives like smokeless cook-stoves and clean drinking potable water. Firms like UFlex can lead the way for other players to follow,” says Shailendra Singh Rao, director, CREDUCE.