A decade of walking the talk

With an impressive decade-long record of sustainability innovation and action, Birla Carbon is blazing a trail to a net zero future for itself and its industry

In the eight years since the Paris Agreement came into being, the world has united to stave off a climate catastrophe. Policies and frameworks have been put in place to decarbonise economies, protect natural resources, and promote earth-friendly production and consumption, so that global warming can be limited to well under 1.5°C by 2030

This looming 2030 deadline was also the centrepiece of the UN's 2022 COP-27 summit. Dubbed the 'implementation' COP, the summit saw countries reinforce their commitments to the Paris Agreement's goals and stress the need for action, rather than promises. It also underlined the critical role of non-state actors, especially corporates, to facilitate a giant leap on climate action.

A business that's been a trailblazer in this regard is Birla Carbon, an Aditya Birla Group company and a leading global supplier of carbon black. The company is among the earliest examples of environmental stewardship in its industry, and has rigorously documented its sustainability journey for over ten years – even before doing so became the industry norm.

Time and again, this enduring leadership in sustainability and circularity has been recognised. Birla Carbon is among the top 1% of businesses rated by EcoVadis, having received the latter's coveted 'Platinum' rating for sustainability in 2022 after five consecutive years of bagging Gold.

A decade of environmental sustainability action

With a 160-year record of extraordinary innovation, Birla Carbon is a path-breaker when it comes to sustainability and circular economy-focused practices. Although it has leaned into sustainability for well over a decade, it has formally documented its journey since 2013.

Over the last decade, Birla Carbon has rapidly executed its Sustainable Operational Excellence (SOE) strategy. This includes investing millions of dollars in creating and upgrading its processes and practices to improve its energy and carbon footprint. The company also began to heavily invest in researching and developing more sustainable products. In 2016, Birla Carbon first began mapping its contributions to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.

A watershed moment came in 2021. That year, Birla Carbon publicly committed to net zero carbon emissions; a self-determined goal it plans to achieve by 2050. This historic announcement made Birla Carbon the first player in its industry to roll out a net-zero roadmap.

Birla Carbon's sustainability journey has had many significant milestones. Two particularly fascinating milestones are related to its green finance framework for projects and its development of its circular product Continua^TM, a Sustainable Carbonaceous Material (SCM) that represents a major innovation for the carbon black industry.

Adopting a green finance framework

The term 'green finance' refers to the use of loans, debt mechanisms and investments to fund environmentally-friendly projects. Green finance instruments have seen a massive jump in the popularity over the last decade. In 2022, Birla Carbon too announced the adoption of a Green Finance Framework to enable it to decarbonise in mission mode.

The Green Finance Framework outlines the criteria and guidelines for Birla Carbon to enter; identify assets for; manage the proceeds of; and report on green finance transactions. The first such transaction under this framework was a $50 million loan raised by Birla Carbon to help fund its state-of-the-art air-emissions control technology at its US plant in Louisiana. In 2021, Birla Carbon announced its first Sustainability Linked Loan.

By enabling Birla Carbon to finance green projects around the world, the innovative Framework is yet another assertion of the company's commitment to sustainable growth.

Continua^TM and circular product innovation

The launch of Birla Carbon's Continua^TM SCM in 2021 marked an inflection point for the company. The process to make Continua^TM is less-carbon intensive than that of traditional furnace carbon blacks. Made from end-of-life tyres, Continua^TM SCM has a net negative carbon footprint. In fact, every tonne of Continua^TM SCM removes 0.73 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere. This makes it possible for Birla Carbon's customers across the auto, plastics, and paints and inks industries to achieve unprecedented circularity in their value chains.

In the near future, Birla Carbon plans to bring to the market 73,000 tonnes of ContinuaTM SCM. This will eliminate an estimated 228,000 tonnes of direct and indirect CO2 emissions annually, when compared to the conventional carbon black process. The full-scale rollout of ContinuaTM SCM will also be an important pillar of the company's net zero carbon emissions commitment.

Milestones like these, and others, underscore why Birla Carbon – a decade into its journey – is among the biggest champions of environmental sustainability in its industry. By seeing sustainability as both a responsibility and an opportunity for corporations, Birla Carbon is doing its bit to ensure a more liveable planet for every stakeholder.