Management Approach

Reliance has established a robust and effective governance structure to monitor its natural capital consumption, focusing on key material topics. At the Board level, the ESG Committee ensures effective oversight, driving progress towards achieving ESG goals. The Company’s Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) policy prioritises continuous improvement of environmental practices and minimisation of adverse impacts on the environment and community. The HSE policy is implemented by the Safety and Operational Risk (S&OR) function, which evaluates business strategies quarterly and performs independent environmental reviews at both the unit and site levels. S&OR is the custodian of the Operating Management System (OMS) that drives safe, sustainable, reliable and compliant operations. Further, continuous monitoring and auditing processes ensure compliance with environmental regulations.

Making Judicious Use of Nature’s Wealth

Managing Environmental Impacts

With its operations spanning various industries, Reliance employs a crossbusiness environmental management framework that focuses on managing energy use; reducing, recycling and reusing water and waste; minimising air pollution; preventing soil contamination and preserving biodiversity. Targeted technological interventions and strategies are employed to reduce energy and water consumption and minimise waste production, including the flaring and venting of gases. Reliance has made significant investments in retrofitting equipment and machinery to reduce environmental impact and energy use. Additionally, a Continuous Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) ensures compliance with local emissions standards for SOx, NOx and TPM. Moreover, employees and contractors are regularly trained on environmental laws, pollution prevention techniques and waste reduction strategies.

On World Environment Day, Reliance Foundation launched “Plant4Life,” a community-driven environmental initiative focusing on supporting natural resources, protecting livelihoods, building capacities of communities to engage in climate adaptation and environment conservation. This programme kicked off with a massive plantation campaign, involving 70,000 hours of employee volunteering and resulting in the planting of over 5,09,000 saplings of 40 indigenous species.

AIR EMISSIONS AT RELIANCE*

* The above data is for RIL Standalone and other O2C entities. Air emissions for all parameters are reported using third-party stack analysis reports, except for NOx and VOC parameters at the Jamnagar unit, wherein these are sourced from peers from the same sector.

Climate Change

In line with its ambition of reaching Net Carbon Zero by 2035, Reliance is placing a strong emphasis on transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable sources, maximising sustainable materials and chemicals as part of its portfolio, and adopting carbon fixation, capture, and utilisation technologies. The Company envisions becoming one of the world’s leading New Energy and New Materials Company over a period of 15 years through a strategic focus on clean energy transition, making CO₂ a recyclable resource and replacing transportation fuel. More details related to this are elaborated on Read more.

During FY 2023-24, significant progress was made on the construction of the Dhirubhai Ambani Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar and the first giga-factory is scheduled to begin production in the second half of CY24. Further, the Company launched its first commercial-scale Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) plant in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh and plans to expand to 25 CBG plants across India. The goal is to establish 100 CBG plants in the next five years, using 5.5 Million Tonnes of agro-residue and organic waste, thus mitigating nearly 2 Million Tonnes of carbon emissions, and producing 2.5 Million Tonnes of organic manure annually, significantly reducing LNG imports. The Company in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology Madras has initiated a technology development programme for CO₂ utilisation in construction materials.

The Company has also made advancements in two critical aspects for delivering cost-competitive green hydrogen and its derivatives: cost of renewable power generation, and installed cost of electrolyser for giga-scale deployment. Further, the Company has invested in strategic partnerships and acquisitions, the details of which can be found on Read more of this report.

The Company is prioritising the establishment of its battery Giga factory by 2026. Further, it is fast-tracking the commercialisation of its sodium‑ion battery technology, with plans to industrialise sodium-ion cell production at a megawatt level by 2025. The Company will also invest in enhancing the value chain, partnerships and future technologies, including upstream and downstream projects such as:

• Integrated PV manufacturing from quartz to PV modules, including building an ecosystem of ancillary units.
• Battery chemicals and components, cells and pack manufacturing and energy storage system.
• Building an electrolyser and hydrogen value chain.
• Power generation to ensure round-the-clock availability for the production of hydrogen.
• Power electronics systems required to support renewable energy, such as inverters, chargers and DC‑DC converters.
• Renewable energy for mobility.
• Compressed biogas for energy generation.

Responsible Energy Use across Business Units

Oil to Chemical (O2C) and Exploration and Production (E&P)
Reliance has actively integrated sustainability practices, harnessing 6.85 Million GJ of renewable energy. The Company has also implemented biomass co-firing at Hazira and Dahej manufacturing units. During FY 2023‑24, Dahej and Hazira manufacturing units together consumed 6.3 Million GJ of renewable energy which accounts for about 92% of Reliance’s total green energy consumption for the year. Additionally, the Hoshiarpur manufacturing unit has started using rice husk-based in-house steam generation, aligning with Reliance’s goal of reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. Moreover, Hazira and Barabanki manufacturing divisions have begun intermittently importing green power from the grid as part of ongoing sustainability efforts.

O2C AND E&P’S GHG EMISSIONS*

* The above data is for RIL Standalone and other O2C entities.
Note: In the Jamnagar unit, emission factors except CO₂ in Scope 1 are sourced from peers from the same sector. Other units refer to IPCC guidelines for emission factors. Further, grid emission factor for Scope 2 is sourced from the Ministry of Power.

Reliance Retail
Reliance Retail continues to focus on energy-saving initiatives, including LED fitting across all sites, installation of solar projects at company-owned supply chain sites, use of battery power equipment in material handling, thermal reflective coatings, use of natural lighting and high-volume, low-speed fans.

Reliance Jio
Under the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Jio has committed to achieve Net Zero target. By FY 2028-29, the Company aims to lower its absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 76% and Scope 3 emissions by 66.5%, using FY 2020-21 as the baseline. A pivotal part of this commitment is to increase the sourcing of renewable electricity from 1.2% in FY 2020-21 to 100% by FY 2029- 30 and maintain this level thereafter.

(Note: The financial year is considered as per the global calendar for science based target.)

Reliance Jio has installed over 174 MWp of solar power across more than 20,000 sites in India and is now exploring wind power and methanol fuel cells to further decrease its carbon footprint.

Jio emphasises on several initiatives to reduce its emissions, including leveraging digital connectivity for meetings, implementing smart sensors and robotics, integrating AI, adopting the waste management principles, and collaborating with customers and suppliers to develop sustainable products and services. In 2023, Jio received an ‘A’ score from CDP in climate change, which is in the Leadership band.

RELIANCE JIO’S GHG EMISSIONS AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Energy Efficiency of Operations

Reliance continues to adopt state-of- the-art technologies and process improvements to enhance energy efficiency across its businesses. These initiatives have resulted in substantial energy savings of 5.28 Million GJ in FY 2023-24.

FY 2023-24 Energy Consumption at Reliance
The energy management policy of Reliance drives the Company’s strategy to manage energy based on the five tenets of energy management as detailed on page 115 of this report. For FY 2023‑24, total energy consumption for O2C and E&P was 506.18 Million GJ, of which 6.85 Million GJ was from renewable sources. Of the total energy consumed, 500.24 Million GJ was from fuel consumption while 5.94 Million GJ was from electricity consumption. Total energy includes non-renewable energy from fuels like Fuel Oil, Fuel Gas, Syn Gas, Diesel, FCC Coke, Coal and Natural Gas etc., and renewable energy from biogas, biomass and solar energy. Further, major units like refinery and petrochemical complexes determine calorific values of fuel through sample testing in internal NABL-accredited labs. Other units use calorific values from IPCC guidelines. Reliance is striving to reduce its carbon footprint by sourcing biomass as an alternative fuel for its Dahej and Hazira sites. This year, RIL has consumed 8.6% and 4.0% of total energy consumption through green energy sources at these sites, respectively. The Company has implemented a range of initiatives to enhance energy efficiency and promote resource conservation. These measures include energy optimisation projects, waste heat recovery systems and equipment upgrades. This year, the volume of flared and vented hydrocarbons was 0.14 Million MT.

Jio’s total energy consumption for the reporting year was 23.40 Million GJ, of which 7,38,039 GJ came from renewable sources. In line with its SBTi commitment, Reliance Jio continues to focus initiatives to optimise energy usage across its facilities.

Ecosystem and Biodiversity

Reliance is committed to actively preserving biodiversity and aims to have a net positive effect on it. The Company performs impact assessments for applicable projects on biodiversity and regularly monitors ecosystem health. By continually engaging with stakeholders and collaborating with partners, the Company seeks innovative methods to advance its environmental objectives. Across India, the Company has planted over 2.44 crore saplings, contributing to the development of greenbelts spanning over 6,500 hectares. In FY 2023-24 alone, more than 5 lakh saplings were successfully planted. Further, through Reliance Foundation, the Company has taken several initiatives that exemplify its commitment to environmental stewardship like the plantation drive, adoption of the Miyawaki method for afforestation and mangrove restoration in Odisha and West Bengal.

Waste Management and Circular Economy

Reliance continues to place strong emphasis on waste management and circularity initiatives across its businesses such as PET recycling, chemical recycling (pyrolysis oil), polyolefin recycling, recycling the hazardous waste as alternative fuels and raw materials, zerowaste stores, among others. Further, the Company is making steady progress on its circularity focused projects that includes the innovative ReRoute™ product, sustainable packaging, development and consumer adoption of the R|ELAN™ fabric, commercialisation of the RCAT-HTL technology and development of circular polymers. The Company’s integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Jamnagar, India, has achieved the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus certification for producing circular polymers, branded as CircuRepol™ and CircuRelene™, by chemically recycling plastic waste-based pyrolysis oil. Further, the Company complies with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Guidelines and Plastic Waste Management Rules, ensuring responsible disposal and recycling practices are implemented throughout its operations.

WASTE GENERATION AT RELIANCE IN FY 2023-24

* The above data is for RIL Standalone and other O2C entities.