The cement kilns use slag and fly ash using an AFR (Alternative Fuels & Resources) technology it adopted 15 years ago: they co-process waste to recover fractional material value from waste, exemplifying the concept of a circular economy. Across its plants, it reduced the extraction of fresh resources such as limestone, consumption of fossil fuel in 2019 by using about 12.5 million tonnes of waste-derived resources. This also cut the amount of waste being dumped in landfills, leading to a lower CO₂ footprint.

Process optimisation and upgradation to water-efficient technologies, installation of effluent treatment plants, rain-water harvesting and other measures ensure a reduction in the consumption of freshwater. The 84-year-old company adopts sustainable mining practices and plants more than 100,000 trees of different native species across its locations every year.

It also works with the local communities around its 17 cement manufacturing sites and 90 concrete plants to empower the people and help their holistic development, particularly in the areas of skills building, quality education, water and sanitation. This benefits over half a million people across 215 villages.

At Madukkarai near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, for example, it runs a programme in collaboration with a local NGO to collect segregated garbage from door to door and eventually convey the organic waste to a bio-composting pit, where it is converted into organic manure. This is then sold to local farmers at a subsidised rate.

The result: an effective garbage management system and green development, allowing the town to recycle almost all the waste it generates.