This text has been printed in partnership with Merino Industries.
Sustainability isn’t an finish aim, it’s a mindset. This philosophy is championed by Merino Industries Restricted (MIL), one of many world’s largest producers of ornamental laminates, restroom cubicles, modular furnishings and surfacing options. Their dedication to eco-friendly vitality alternate options units a precedent for different industries on how operations could be performed with out harming the surroundings.
Based on Mr Prakash Lohia, CMD, Merino Industries, the transition from typical vitality sources like fossil fuels to inexperienced alternate options has not been with out challenges. Nonetheless, the important thing lies in implementing measurable adjustments at each stage of operation, he says.
That is the place the ‘Nirmal Sustainability Program’ steps in. The initiative is thoughtfully designed and catalyses Merino’s dedication to changing into a sustainable and accountable {industry}. The programme hinges on scaling enterprise development alongside societal prosperity and pro-environmental efforts.
With a laser concentrate on elevated utilisation of inexperienced vitality, water conservation, air air pollution discount, round financial system, waste recycling, large-scale plantation, and the implementation of natural manure in agro-farming, the corporate is making an attempt to realize the overarching aim of constantly decreasing its carbon footprint.
A dedication to eco-consciousness
Merino strives that wealth is generated with minimalistic hurt to the surroundings. To grasp how it’s reaching this, it’s essential to try its ‘Triple Backside Line Framework’ that encompasses three key dimensions — Environmental, Social, and Monetary impacts. Success follows when every parameter is scaled in parallel to the opposite. Excellence lies on the convergence of financial system and sustainability, they consider.
The ‘Nirmal Program’ ensures that each facet of the surroundings — Bhūmih (soil), Apah (water), Analah (fireplace), Vayu (air), and Aakasha (area) are impacted positively whilst Merino makes strides as an {industry}.
However this eco-friendly paradigm shift just isn’t one thing latest. Merino Industries has lengthy embraced eco-consciousness. Their five-decade-old dedication views planet-friendly practices as an “inseparable a part of financial exercise”. And, the success of those methods is clear. Merino has managed to fulfill 75 p.c of its vitality wants by way of renewable/ non-fossil gas sources.
Mr Lohia highlights a three-pronged strategy that paved the way in which to this achievement.
A trio of sustainable options
The important thing to driving holistic development in vitality effectivity whereas transitioning to inexperienced fuels is to first establish the vitality sources after which choose alternate options from regionally obtainable, year-round choices, Mr Lohia explains. “For any manufacturing or processing unit, vitality is vital. Most of our processing operations had been historically depending on fossil fuels, coal, or imported gases.”
Nonetheless, as Merino Industries steadily shifted to extra eco-friendly choices, it was clear that reliance on fossil fuels could possibly be introduced down. This was step one of their three-pronged strategy.
Cut back dependency on fossil fuels
Combustion is a core industrial course of, and Merino makes use of managed optimised combustion of any stable fuels — together with biomass to supply vitality and fly ash, which is then used to make bricks. Incomplete combustion, which produces quite a few pollution, is prevented.
“We use environment friendly latest-technology boilers and furnaces for managed combustion,” Mr Lohia explains. Biogenic fuels, reminiscent of sawdust, rice husk, and biogas, represent nearly all of their biomass. Utilizing these biofuels has a ton of benefits. Other than the truth that their full combustion doesn’t produce a lot carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides, the biofuels additionally show to be sustainable.
Mr Lohia explains that this owes to the truth that they’re sourced from proximal places. “This eliminates long-distance transportation and thus reduces the carbon footprint. It additionally saves on treasured international change — coal and processed pure gases nonetheless need to be imported — and thus offers greater financial advantages to the suppliers who’re from the agro section,” he provides.
A portion of this waste can be directed to waste-to-energy crops together with firewood and biomasses, the place superior combustion applied sciences convert waste into thermal vitality. Other than these, the chimneys at Merino’s factories emit emissions devoid of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides (chargeable for air air pollution and earth warming); guaranteeing that the ambient air high quality is effectively protected.
Whereas Merino Industries has been an early adopter of photo voltaic vitality, it has additionally been exploring renewable vitality choices from wind crops. The influence is notable. Within the fiscal 12 months 2023-24, solely 18.2 p.c of their vitality wants had been met with fossil fuels, 7.2 p.c from State Electrical energy Boards (SEB) grids, and large 74.6 p.c from renewable sources. By 2027, they purpose to exceed 90 p.c from non-fossil gas sources.
The corporate touched a milestone within the 2022-23 interval, guaranteeing that one hundred pc of the warmth vitality required (12.64 Lakh GJ) on the Rohad and Hapur factories was produced in-house utilizing boilers and secondary furnaces, primarily from non-fossil fuels particularly rice husk and noticed mud.
Improve vitality effectivity
Merino Industries is dedicated to reaching vitality effectivity in each operation. Much less vitality consumption ought to yield extra output. “We always improve electrical instruments, home equipment, and equipment, and usher in improved expertise for operations, utilities, and lighting programs,” Mr Lohia notes.
Conservation
Vitality consciousness extends past factories to each workplace at Merino Industries. Procuring and utilizing energy-saving tools, machines, and instruments is vital to conserving vitality from the beginning. Pure gentle is promoted, and computerized lighting programs scale back handbook intervention. “Conservation of vitality is achieved by way of an eco-conscious work tradition,” Mr Lohia explains, including that automation and workforce schooling encourage accountable vitality utilization.
A gold commonplace for industry-level sustainability
Reaching one hundred pc vitality from renewable sources within the processing {industry} for course of warmth at Hapur and Rohad has been a difficult activity on the {industry} degree. Nonetheless, Merino Industries’ achievements are vital. Mr Lohia believes this might serve for example for industrial institutions worldwide. “It’s a large activity to alter processes and mindsets. We’ve succeeded by doing all the things indigenously,” he says.
He factors out that strategic funding choices, reminiscent of investing in automation instruments and tools, have long-term payoffs. A tradition of vitality consciousness, from high administration to the underside, is essential. Easy actions, like switching off pointless lights or air conditioners, are inspired.
Commercially, wealth should be created for stakeholders. At Merino Industries, that is carried out sustainably, maximising the round financial system idea, and aligning with the UN Sustainable Growth Targets (SDGs). These rules are championed throughout their 22 institutions, 5 factories, and 18 places of work.
A hit story is scripted in how over 75,000 metric tons of GHG (greenhouse fuel) or tCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equal) emissions in air had been saved within the reporting 12 months by utilising agro-residues (biogenic fuels) as an alternative of coal within the boilers of the manufacturing amenities on the Rohad and Hapur plant of Merino.
Merino prides itself on collaborating with academia and integrating professional opinions of their industrial processes, as they try and align with sustainable objectives. Considered one of these collaborations was with Visvesvaraya Nationwide Institute of Expertise (VNIT, Nagpur). The latter assisted Merino’s in-house experience in assessing carbon footprint and accreditation as per ISO requirements and likewise pitched in with insights on growing round financial system principle-based initiatives of the Nirmal Program.
A inexperienced vitality proposition
An article within the Financial Occasions (February 2024) highlighted a report by India Ranking and Analysis, noting that thermal energy represents 75 p.c of India’s whole energy era. “Whereas many industries use thermal energy from fossil fuels, we’re among the many first to experiment with biomass,” Mr Lohia notes. This helps Merino Industries promote inexperienced gas and assist native communities in Hapur (Uttar Pradesh) and Rohad (Haryana) by guaranteeing constant demand for agri-residues.
Other than reaching vitality effectivity utilizing inexperienced fuels, Lohia says, “We even have generators at Hapur that extract vitality from the biomass furnaces. Their effectivity is elevated following some retrofitting processes. The same automation is completed for heating and cooling programs.”
He provides that the motors at Merino Industries have been upgraded to IE3 expertise, which guarantees premium effectivity whereas being environmentally pleasant. In the meantime, by way of the ten.59 MW solar energy system, roughly 12.77 million kWh items {of electrical} vitality are generated — which accounts for round 24 p.c of the overall electrical vitality requirement.
Key options of Merino’s vitality supply embody:
a) Procurement from the local people.
b) Manufacturing of round a million gigajoules of vitality (FY2023-24), assembly the warmth necessities of its processing items in Hapur (Uttar Pradesh) and Rohad (Haryana) by way of full combustion expertise.
c) Discount of GHG emissions by roughly 95,000 MT of CO2 equal, which might have in any other case been generated from burning fossil fuels like coal.
d) Pioneering the usage of biomass since 2005 and turbine expertise in Hapur which extracts vitality in electrical kind.
This roadmap has guided Merino Industries in reaching vitality effectivity. Moreover, the corporate has expanded its focus to water, air, and soil, primarily counting on renewable sources and vitality sources. Merino Industries is pursuing a ‘Water Neutrality Objective’ by way of environment friendly water administration practices, striving to cut back emissions, and implementing measures to enhance air high quality whereas minimising greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions.
Mr Lohia notes that whereas any {industry} would try and maximise manufacturing in further land obtainable, at Merino, inexperienced practices have at all times been the precedence. This has led to the event of Miyawaki forests (multi-layered forests consisting of native plant species) on the campus at Hapur.
Recognising that bushes are integral for clear air, habitat preservation, livelihoods, watershed safety, soil erosion prevention, and local weather change mitigation, Merino has set a goal to extend inexperienced cowl each inside and out of doors manufacturing unit premises, resulting in the planting of over 20,000 tree saplings all through India throughout 2023-2024.
The aim is to evolve as an {industry} however to take action sustainably. By mixing experience and sources, the corporate believes optimistic transformations could be pushed in society. “Our robust perception is that by prioritising folks, the planet, and sustainable product choices, enterprises can thrive,” Mr Lohia concludes.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
