Not only do we produce 95.6% of our energy requirements internally, 24.1% of the total energy is generated from renewable resources – as defined by IPCC.

In 2007-08, renewable component of energy improved from 3437 TJ to 3571 TJ (an improvement of 3.9% over the previous year). Better utilisation of black liquor at the Bhadrachalam unit contributed significantly to this improvement.

Renewable energy resources in ITC comprise

We continued to enlarge our farm and social forestry programmes and added nearly 15,000 hectares of plantations in 2007-08. The total farm and social forestry plantations, as at March 31, 2008, covered an area of over 80,000 hectares.

Apart from providing sustainable source of raw materials for our Paperboards business and providing 35 million man days of employment to marginal sections of society, these plantations sequestered 2638 kilotonnes of CO₂, thereby consolidating our 'Carbon Positive' status for the third successive year.

Higher CO₂ emission in 2007-08 were due to significant growth in almost all the businesses, large scale project activities and inclusion of 4 subsidiary companies’ performance in this Report.

Seven of these projects have already been registered with the CDM Executive Board of UNFCCC. Many additional CDM projects, including one on ‘social forestry plantations’ are in various stages of registration.