Srinagar: Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), India’s premier communications solutions provider, announced the formation of Committee of Board of Directors to be known as ESG Committee which would focus on its Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) agenda.
Manish Kejriwal, Lead Independent Director on the Board will be the Chairman of the ESG Committee.
Other Board members on the Committee are D.K. Mittal, Independent Director; Nisaba Godrej, Independent Director; Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Non-Executive Director and Gopal Vittal, Managing Director & CEO (India and South Asia).
The ESG Committee will provide strategic guidance and oversight to the company’s progress on ESG targets, initiatives and best practices. This will also include initiatives to respond to challenges posed by climate change through sustainable business practices.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel said: “Businesses have the responsibility to sharpen their ESG agendas to contribute to the global efforts to combat climate change and ensure inclusive growth. Airtel has always set high standards of corporate governance, transparency and has proactively laid out a comprehensive ESG roadmap. This empowered committee ensures that ESG is a priority for the Board in order to create long-term value for all stakeholders through sustainable business practices.”
ESG Initiatives@Airtel
Airtel has already joined the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) ‘Business Ambition for 1.5°C’ campaign and adopted targets to significantly reduce its carbon footprint and emissions from its network operations. With this, Airtel has joined the league of leading global corporations who have committed to the 1.5°C pathway outlined by the SBTi – a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Airtel has also become the first Indian telecommunications company to join the United Nations (UN) Global Compact – the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world. By becoming a signatory to the UN Global Compact framework, Airtel is aligning its comprehensive Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) initiatives to the global body’s 10 principles spanning Environment, Human Rights, Anti-Corruption and Labour.