Exhibiting its strong commitment towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions and putting sincere efforts towards its environmental goals, Kyndryl India has recently taken various engaging initiatives with its employees and partner NGOs.
In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, Ms Girija Mukund, Director, CSR and ESG, Kyndryl India speaks on how does Kyndryl integrate sustainability into its operations and work towards achieving its environmental goals. She also speaks on the initiatives that her organization has been taking towards its long-term sustainability goals and environment protection. She also underscores the importance of a common approach and tighter collaboration among corporations, government entities, implementing agencies, and non-profits towards making CSR policies more effective and conducive for various stakeholders in India.
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Q: Can you provide an overview of Kyndryl's commitment to sustainability and responsible business practices? How does Kyndryl integrate sustainability into its operations and work towards achieving its environmental goals?
A: From committing to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 to educating Kyndryls on sustainability, Kyndryl is dedicated to ensuring a sustainable and inclusive culture to drive positive environmental impact at scale. As a business we are leveraging our offerings to help customers reduce carbon emissions and improve the efficiency of their IT estates and business operations.
Our Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)programs are aligned with UN Sustainability Development Goals (UN SDGs), which demonstrates our commitment to solving global environmental issues.Kyndryl is committed to high standards of corporate social responsibility and sustainability throughout our operations and supply chain. Kyndryl is a member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) which has its own code of conduct reflecting social, environmental, and ethical industry standards.
We have numerous educational programs in place for our employees, administered by our global Sustainability andCSR teams, such as our ‘Mission Net Zero’ training and ‘Carbon Literacy Training’ to foster a sustainable and inclusive culture that drives positive change at a societal level.
Q: As a new company, you are not obliged to spend on CSR for the first three years. But you are still engaging in such activities. What is the budget provisioning for your CSR activities in India?
A: India is a very important market for Kyndryl, with a significant portion of our global employees based here. So, India will always be a key focus market for Kyndryl. We are a company that aims to be at the heart of progress, and CSR is a key part of our business strategy, so we are not waiting to be legally mandated to start engaging the community and giving back.
We see a lot of potential for both climate action focused work in India, as well as inclusive economic focused CSR programs to have a meaningful impact in India, and so are pleased to have launched Cyber Rakshak, our signature CSR program in India.
Cyber Rakshak is a cybersecurity training program for women in rural and remote areas of India. It aims to equip over 100,000 women with essential technology skills and empower them as Cyber Security Ambassadors. To date we have nearly trained 10,000 women in India, and we are currently working on expanding our language capabilities to more local dialects. We are getting ahead of regulation and funding this program now.This is a meaningful and long term program in India and there is a need in in the community here and now, so our employees are keenly volunteering and supporting this program.
Q: Could you share insights on Kyndryl's recent 'Seastainability' initiative and the beach clean-up drive in Chennai?
A: In 2022, we announced our ‘Seastainability’ initiative under which we are driving awareness on the impact of global warming and pollution on the oceans. As part of this initiative, we organize workshopsin our offices around the world and beach cleanup initiatives. We held a beach cleanup activity in Chennaiwhere more than 100 Kyndrylemployees, including leaders and environmental enthusiasts, cleared almost 100kgs of waste from a one-kilometer stretch of Besant Nagar Beach.
The drive focused on collecting litter and segregating dry and biodegradable waste. Apart from this, we also organized a ‘plog and pot’ activity at Lalbagh, Bangalore, where over 90 employees participated in plogging the park and collecting trash, while spreading awareness among the people around. We had earlier organized a ‘ploggathon’ in Jamshedpur in November 2022.
We also support One Tree Planted, a non-profit that helps in planting trees, and together we have planted over 90,000 trees globally till date. All of these initiatives align with Kyndryl's CSR focus on “climate action” and our aspiration to generate a positive impact on a global scale. By investing in eco-friendly technologies and supporting communities impacted by climate change, we aim to mitigate and combat global warming.
Globally, this program is supported by not only our overall Sustainability goals, but also our CSR-led Carbon Literacy training program, which involves six hours of climate focused education, as well as a pledge for our employees to be certified as carbon aware.
Q: Who are your implementation partners and collaborators towards your CSR and sustainability initiatives?
A: Kyndryl has established strong partnerships and collaborations for its CSR and sustainability initiatives. A key partner is the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) through the Common Services Centres (CSC) with whom we launched the Cyber Rakshak Program initiative.
For the beach clean-up drive at Besant Nagar, Chennai, Kyndryl partnered with Thuvakkam, a non-profit organization committed to environmental conservation. Furthermore, the ploggathon event at Lalbagh, Bangalore, was organized in collaboration with Friends of Lakes, a volunteer organization dedicated to preserving lakes and creating a greener environment.
Q: What role do you believe emerging technologies, such as AI, IoT, and blockchain, play in protecting the environment and fostering sustainable practices across sectors? How is Kyndryl leveraging emerging technologies to address environmental challenges and promote sustainable working approaches?
A: Emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and blockchain could have a pivotal role in protecting the environment and promoting sustainable practices across sectors. Organizations and non-profit groups have been leveraging technology across industries to identify the challenges and build pragmatic solutions.
Most recently, Kyndryl partnered with REVA University, Bengaluru, to launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hackathon aimed at making rivers plastic-free. Through this collaboration, Kyndryl and REVA University are seeking innovative AI-based prototypes to detect and classify plastic in rivers using drone images. The goal is to develop actionable insights that stakeholders, including governments and local support groups, can utilize to take preventive measures and clean up rivers based on the density and movement of plastic.
Q: Have you created any targets or timelines towards achieving your sustainability goals like zero carbon, etc?
A: Yes, Kyndryl has established targets and timelines to achieve its sustainability goals. We are dedicated to driving environmental responsibility and achieving net zero emissions by 2040. This also includes 2030 near-term targets to achieve a 75% decrease in scope 1 and 2 emissions, a 50% reduction in overall emissions including scope 3, and 100% renewable energy use across our global operations. Kyndryl’s net zero goal aligns with the scientific recommendations of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to reach net zero global GHG emissions by 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. We have deliberately set our targets to align with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and in March 2023, we committed to validating our GHG emission reduction targets through the SBTi Net Zero Standard.
Q: Can you provide specific examples of how Kyndryl has utilized emerging technologies to drive positive environmental impact and reduce its carbon footprint?
A: In Kyndryl’s data centers, we leverage technologies and best industry practices to reduce our energy usage. This includes Vigilent, an air flow optimization system that remotely and automatically adjusts the fans to match the live cooling demand through artificial intelligence. This technology reduces data center energy demand and improves reliability.
We also utilize emerging technologies to support our customers' sustainable efforts. An example of this is Kyndryl’s IT Sustainability Assessment. A consulting-driven service that uses an advanced analytics tool to quantify the energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions data of an enterprise IT landscape across data centers, co-location sites, and public cloud instances running on AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure. This comprehensiveview helps customers track reductions in emissions against targets and benchmark current performance against peers in the industry.
Additionally, one of Kyndryl’s strategic focuses is to continue to grow our Cloud business which accounted for 33% of our revenues in our 2023 fiscal year. We work with several of our alliance partners- Microsoft Azure, Google, and AWS- to migrate our customers to the cloud, reducing energy usage by as much as 85% and reducing emissions through the Cloud’s use of up to 100% renewable energy.
Q: In what ways does Kyndryl collaborate with partners, clients, or communities to implement and scale sustainable solutions with the help of emerging technologies?
A: We work closely with our customers to understand their respective digital transformation and ESG goals and leverage emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud to deploy solutions that help them achieve these goals. These solutions include migrating Kyndryl’s customers to the cloud with key partners using renewable energy; digitizing the workplace supporting hybrid office strategy; and improving data center efficiencies and reducing energy consumption.
For example, Kyndryl worked with a distribution industry client in Japan to optimize data center CO2 emission reduction. We replaced aging air conditioning equipment with updated energy-efficient equipment and optimized the number of air conditioning units by improving the thermal environment and installing an IoT dynamic air conditioning system. As a result of these two measures, power consumption for air conditioning was reduced by approximately 66%.
Another example is the work Kyndryl did for four smart cities projects deployed in Portugal. Kyndryl was the technology component provider in these projects where the goal was to achieve greater quality and efficiency in urban management and support citizens, giving them access to relevant information for their interaction with the city and its services. Using Internet of Things (IoT) tools and by incorporating Big Data sensors and technologies, Kyndryl developed a centralized, intelligent, and automated platform for the management and control of critical services for cities, such as mobility, lighting, water, and waste.
Internally Kyndryl has launched our Green Guild, a customer-facing program to bring together individuals across Kyndryl to develop sustainable business practices and offerings. Kyndryl’s Green Guild works with Kyndryl Vital and Kyndryl Consult to co-create and innovate new sustainable offerings.
Q: As a multinational company, what are your observations towards the CSR policies in India? What are your suggestions towards making it more effective and conducive for various stakeholders like corporates, implementation agencies, etc in India?
A: Kyndryl recognizes the growing significance of CSR policies in India. CSR is increasingly seen as an integral part of business strategy and companies are actively integrating CSR into their core practices and values. This shift goes beyond mere compliance and focuses on adopting innovative methods to address social and environmental challenges in society.
There needs to be a common approach and tighter collaboration among corporations, government entities, implementing agencies, and non-profits to make CSR policies more effective and conducive for various stakeholders in India. The success of collaborative initiatives during the pandemic demonstrates the power of coming together in addressing pressing issues and supporting grassroot efforts. By working towards such shared goals, we can enhance the impact and scale of these initiatives across industries.
