In this insightful interview with TheCSRUniverse, Rakesh Bhardwaj, Head of Public Affairs at OPPO India, shares the company’s vision behind the ‘Generation Green’ campaign, a flagship initiative designed to instil environmental consciousness among the youth. Bhardwaj discusses how the campaign focuses on fostering leadership in sustainability by engaging students through skill development, green pledge initiatives, and sustainability awareness sessions. The campaign is aligned with Mission LiFE’s Phase 1 objectives, which encourage simple yet impactful environmental actions. He explaines the strategic use of metrics like internship impact, social media engagement, and community outreach to measure the campaign’s effectiveness. Additionally, Bhardwaj touches upon OPPO’s broader sustainability initiatives, including innovations in green product design, e-waste management, and their alignment with India’s Right to Repair framework. Through collaborations with institutions, government bodies, and NGOs, OPPO India is actively building a sustainable future by nurturing the next generation of environmental leaders.
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Q. How does OPPO India measure the effectiveness of the 'Generation Green' campaign in terms of skill development, job creation, and environmental impact? Are there specific metrics or KPIs in place to track progress?
A. The Generation Green Campaign is focused on fostering a green mindset among students and equipping them with the necessary skills to thrive in a sustainable economy. Through various activities such as green pledge initiatives, sustainability awareness sessions, and innovation challenges, we aim to inspire students across schools and colleges to become the leaders of tomorrow in environmental stewardship.
Our initiative aligns with Phase 1 of Mission LiFE, which focuses on encouraging simple yet impactful environmental actions in daily life. Mission LiFE (Lifestyle For Environment) mobilizes individuals to become 'Pro-Planet People.'
The Generation Green Campaign provides a platform for students to build skills on environmental awareness, enhance communication, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. They collaborate with students from various disciplines, promoting interdisciplinary learning.
To effectively measure the success of the Generation Green campaign, we have established a comprehensive suite of criteria to capture a range of impactful metrics. These include intern impact, pledge participation, social media engagement, educational outreach, inclusivity, community outreach, and youth leadership development. By monitoring these metrics and gathering qualitative data, our goal is to evaluate the campaign's reach, effectiveness, and its influence in empowering young people as leaders in sustainability and e-waste management.
The inclusion of "Youth as Change Makers" as a specific criterion underscores the campaign’s commitment to fostering leadership among young individuals in the realms of sustainability and e-waste management. This focus aligns directly with our core mission of educating and mobilizing young change-makers, who play a pivotal role in driving positive environmental change.
The metrics are designed to assess the campaign’s reach and effectiveness, particularly leveraging our strong network of 5,000 interns who are poised to impact over 10 lakh Indians.
Q. How does OPPO India integrate sustainability principles into its product development and manufacturing processes? Can you share specific examples of how the company is reducing its environmental footprint?
A. At OPPO, we believe in "Technology for Mankind, Kindness for the World" to guide the company from production and operation to product research and development, to build a green and low-carbon business operation model, and to create an environment-friendly value chain.
OPPO focuses on the "3R+1D" (reduce, reuse, recycle and degradable) concept of green packaging which involves reducing the amount of packaging, making it easier to recycle and ensuring it is more biodegradable. We have replaced petroleum-based ink used in package printing with soy ink supporting environmental sustainability. Compared to traditional petroleum-based ink, soy-based ink makes it easier to recycle paper. OPPO India promotes the reduction, recyclability, and degradability of packaging.
In OPPO's QE reliability lab, products are tested beyond industry standards for durability. These tests cover years of use, including drops in extreme heat, humidity, and cold, and check for water and wear resistance.
Additionally, OPPO has developed a system-level battery health optimisation solution. This Engine can keep a battery running at over 80% of its original capacity after as many as 1,600 charge cycles, or around four years of typical use, if charged once per day. This is twice the industry standard. The Engine prevents overcharging and overheating and preserves battery health. It helps ensure a prolonged battery lifespan and faster-charging speeds, ultimately enhancing the long-term product usage, and reducing e-waste.
SuperVOOC charging technology offers smartphone users the benefits of rapid charging. By eliminating the need for frequent charging, smartphones with battery longevity contribute to a more sustainable future. By reducing the use of charging accessories and adopting a uniform Type C charging port, energy conservation is enhanced, and electronic waste is minimized. The Reno10 Pro+ 5G has been certified as a safe charging system by TÜV Rheinland. This accreditation provides users with a sense of fulfilment knowing they are actively participating in environmental preservation.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the products reveals that the carbon emissions of mobile phones in use account for 16%~18%, mainly from the power consumption of mobile phones during charging.
At OPPO, we believe that repair plays a vital role in fostering a more sustainable future, hence, we recently introduced the OPPO Self-Help Assistant, a digital service that lets consumers resolve their smartphone issues without visiting a service centre. The initiative aligns with the Government of India’s “Right to Repair” framework and is designed to provide customers with comprehensive support and guidance. In addition to this, we also expanded our “Send-in Repair” service to 25,000 pin codes, with a 24-hour repair turnaround time (TAT).
OPPO aims for carbon neutrality by 2050, focusing on low-carbon manufacturing, reducing product footprints, investing in low-carbon options, leveraging digital technology for carbon management, and collaborating on industry standards. Our R&D teams are continually researching new materials and technologies to enhance the recyclability and environmental friendliness of our products. Moreover, we adhere to rigorous manufacturing standards and RoHS compliance to minimize waste generation during production.
Q. How does OPPO India ensure that the 'Generation Green' campaign is inclusive and reaches students from diverse backgrounds, including those from rural areas and underprivileged communities?
A. The program was announced through the AICTE national call for participation. Students from both technical and non-technical institutions are eligible to participate in the program. Through the AICTE portal, we have received applications from over 2600 institutions nationally. Further, the college students reach out to schools in their region to maximize the reach.
Q. Beyond environmental sustainability, how does OPPO India's CSR strategy contribute to the overall development of Indian youth? Can you discuss the impact of programs like CyberSangini and Atal Tinkering Labs?
A. Empowering of youth is our focus area. We have collaborated with CSC Academy to skill over 10K women as citizen cyber security ambassadors, aka Cyber Sangini. The program was implemented in the rural and semi-urban regions to facilitate the most vulnerable segment of the society with cyber security skills to support their local communities.
We collaborated with Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Aayog towards building PPP ATLs. The ATLs are setup in regions with limited resources, and the host ATL adopts 3 community schools in the region. Currently we have PPP ATLs in Thrissur, Kerala and Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The students are encouraged to build projects to address their local challenges using electronics. This provides a platform for students to tinker with electronics and build their interests in towards a career in electronics. The projects undertaken by students at both schools have been represented at state level science fests and at national level competitions organized by the Niti Aayog.
Q. OPPO India has partnered with AICTE for the 'Generation Green' campaign. What kind of collaborations is the company exploring with other stakeholders, such as government agencies, NGOs, and academia, to amplify its impact?
A. As a part of this campaign, we have a deeper engagement with over 15 universities and colleges, and this number continues to grow. Inspired by the campaign a couple of institutions have committed deeper engagement, like continuing the awareness and e-waste collection drive as a regular round the year activity, curriculum inclusion, faculty development sessions, conferences, research and workshops on processing of e-waste to list a few.
With an objective to maximize the reach of the awareness activities, we are also in discussions with various Government initiatives for an integration of the Generation Green campaign activities and shall announce the details of the same shortly.
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