CORPORATE

Highlighting our Sustainability Initiatives on World Environment Day

Sriganesh Vedagiri

Head of Admin

We think about sustainability every day; it’s always on our minds. What can we do to reduce waste? Can we try and generate our own power, recycle our water? At our offices in Chennai and Coimbatore, we’ve put tremendous effort and a number of things in place that we’re proud of and want to share. Happy World Environment Day!

Reducing Plastic and Paper

This year’s Environment Day theme is #BeatPlasticPollution. Across our offices, we have replaced single-use plastic bottles with glass bottles, and paper cups with steel mugs. This means we’ve eliminated over 85,000 paper cups per month! We’ve also replaced all plastic bin bags with biodegradable ones.

Recycling Printed Paper

In 2022, we recycled 1074 kgs of paper. That’s 1 tonne of paper – close to saving over 17 trees. While this is a significant number, our effort over the last year has been to significantly reduce paper usage across offices, switching to digital records wherever possible. With TNQTech’s hybrid working model, we are seeing that switch happen quite quickly.

E-Waste Bins

At our Chennai and Coimbatore offices, we are proactively addressing responsible e-waste management. We encourage our team members to bring in their e-waste from home to drop it off in designated bins. It all then goes to our certified recycling partners to either recycle or safely dispose of so it’s not going straight to the landfill.

Recycled Medals

Inspired by the Tokyo Olympics and guided by a commitment to waste reduction, we have made our Inspiring Science Award medals from recycled metals for the last 2 years! Recycling discarded e-waste, we have recovered sufficient pure silver to shape into medals that are given to authors of the best-published paper in the Life Sciences.

Solar Panels

Pop up to the rooftop canteen at our Chennai office, and you have a view of the 224 solar panels we installed in 2022 which help generate about 15% of our energy needs in the office, with a plan to ramp it by an additional 10% in the near future.

LED Lights

Replacing conventional tube lights with energy efficient LED lights across our offices means we’ve seen a 50% decrease in lighting energy consumption.

IoT Smart Energy Meters

Our newly installed advanced meters accurately track the usage of utilities on our campuses, allowing us to optimise energy consumption. When you can track it better, you can manage it better!

Water Conservation Practices

In a tropical country heavily dependent on rainwater, making every effort to conserve it is imperative. With measures such as aerators in all our taps and waterless flushing systems, we save an average of 7,000 litres every month.

Sewage Treatment Plant

We are very proud of this one; with our state-of-the-art on-campus sewage treatment plant, we recycle a remarkable 18,000 litres of water every day. This amounts to 50% of the daily water requirement for our Chennai office.

Rainwater Harvesting System

To make the most of the rains, we have implemented a rainwater harvesting system that allows us to reduce our dependence on additional purchased water. It has been designed to flow rainwater into 4 recharge wells, which then goes through a water treatment plant before being filled into the sump for use.

Managing Food Waste

Across the company of 3,000 folks, our canteens offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner to everyone working from the offices. We all make the collective effort to reduce food waste, encouraging each other to only take as much as we want, and finish what’s on our plate. Excess food waste is then sent to certified partners to turn it into compost for use in farms.

A Climate Change Summit

In April 2022, we partnered with HHMI Janelia to host a Climate Change Summit which brought together a distinguished panel of scientists for an insightful discussion on the science of climate change.

Green Star Badges

Everyone at TNQTech who contributes positively to a sustainable practice, comes up with an innovative idea, or brings in e-waste for recycling receives a ‘Green Star’ badge! We’ve also got our ISO certificate in place for Environmental Management Systems.

Miles to Go

While we’ve made measurable progress on our journey towards creating a sustainable workplace, it is a continuous one. One where we have a long way to go, a lot to learn, and much to achieve. Miles to go before we sleep!