Taking Steps Towards Making Our Planet A Greener One

As part of responsible corporate citizenship, Tata Motors through its environmental programmes called Vasundahra promotes sustainable lifestyle.

The company aims to increase the green cover through sapling plantation, sensitizes communities on environmental through awareness building programmes and promotes sustainable lifestyle through encouraging communities to adopt alternates forms of energy. One of the projects is the introduction of smoke efficient cooking stoves used in the rural areas.

This year through our initiative, we sensitized 89,263 people about the environment and planted 1, 17,186 saplings:

According to the Forest Survey of India Report (2011), India ranks amongst the highest consumers of fuelwood in the world accounting for almost 40% of its energy need. A significant percentage (67%) of rural households rely on traditional cook stoves for cooking meals. These cook stoves use biomass as fuel of which wood takes a major share. This puts additional pressure on forests. Added to this, traditional cook stoves have limited efficiency that adds to incomplete combustion, production of smokes and soot which are harmful to human body. Many a families suffer from respiratory diseases.

These chulhas have various implications on both the environment and on health. Over the last 10 years, around 41% of what was considered as dense forest has steadily depleted. To add to that, cooking stoves have led to incomplete combustion, generation of waste and ineffable smoke emissions which not only spells disaster for the environment, but also the health of those living in and around these areas. As per estimates, roughly 1.3 million people – most of whom are women and children, die prematurely every year due to exposure to indoor air pollution from biomass.

In order to help the community and reverse the detrimental effects on our forests, our NGO partner named SNET has designed and manufactured a device that comprises of a mesh of hanging twisted tapes (seven twisted tapes having a width of 1 inch and twist of 180 degree). Every twisted tape is retrofitted in the combustion chamber of the chulha, thus cancelling out the need for wood or wood chips. Adoption of these smoke efficient chullahs has resulted in more efficient combustion that saves lessens pressure on wood demand and gives additional time for communities for productive work. In monetary terms, this adds to providing additional income of INR 13000/family/year.

This innovation by Tata Motors has helped recycle 70 tonnes of oxygen and sequestrate 13 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. It also has better combustibility which leads to lesser home pollution. Besides this, it saves valuable time and effort that can be used to attend school and generate income for the family.

We are proud to say that through our continuous efforts we have touched over 9000 families across 532 villages and save 439 tress every year.