Birla Carbon Improves WASH Pledge Score

Birla Carbon signed the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) pledge in 2015 and said it improved its score from 1.77 then to 1.93 – out of 2.0 – in early 2018.

WASH is a pledge taken by organizations to provide access to safe drinking water to its employees and communities. The pledge is a World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) designed scoring system based on Self-Assessment Questionnaires with a maximum score of 2.0.

The pledge supports the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal – 6, ‘Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’.

“We, at Birla Carbon, are committed to providing the basic needs of safe water, sanitation and hygiene not only to all of our employees, but also to the communities in which they live,” said Joe Gaynor, chief legal, risk and sustainability officer. “Additionally, we are focused on water conservation so that we minimize the impact of our operations on the local environment and many of our plants have zero water discharge.  While we are proud of our achievements to date, we will continue to look for new opportunities to improve access to this most basic resource – water.” 

Some achievements under the WASH pledge: All plants found creative ways of contributing to the WASH initiative whether inside the plant or in the communities; Over 140 awareness campaigns and training sessions held for employees and communities; Actively measuring use of water at plants; Water recycling and reuse programs have been established in all Birla Carbon plants