Powering ESG through innovation

A conglomerate with sustainability at its core, Aditya Birla Group sees innovation as a key enabler for future-readiness

Truly sustainable businesses don't innovate just to gain market share. They innovate because it enables them to do more with fewer resources; to give back more than they take from the planet; and to remain relevant to their stakeholders' lives for a long time.

This is how Aditya Birla Group – a global conglomerate that has grown 25x in 25 years with a footprint that spans fibre to fashion and metals to mining – views the significance of innovation.

Innovation is nested within a framework which has two pillars – customer centricity and driving businesses sustainably – and three 'growth enablers', viz. innovation, partnerships, and digital & analytics.

This framework enables Aditya Birla Group to create a decentralised model of innovation that addresses its business and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) imperatives. To understand this better, let's look at each of the three enablers in turn.

Innovation is the ticket

The Group is one of the few business houses to set up a group-wide R&D vertical. Aditya Birla Science & Technology Company Pvt. Ltd. (ABSTC) is the corporate R&D arm of the Group. Using high-tech computational and scientific infrastructure, ABSTC's scientists work with multiple Group business verticals on five aspects of sustainability. They are:

• Effcient resource utilisation
• Optimal energy management with digital tools
• Greener products and packaging to reduce environmental footprint
• Safer handling and value recovery from process waste
• Optimal process parameters and equipment design

One of ABSTC's major successes is an in-house technology that recovers water and zinc from effluents in the manufacture of viscose staple fibre. Another impressive business innovation is the commercial utilisation of copper slag (a by-product of copper extraction) to replace sand in UltraTech's concrete-making process.

ABSTC is also accelerating the Group's transition to a greener future in various ways. For instance, the team is currently developing sustainable packaging using recycled polymers. ABSTC also works closely with Group flagship firms like Hindalco and Grasim to reduce and manage those companies' energy consumption more efficiently.

Building capabilities through partnerships

The Aditya Birla Group Innovation Cell develops internal capabilities and a culture of learning within Group businesses. To do this, it has adopted an interactive form of innovation, which involves engaging governments, academia, start-ups, and other partners.

Here are some examples of interactive innovation at the Group.

• Aditya Birla BizLabs is a unique open innovation platform that invites innovative start-ups to solve real business challenges at commercial scale. The start-ups also gain market access by leveraging Aditya Birla Group's reach and platform.
• BizLabs NXT Digital is a virtual conclave series curated across multiple themes. In 2021, the last Group-level conclave saw eminent speakers from large technology firms, government institutions, academia, and technology unicorns discussing themes related to digital technologies and artificial intelligence.
  The event led to interactions between promising start-ups and Group businesses, and five start-ups were signed up for solution-oriented collaborations.
• Partnership with Startup India – The Group partners the government's Startup India entrepreneurship platform and hosts the 'Aditya Birla Group Innovation Challenge'.

Under this partnership, the Group invites start-ups across India to send in solutions for two business challenges: transforming logistics; and reducing, reusing and replacing plastic packaging. A third aspect of the programme is 'BizLabs: The Accelerator', under which the Group will support, incubate and accelerate the shortlisted innovations.

Betting on a digital future

The Group has made rapid strides towards digital transformation by modernising its core system and architecting businesses for change. It has done this by tapping into data, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital analytics.

Given the company's strong roots in manufacturing, a key step in its digitalisation journey is its vision of a 'Future Factory'. This vision aims to drive customer-centric, intelligent and agile manufacturing operations by connecting Man, Machine, and Material to achieve efficiency, consistency and reliability with the highest sustainable and safety standards.

The Future Factory project is a confluence of sustainability, technology and innovation, and is currently being piloted across some of the Group's textiles and metals plants.

In addition, the Group is using digital analytics to pursue new business models based on AI-driven insights and to make core business more data-driven with innovative solutions around price forecasting, sales forecasting, etc.

Big on Innovation, Big in your Life

Confronted by massive challenges ranging from resource shortages and financial upheavals to changing market and technology trends, businesses around the world are struggling to create sustainable roadmaps for the future.

Aditya Birla Group's focus on innovation is what enables it to keep growing despite this volatility and uncertainty. By developing robust models for both 'inside-out' and 'outside-in' innovation, the Group continues to assert its leadership on the business front while continually progressing in its journey as a good corporate citizen.

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