Infosys hosted the event, spearheaded by the Denmark-based nonprofit Unleash, at its lush-green campus at the heritage city of Mysuru in collaboration with the Karnataka government, Chemonics, and HCL Group. The facility itself stood out as an example for cutting-edge sustainability, Unleash chairman Prof Flemming Besenbacher told this paper. The 337-acre campus, with about 1.8 lakh trees, 169 species of birds and 10 artificial lakes, sourced 85% of its energy needs from renewables, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani added.
The Mysuru unit’s per capita energy consumption had dropped 45% compared to 2007-08 baseline after it initiated a series of measures including installation of energy efficient equipment and bulbs. “Infosys does not buy carbon credits, we build offset projects, for instance in rural India, and earn carbon credits ourselves,” Nilekani, who is also on the global advisory board at Unleash, said.
Besenbacher, a professor in nanoscience, was happy that there had been a tremendous response from talented youth across the world to the Innovation Lab. This year, there were about 19,000 applications and 1000 youth picked up from that. Unleash now has about 7000 alumni, many of whom were developing solutions across sectors including in areas of water and fuel.
The world, he said, had been beset with a host of crises around climate, biodiversity and resources and the global population was forecast to reach between 10.5 billion and 11 billion by the turn of the century. With income levels rising, the stress on resources was also increasing. Every generation should try to leave the earth in the same condition as they received it, he added.
Infosys, Nilekani said, went carbon neutral in 2020 itself, 30 years ahead of the timeline set by the Paris Agreement and has now aggressively progressed on its commitments and efforts towards realising its ESG 2030 vision.
Infosys believes ESG responsibility is an opportunity to bring benefits to clients, investors, and society at large while benefiting ourselves, too. “At Infosys we see the planet’s biggest challenges as opportunities to set new, bolder goals, rethink what we can do for the community, and set the highest standards in compliance and security by being more transparent and credible,” he said.
Digital skilling
The Bengaluru-headquartered company has also made a commitment to digitally skill over 10 million people by 2025 and bridge the digital divide by leveraging its platform, Infosys Springboard, which, Nilekani said, empowered students and lifelong learners with academic content, industry-ready programs, and much more. “Infosys reached 4.8 million people through our digital skilling initiatives in fiscal 2022. Of that, 3.6 million is the number of learners in Infosys Springboard India.”
With the Springboard, the company aimed for the holistic development of a student, preparing them for emerging job markets and career opportunities, he added.