Energetica India nº91 July August 2020

RENEWABLE ENERGY energetica INDIA- July-Aug_2020 49 hope that when we go back to the way we were, we will all be more conscious about our responsibility.” Changing atti- tudes and behaviour where every citizen says – “I will do my bit” is the end out- come they were trying to drive. Involving employees and communities in the outreach is another important way to work through the current situation. The concept of collective ownership and us- ing available skilled individuals to create masks and distribute it and build a sus- tainable model of self-help groups was also something that was clearly working well. Arijit shared his experience on how col- laboration and employee volunteering is playing a role in their efforts to work with communities “Renew power was using its sites across the country as centres for distributing dry ration in collaboration with the district authorities. We ended up covering thousands of residents around our sites. For Gurgaon two campaigns again spearheaded by employees vol- untarily worked very well. One was dis- tributing Food packets through NGOs while the other was an initiative spear- headed by Mr. Sumant Sinha, ReNew Power’s CMD in collaboration with Dr Naresh Trehan and other Gurgaon cor- porates to repurpose a hospital on the outskirts of Gurgaon into a 200 bed fully functional COVID hospital and hand it over to the administration” Shankar talked of how distribution of groceries and involving women to make masks was an ongoing effort. Illustrating how people were coming together he said “Support to migrant labour who are returning home has been another area where employees volunteered to sup- Arijit Banerjee, Asst Vice President, ReNew Power Shankar Chelluri, Vice President Corpo - rate Communication, Suzlon Energy port the work of the CSR teams.” Need for clean and green, continues to grow: Shankar, talking about the re- newable energy sectors situation said “the need for green energy continues to grow and hence the likelihood of more and more green plants coming up. The challenge is to meet both the increasing demand and the constraints of the sup- ply chain.” Paresh added “We have just announced that we aspire to be the world’s largest renewable player in the next 5 years. We have committed USD 15 Billion in creat - ing that asset. All this ties up beautifully with India’s COP21 commitments. India is among only eight nations in the world on track to achieve its climate goals. We are moving ahead with the times and we will be creating 4 lakh jobs in the renew- ables sector by 2025. Arijit was equally optimistic when he said“we are a very young company, started in 2011. Our idea is very clear we are just focussed on renewable en- ergy and have the largest operational capacity at 5.4 gigawatts generating about 1 percent of the country’s energy now. Our vision is very clear. Renew- able is the way forward. We understand that the future lies in generating energy through wind and solar. We are now on the threshold of innovation where we will be providing stable power through re- newable energy which has been one of the biggest challenges.” The shift will happen but it will take time: The group agreed that looking at the level of pollution that our cities have to encounter and that Indians have to bear it is very important that renewable energy becomes the mainstay because it a clean green way of generating pow- er. Arijit also shared an observation that “In the US during the lockdown, for the first time the renewable energy gener - ation exceeded that being generated through coal.” So, the signals are clear that shift will happen but it will take time. Commenting on this topic Shankar said “the energy mix is a critical component and the energy security of the country is important. Graded reduction of fossil fuel is the long term plan.” In this context he felt that communication, stakehold- er engagement and advocacy will play a major role. Paresh felt that clear poli- cies and support is the need of the hour, while Arijit said intervention on the distri- bution side is now the need, especially at state levels. The group’s discussion ended on a pos- itive note where the common experience was that media was being supportive and collaborative Paresh felt in his expe- rience “they are able to devote more time and space to engage with the sector and the quality of outcomes have gone up. Arijit being an ex-journalist himself said “It’s a challenging environment to work in and they are doing a commendable job of reporting from the frontline”. Shankar summed it up by saying he felt the last 3 months have brought about significant change due to a host of factors and that “the partnership is now stronger”. The Creative Sandbox- a platform for communicators to share and learn from each other, hosted by Weber Shand - wick. Paresh Chaudhry, Group President, Corporate Communication, Adani