Sustainability Impacts – Mahindra Lifespaces

Making Sustainability Personal (MSP)

Fostering a culture of Sustainability

We embibe in each associate a deep sense of responsibility through various mechanisms of engagement, thereby each associate is part of The Green Army.

Mahindra Lifespaces has been an early adopter of sustainability. We encourage our associates to make sustainability a part of their personal endeavours – in order to champion a lasting, positive change. We strive to build a culture wherein sustainability becomes a part of the DNA of our employees, and their everyday actions lead to energy, water savings, waste reduction, and climate mitigation. This approach of combining sustainability initiatives and employee engagement has cascading positive impacts for employers and employees alike, and the communities they live in. ‘Making Sustainability Personal (MSP)’ is our flagship initiative to encourage our employees become change makers and make sustainability a part of their daily actions. It identifies areas where our employees can contribute the most – reduce paper consumption, reduce plastic consumption, energy efficiency, and waste segregation through their actions. We run several MSP campaigns to increase awareness and adoption of sustainable practices under the #IamGreenArmy

Similar to other initiatives at Mahindra Lifespaces, MSP is an interactive and dynamic process. We have also institutionalised the Japanese philosophy of ‘Kaizen – continuous improvement’ to seek ideas on how to incorporate sustainability considerations in our operations. We identify and recognise employees who make smart lifestyle choices and implement initiatives that leads to conservation of essential resources.

Making sustainability personal which focused on what individuals can do has touched the chord of our associates, bringing in ideas, suggestions and initiatives that help the organisation embrace sustainability in all functions and aspects of business.

Our Approach

We follow a step approach for making sustainability personal.

Our endeavour has been not only to make sustainability personal but to unmask the complexity from the topic and make it attainable by everyone.We have gradually moved from awareness to participation and correlation to work in our sustainability journey.

Our MSP initiatives

Awareness

We make our employees aware of the best practices and ways to imbibe and lead a sustainabile life both at the personal and professional level through number of awareness campaigns.

1. Mondays are for Making Sustainability Personal

An initiative wherein our employees shared their stories on how they are doing their bit to integrate sustainability in their lives in small and big ways.We found nature lovers, gardeners, composters, tree savers, stray dog lovers, believers in recycling, water savers, waste segregators, humanitarian empathetic about labor wellbeing, cyclists, artists with a twist (best out of waste), vegetarians, walkers, public transportation lovers, ride sharers, users of natural beauty products, users of organic food, growers of organic food, and the likes amongst our employees. The initiative helped us understand that simple individual actions have a cascading effect at home, neighborhood and at work and helps bring large societal change.

2. Ways to heal the body, mind and earth

Ways to Heal the Mind, Body and the Earth campaign was launched post the pandemic related lockdown to help employees adopt sustainability in their daily lives as they adapted to the new work from home routine. The genesis of the series on ‘Lockdown MSP’ emailers was to connect with the employees during the pandemic to share ways and ideas on how they, as individuals, could make smart personal choices for a better world for future generations.

3. Thinking Thursday

‘Thinking Thursday’ was yet another email series under ‘awareness’ category, wherein we created awareness on innovative building materials and technologies amongst out employees.

Participation

Raising awareness amongst employees on the various sustainability aspects that can be incorporated into the daily lives both at home and work, was followed by sessions on how they could actually participate and make changes in leading a sustainable lifestyle.

1. Make the Switch

On 24 Oct 2020, we launched ‘Make the Switch’ initiative that enabled associates and customers to “Make the Switch”. Making the switch is about getting a better understanding on how our choices have an impact on our health, wellbeing and planet health. On ‘World Earth Day’ 2021, we organized a session on ways to measure and conserve energy as part of the ‘Make the switch’ initiative for our associates. Also, customer level engagement session was also organized to help them understand ways to save energy and money by switching to energy efficient electrical
equipments in their homes.

Various workshops were organized on food choices, energy conservation, waste management for associates and customers. We also organised a two-day green product mela with attractive discounts on green products such as lights, fans, and personal care products.

2. #Water2me Challenge

We invited our project sites to report on water-related challenges and actions taken to conserve water during the #Water2me challenge on World Water Day.

3. #MahindraEcoBrickChallenge

Through our social media campaign named #MahindraEcoBrickChallenge, we encouraged the community to clean up water bodies by creating an ecobrick. This initiative was also appreciated by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

‘In Conversation’ series

We organised the ‘In Conversation’ series where we invited change makers to engage with our employees, motivate them towards sustainability, and encourage them to make a difference. The sessions saw participation from more than 100 employees.

Talk by Amara cofounders on sustainable ways to manage women’s health and hygiene
Session by Sathya Natarajan on ‘Learn how you can become an environment foot soldier’ on the World Environment Day
Session on ‘Living with nature’ by Terracon Pvt. Ltd., highlighting the importance of biodiversity and actions that can be taken by real estate developers to conserve it

We continue to expand these initiatives and explore new ones to increase our employee engagement on sustainability and influence them to bring the change in their lives to maintain a habitable planet.

Capability Building

Promoting Decent Employment

Our people form the core of our operations and we invest in our employees’ welfare and happiness to drive performance excellence. Our aim is to attract, groom, and retain the best and brightest talent in the sector. We aspire to achieve this by creating a nurturing and appreciative work environment, where all employees have the opportunity to grow and excel in the long-term. We also encourage open and transparent communication across the organisation on a regular basis for an improved employee experience.

In our aspiration of becoming the employer of choice, we acknowledge our responsibility to respect human rights in all aspects of our operations. Our approach guided by the United Nations Global Compact Principles on Human Rights and national regulations is applicable to the entire workforce. We do not hire any individual under the legal age and ensure that no child/ forced labor is used on any of the sites or by the contractors. We have zero tolerance for sexual harassment at workplace and have put in place formal procedures in accordance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, for mediating any cases of sexual harassment at workplace.

Sustainability capacity building

We invest substantially in building the capacity of our associates and value chain on sustainability related topics such as reporting and disclosures, waste management, carbon neutrality, energy, water and waste efficiency, and green buildings. We aim to train 100% of our employees. We have the following levels of capacity building,

Learn more about our human resources & development programs (hyperlink to HR section)

Employee Social Options (ESOPs)

Our volunteering commitment

Employees are integral to our CSR strategy. We encourage our employees to give back to the community through volunteering. Volunteerism is an integral part of our
business. We believe that volunteering improves the physical and mental well-being of employees and enhances their productivity and creativity. In addition, it
strengthens our relationship with the communities around our projects. These volunteers, known as ESOP volunteers, contribute their time, skills, and energy to a
cause they are passionate about. Employees are encouraged to volunteer in the community and log in their efforts at the MySeva Platform.

In 2020-21, we recorded a total of 1,797 person hours of employee volunteering. Two of our employees – Prince Gomez and Anand Rachatte – logged in 400+ hours and 217 hours of volunteering services respectively. Anand volunteered with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (Municipal Corporation of Latur) to distribute sanitizers. He also did door to door visits to collect used masks and then disposed them at the authorized centre of Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Our other star volunteers included Siraj Sivan, and Ramanand Vasekar who helped labourers and the community during the COVID pandemic on the International Day of Volunteering.

To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Mahindra Group, we pledged to contribute 750,000 hours of voluntary community service. For each person, this translates
to a minimum of 7.5 hours of volunteering to be completed by October 2nd, 2021. Apart from logging the activities on the MySeva portal, employees are also encouraged to sign up for virtual volunteering opportunities.

Visit myseva for more details

Safety at Work

Fostering a culture of Safety

Mahindra Lifespaces has been at the forefront of embracing the positive safety culture, a journey we started five years back. Starting from a reactive organisation, we matured into a proactive one, perceiving risks and rectifying them systematically. A year back, we initiated the journey of creating an inclusive safety culture, wherein all in the system operate with the realisation that ‘safety is a way of life and our colleague’s actions in safety can be influenced by ours’. Our leadership is actively involved and demonstrates an uncompromised approach in safety-related management. The shared safety vision of the Company encourages the workforce to enthusiastically participate in ensuring safe and secure working conditions for all, including the labour force at sites. In India, construction industry is marked by its volatility and high turnover of the workforce. For a dynamic workforce constituting of both unskilled or semi-skilled manpower, constant awareness is the single most important aspect that relates to the workforce in restricting the accidents. Awareness, coupled with strong robust systems has reshaped Mahindra Lifespaces from an organisation with a reactive culture, to embracing the concept of an “Inclusive safety culture”.

Furthermore, Mahindra Lifespaces is an ‘Integrated Management System’ certified organisation since 2013. In 2018-19, we migrated from OHAS 18001 to ISO 45001 standard for Health, Safety & Environment which is complementary to our OHS risk management strategies. Occupational health and safety (OHS) is crucial, as it allows us to maintain uninterrupted operations, while ensuring health and safety of our workforce.

Our structured OHS management enables us to identify and mitigate risk at a preliminary stage, while deploying early warning systems to ensure a safe workplace. Our adept engineers, supported by the workforce, conduct project evaluations to identify operational risks, unsafe acts and concerns at the site level. The identified risks are represented through SMAART (Safe Method and Risk Reduction Technique) card, which contains safety related information for the anticipated risk at the site. As part of SMAART, interproject trainings are also leveraged to utilize the expertise of safety specialists across the projects. Additionally, we utilise monitoring tools such as Daily Work Management (DWM), for conducting periodic inspections, and incident analysis to be shared with the head office. The safety culture of the organisation is supported by trainings and capacity building of our workforce. The trainings are aimed at enabling the workforce to perceive, report, and act on any unsafe and hazardous working conditions. We carry out customised training programs on risk mitigation, technical skill improvement as well as statutory requirements on Environment, Health and Safety. SOTERIA, safety newsletter for capacity building on issues pertaining to environmental, health, and safety is issued fortnightly to all the associates. Heat related preventive healthcare has been included in our health and safety program.

Work hours during hottest part of the day is restricted
Training is provided to labourers for handling heat exhaustion

Institutionalised safety management system

We conduct in-depth analysis of any incidents that might occur at our sites, with learnings being communicated throughout sites using existing mechanisms for sharing information. This is done as an effort to ensure that similar incidents do not repeat. The overall outcome of the efforts are zero reportable accidents, drop in first aid cases, and suitable awareness among operatives at all levels paving the way for good safety culture in the organisation. In our pursuit to provide a safe and dignified workplace, we also work to build awareness of human rights among employees. We provide one-hour training on human rights to our employees as part of their induction process. We conduct preventive health examinations annually, especially for employees in the vulnerable age group. The project teams showed better involvement, participation, visibility and awareness at all levels.

A new KRA was introduced in 2020-21 – not to have repeated observations and closure of observations within 48 hours. The locations have completed several audits without any repeated observations and has reverted with an immediate closure of any non-conformances. Other KRAs introduced include zero non-reportable incidents, 50% Y-o-Y reduction in first aid cases, and 6X Y-o-Y increase in near miss reporting. We witnessed a 73.1% reduction in first aid cases and 20X increase in near miss cases. Training is the key to enhance the awareness to have a responsive workforce and create an inclusive safety culture. We conducted an average of 7 hours of training per person during the year, a 21% increase from 2019-20. We reported zero fatalities and reportable workrelated injuries and ill-health, while accumulating 75,248,153 hours of safe man hours till date. The work-related injuries were calculated based on 1,000,000 hours worked.

Safety during the Pandemic: Our COVID-19 response

In an unorganised sector like construction in India, lockdown and the fear of the unknown was enough to drive the workforce away from project sites to the security of their hometowns. During the daunting lockdown, Our persistence on a proactive and inclusive safety culture facilitated effective management of the pandemic situation across operations related to corporate, sites, and other relevant stakeholders. Our first and foremost priority during the pandemic was to ensure the health and safety of our employees, labour workforce, customers, and other stakeholders. Our corporate OHS team raised early concern regarding the pandemic and its possible business continuity risks. The team alerted corporate, sites and other stakeholders on the preparedness on COVID-19 in very early stages, handholding them through the unprecedented chaos. The safety team visited the sites regularly, providing visible leadership and commitment during COVID-19 lockdown. They remained accessible to the workforce throughout the ordeal and motivated them to not migrate back to homes. Our actions to ensure safety of the workforce can be segregated into three phases.

With the lifting of the lockdown measures, we resumed our operations in a phased manner while enforcing strict protocols for health and safety. We also developed and conveyed to our employees ‘Back to Office’ guidelines highlighting aspects like behaviour at workplace, maintenance of hygiene and safe practices, and guidelines in case of sickness and health emergency. All the security personnel and site sales team were trained on the SoPs. Thermal screening was mandatory at all locations, along with hand wash/sanitisation. Each site was required to submit compliance status. Mahindra Lifespaces demonstrated how an agile safety culture can impact emergency response and preparedness and provide robust facilitation to pandemic management strategies as well as ensuring health and safety performance of our businesses and operations.

Anticipating the second wave of COVID-19 and high number of cases in the states of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Delhi, where Mahindra Lifespaces has various interests, an early warning system was rolled out. This was followed with specific communication with the locations on areas of concern and a revised SOP on safe working conditions during COVID. Further, for Maharashtra, we coordinated with ICMR approved labs and made a central provision for ensuring RT-PCR testing to be carried out seamlessly.

For our efforts during the pandemic, we were awarded for our exemplary service.

Emergency Response Team

At Mahindra World City Jaipur, we witnessed some instances of chemical fires. During the analysis of the incident, the need for a structured Emergency Response Team (ERT) was established. The site ERT seeks for a better coordination amongst response team members with clear cut defined responsibilities, crowd control management, augmentation of resources, and availability of proper equipment during emergency situations.

Emergency Response Team formation was revisited with clear cut defined responsibilities, and identification and engagement of necessary stakeholders in an emergency. Structured roles and responsibilities have been defined, and fire-fighting equipment has been upgraded to cater for chemical/gas fire with procurement of appropriate PPEs. First aid training was provided to 25 employees through Indian Red Cross Society.

The intervention has allowed the team to effectively coordinate amongst emergency team members resulting in improved emergency preparedness and effective response. The clarity on roles and responsibility for each team member through mock drill training allowed for effective coordination with stakeholders. The trust amongst customers on the team’s emergency response ability also improved our customer satisfaction score.

Safety in Homes

Customer Health & Safety

Failure to ensure health and safety of our customers could lead to reputational and financial losses for Mahindra Lifespaces. Health and well-being of our customers is at the core of the homes that we build. This has been substantiated in the post-pandemic era where health and wellness has also been at the forefront of our customers’ minds with natural lighting, ventilation, improved air quality, reduced noise levels, and use of materials with minimal impact as their key demands which is incorporated in our products.

We assess the health and safety impacts of all our products and adequately manage them through our thoughtful designs. Some of the important aspects of the design include;

Structural stability
Differently-abled and senior citizen friendly common areas such as ramps with railings, anti-skid finishing materials, rest rooms, and dedicated parking spaces closer to the lobbies
Use of low or zero VoC (low volatile compounds) paints
Standardised balcony railings
Provision for fire and emergency safety

We also ensure that the products are in a habitable state before handover. As a standard practice, we conduct building flush out prior to handover to remove any pollutants introduced during construction. Post-handover, we also ensure that the regulatory requirements associated with fire safety and environment are communicated to the Resident Welfare Associations.

Road safety and security at our integrated cities and industrial clusters is also a crucial issue. Mahindra World City Chennai has been facing challenges in terms of traffic incidents. Our efforts in this regard have been to increase monitoring through video cameras, signal installation, and awareness sessions for our customers. Our strategy, initiatives, and performance are regularly monitored by the senior management including the Board and MD & CEO at regular intervals. Based on the performance, corrective actions are taken, if required.

Being one of the leaders of green homes in the country, Mahindra Lifespaces inculcates green design aspects that minimise the harmful effects on environment. We are committed to building a diversified, yet 100% green portfolio. We aspire to get platinum rating by the IGBC/ 4-star GRIHA rating for all our products.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Creating Sustainable Communities

Social development and community development are critical to all the three pillars of sustainable development. Mahindra Lifespaces is cognizant of the role a thriving community plays in building a conducive business environment and a healthy economy. As a responsible organisation, we are committed to enhancing relationships with key stakeholders and creating a positive impact on the society through our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Our philosophy is in alignment with the ideology of the Mahindra Group – “We will challenge conventional thinking and innovatively use all our resources to drive positive change in the lives of our stakeholders and communities across the world, to enable them to Rise”. We understand that our social license to operate is determined by our sustained efforts to address the key social challenges in the region and the relationships we enjoy with our community. We contribute to the local communities that we operate in by focusing, amongst others, on key areas of intervention: education, skill development, health, environment.

We leverage our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives not only with the communities around our project sites, but also promote sustainability amongst the industry and future generations. Our CSR strategy balances the needs and aspirations of our communities, the global sustainable development agenda, and the national priorities. In accordance with The Companies Act, 2013, we dedicate 2% of the average net profits of the three preceding years towards our CSR programs.

We have a CSR policy in place to guide us on the implementation of our initiatives. CSR initiatives are driven by our CSR implementation structure comprising the Sector CSR council, the Sector CSR team, and the Business ESOP champions for MLDL, MWC Jaipur, and MWC Chennai. Sector CSR council reviews the initiatives identified by Sector CSR team, and the Business ESOP Champions. We take feedback of the community on our projects. They are welcome to provide their suggestions in-person or through the drop box kept at project offices.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee

Mahindra Lifespaces’ CSR strategy is to contribute to local communities that it operates in by focusing on following areas of intervention: education, skill development, health, environment & sustainability. Our CSR Policy lays out vision, objectives, & implementation mechanism.

Education

Everyone has a right to learn. Access to quality education is a key determinant of an individual’s future trajectory and gives a chance to achieve a brighter future. Through our initiatives, we ensure access to affordable and quality education and skill development to the communities around our project sites.

1. Nanhi Kali

Nanhi Kali, a flagship project of the K.C. Mahindra Education Trust and Naandi Foundation was initiated in 1996 with the objective of providing primary education to underprivileged girl children in India. Today, it is a national sponsorship program which provides academic and material support to more than 350,000 underprivileged girl children and helps them complete 10 years of quality education with dignity.

2. Education & Skill Development

In 2020-21, ‘Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd.’ supported renewal sponsorship of 587 Nanhi Kalis for a further period of one year. ‘Mahindra World City Developers Limited’ supported renewal sponsorship of 142 Nanhi Kalis for a further period of one year, and ‘Mahindra World City Developers Limited’ is supporting a total of 279 Nanhi Kalis, through our Central CSR.

We also contributed for education of underprivileged children, vocational skill development programmes, formation of self-help groups and building toilets for government schools in villages. 150 rural youth were trained in 2020-21 in various Skill Development Programs such as Electrician training, Tally & Accounting, Basic Computer Training, Electronic Goods Repairing. We have trained 2,173 rural youth since inception. We have also trained a total of 1,544 women through skill development programs since inception including 126 women trained for SHG and Skill Development Program in 2020-21.

Environment & Sustainability

Through our initiatives in this area, we intend to spread awareness about sustainability, contribute to carbon sequestration, and promote research and development for developing a greener urban future.

1. Mahindra TERI Centre of Excellence (MT CoE)

MT CoE for Sustainable Habitats is a joint research initiative of ‘Mahindra Lifespaces’ and ‘The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)’. It focuses on developing science-based solutions for India’s future built environment, with a view to reducing the energy footprint of the real estate industry and providing a coherent & robust database for market ready, scalable and viable materials and technologies that are energy efficient.

In 2020-21, Mahindra Lifespaces contributed to MT CoE to create innovative energy efficient solutions. More than 100 building materials have been tested so far, the creation of tested materials database online on MT CoE website is under progress. The thermal comfort prescription guidebook and Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC) for residential builsings (ECBC-R) Residential Envelope Transmittance Value (RETV) compliance calculator to enable the designers, developers to make informed decisions on the building envelope is ready and under peer review and feedback. Water Sustainability Assessment reports for major cities of Pune, Chennai, and Gurugram have been launched till date.

Health

A great disparity exists in the quality and coverage of medical treatment in the country. Majority of the population, especially in rural areas doesn’t have access to primary healthcare facilities. In order to bridge this gap, Mahindra Lifespaces supports multiple initiatives to provide access to affordable and quality healthcare facilities to underprivileged and vulnerable communities. Additionally, we also strive to induce behavioural changes among women through sensitisation sessions on personal hygiene and safety.

In 2020-21, we provided support to under-privileged Children in the form of Cochlear Implant for Deaf & Mute Children and distribution of Dry Ration Kits to 1816 students in government schools in Rajasthan, Dry ration distribution to 400 families in Thiruvallur District, and to families of 85 school children who are below poverty line in vicinity of World City Chennai.

We contributed vaccine carriers and deep freezers for vaccine storage to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Kunnavakkam. A population of 56,000 people depend on this PHC for the basic healthcare amenities. In addition, we distributed 7,000 reusable face masks, 2,000 face shields and 100 litres of hand sanitizers to police officials, government officials and health workers.

We also constructed 6 bio toilets in Government schools and colleges across four villages near Mahindra World City Jaipur.

CSR Action Plan, Activity List, and Impact

Climate Change

Climate Change and Our Decarbonization Pathways

Climate change is the biggest threat facing our world today, a crisis that can’t be dismissed. The impacts of climate change are already visible. Glaciers are shrinking, sea levels are rising, habitats are shifting, and the frequency of droughts, heatwaves, and catastrophic events are increasing. Extreme weather events induced by climate change is ranked as the top risk by World Economic Forum in the Global Risks Report 2021. According to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report 2021, global warming is expected to hit 1.5C “in the early 2030s” in almost all emissions scenarios and without reaching “net-zero” CO2 emissions – along with “strong reductions” in other greenhouse gases – the climate system will continue to warm. Without immediate and widespread global action, limiting warming to 1.5°C will be exceedingly difficult. Decarbonisation of our economy is essential to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Buildings and construction are responsible for about 40% of global and 24% of India’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change. With the country on the threshold of a construction boom, it becomes essential for the real estate sector to adopt sustainable practices. Also, Green consumerism has been on the rise over the last few years. Consumers, especially millennials, are asking companies to embrace sustainability and demanding for houses that incorporate green features. A study by the Mahindra Group on Alternativism revealed that 89% of the respondents believed that they would be able to address climate change more actively if companies offered sustainable solutions. Post the pandemic, customers are seeking meaningful interventions that allow them to reduce their environmental footprint and enhance health and well-being. One of the leaders in sustainability and recognising its role in climate change, Mahindra Lifespaces, has taken bold actions including climate-responsive design (CRD), energy efficient features, waste management, incorporation of circularity, among others. The need for action is reinforced by potential physical and economic risks due to climate change. We have implemented strategies to identify, understand, and manage these climate risks.

With rising awareness and demand from investors, governments, and even employees to transparently disclose the efforts to create enduring value for all, globally accepted frameworks such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) are increasingly leveraged by us to identify material issues, ESG risks, and plan for climate adaptation using future-looking tools such as scenario-based analysis to build our decarbonization strategy. Recently, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) for top 1,000 listed companies.

We are active participants of GRI, CDP and GRESB disclosures.

We publish our BRR annually in line with SEBI regulations. We are analysing the BRSR requirements to enable a smooth transition from next year.
We are signatory to TCFD and leverage TCFD recommendations to sharpen our focus on climate-related risks and prioritise initiatives.

A new concept for real estate investors is that of climate risk and resilience. The question of how exposed an asset or a portfolio is to the various impacts of climate change has become a key concern and has been outlined by the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) TCFD.

Our Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)

The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) is a joint initiative of CDP, the UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and WWF. It intends to encourage businesses to take ambitious climate actions by mobilising them to set GHG reduction targets in line with the decarbonisation required to limit warming to less than 1.5°/2°C. Till date, 1040 companies are taking action and 498 companies have approved science-based targets. We, at Mahindra Lifespaces have committed to reducing our emissions as an enabler for carbon neutrality by 2040, through our targets that were approved in November 2019. Our science-based targets in line with 1.5°C pathway, makes us the first and only Indian real estate company to get targets approved.

Strengthening Mahindra Lifespaces’ climate resilience

Particularly, on climate change as an urgent and emerging risk to our business, we are cognizant of the significance of climate-related impacts on financial and non-financial sectors and have surfaced a demand for appropriate disclosure information. In 2020-21, we carried out extensive climate risk assessment and scenario analysis to consolidate our climate-related disclosures aligned to the TCFD reporting framework. These measures in stepping up our corporate reporting (supplementing CDP, GRESB, SBT disclosures and commitments) demonstrates our resilience and decision making through climate accounting of our risks as well as opportunities.

Our Climate Strategy

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we acknowledge the climate-related challenges and risks and actively implement initiatives and frameworks that can facilitate our efforts in reducing our environmental impact. Global frameworks on climate disclosures such as CDP, TCFD, GRESB, SDG and Science Based Targets (SBT), are leveraged to identify climate-related and ESG risks for the organisation, in addition to prioritisation of initiatives that help us work towards achieving our commitments.

The first step in our climate action strategy is to quantify and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to operations. We monitor, measure, and mitigate GHG emissions from our project sites across all three scopes. In the design phase, emissions are managed through passive architecture, energy efficiency initiatives, and adoption of renewable energy. In the construction phase, energy efficiency, efficient material management, and waste management initiatives are used to mitigate emissions.

Historically in India homes were designed as per the local climate. Rajasthan had homes that protected the inhabitants from harsh sun and dust – smaller windows and thicker walls, jaalis for ventilation was common. Kerala, Goa, and Mumbai saw thatched roofs to protect from rain. Central India saw homes white-washed with lime to enable inhabitants to deal with extreme summer heat in Vidarbha and Marathwada. In the past few years, we saw all vernacular architecture give way to glass and concrete homes that needed to be cooled with AC. In lieu of increasing temperatures predicted due to climate change, its opportune to put together a strategy that enables thermal and visual comfort and ventilation without use of air conditioning. Climate responsive homes are said to be lighter on pocket (energy bills) and enhance productivity and wellbeing due to access to wind and natural light (natural light has an impact on well-being).

Over the years, we have strengthened our approach to view each of our building and construction activities as an opportunity for future-proofing the built environment. Our buildings, considered over their respective life cycle, present opportunities for reducing resource and energy consumption and enhanced health and well-being of consumers and occupants. In exploring strategies to reduce carbon emissions in our built portfolio, we have worked with BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROJECT (BEEP) to develop climate-responsive homes by working on reduction of energy demand through,

Climate Responsive Design (CRD),
Efficiency measures and
Leverage renewable energy to cater to the supply.

We understand that our commitment to a net-zero future would be facilitated by reducing energy intensity and carbon emissions across our built portfolio.

Using Climate Responsive Design (CRD) analysis, we considered passive architectural techniques (e.g., thermal comfort, optimised natural ventilation and daylight) across eight of our affordable to premium segment projects, of which four locations have already started to realise benefits from CRD interventions. Considering cooling and lighting requirements account for nearly 60% of electricity consumption in a residential setup, the benefits of demand reduction through CRD presents great value to the consumer, present unique proposition in improved quality of living as well as reduced cost of ownership.

In the post-pandemic era, health and wellness has been at the forefront of our customers’ minds. Natural lighting, ventilation, improved air quality, reduced noise levels, and use of materials with minimal impact on the occupants have become the key demands of the customers. Health and wellbeing have always been at the core of our products. We assess the health and safety impacts of all our products and adequately manage them through our thoughtful design. We have standard SoPs to ensure products are in a habitable state before handing over the units to our customers. Post-handover, we also ensure that the regulatory requirements associated with fire safety and environment are communicated to the Resident Welfare Associations.

As a realty developer, our reliance on guidelines for green building rating systems (IGBC) has enabled our projects to ensure resource efficiency and indoor environmental quality – which collectively helps Mahindra Lifespaces to widen our environmentally responsible built portfolio. In India, increased environmental awareness among customers, increasing regulatory mandates and incentives have highlighted the need to align to green building certifications such as IGBC and GRIHA.

Briefly, during 2020-21 our projects at Tathawade, Pune (4-star rating, GRIHA v 2015) and Bengaluru (Platinum rating, IGBC v3) have been pre-certified. Some of our projects including MWC Chennai (Gold, IGBC Green Township), Aqualily, Chennai (Platinum, IGBC v2), MWC Club (Gold, LEED NC) and Mahindra World School, Chennai (Platinum, IGBC, Schools) have undergone revalidation and renewal of their certification. Further, both Vicino, Mumbai (Gold, IGBC v3) and Origins Chennai (Platinum, IGBC Green Cities) have submitted their annual revalidation report to IGBC.

Validation of our climate strategies is done through climate scenario analysis.

Future Priorities

In line with our commitment to building a sustainable built portfolio, we will continue to direct our efforts into innovation towards climate responsive design and architecture and resource efficiency across our value chain. It is hard to miss that customers are far more discerning on the design of homes, particularly on amenities and services that contribute to healthy lifestyles. We strongly believe that our products and services should not only create value for our customers and stakeholders, but facilitate preserving the realised value over a longer term to be truly defined as a sustainable habitat.

Climate Scenarios and implications on our business

Investors and stakeholders are increasingly interested in companies to assess their climate risks. Climate scenario analysis helps in understanding the adequacy of the organisation’s risk mitigation strategies – to align the business growth with rise of global temperatures for a time horizon. Under the Paris Agreement, corporate action on climate mitigation have identified scenarios for 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise. As per recommendations of TCFD, selection of minimum of two scenarios: one aligned with the Paris Agreement that limits global temperature rise below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and a second that exceeds the 2°C goal (business-as-usual scenario) allows reasonable assessment and mitigation planning for range of potential outcomes, as a result of climate-related risks. In 2020-21, we identified two scenarios based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) and the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The RCPs cover the range of GHG emissions, while the SSPs represent the socioeconomic impacts.

In a move towards greater climate risk transparency, TCFD’s recommended disclosure pillar on strategy requires organisations to describe how resilient their strategies are to climate-related risks and opportunities, taking into consideration a transition to a lower-carbon economy consistent with a 2 degree scenario (2DS) and a below 2 degree scenario (B2DS). In the context of a real estate business, impacts of a business-as-usual scenario (aligned to a 3.6 degree scenario or higher) can be anticipated to include;

Direct impact to the construction industry through damage and working stoppages due to extreme weather phenomena.
Constraints related to resource availability and increased production costs (energy, fuel, carbon taxation etc.) would challenge business continuity plans.

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we have conducted an extensive climate-related risk assessment, and prioritised critical climate-related risks and corresponding mitigation measures that comprise our transition actions and inform our climate change mitigation strategy. Briefly, we have undertaken initiatives under key transition actions that would contribute to our transition to a low-carbon economy (2DS or lower).

Expected outcome resulting from the alignment of our climate strategy to TCFD

Being an organisation with a futuristic approach across its operations, Mahindra Lifespaces has signed up itself as a TCFD supporter since February 2021, making it the only real estate sector brand from the real estate management and development industry in India to do so. Being a TCFD supporter, we express our belief towards its recommendations as a useful framework to increase transparency on climate-related risks and opportunities within financial markets. Thus, Mahindra Lifespaces intends to report in accordance with the TCFD disclosures as well, along with other standard sustainability disclosures it carries out every year.

Our Key Climate Change-related risks

Along with risk identification, assessment and mitigation, we also quantify the critical climate change related risks with substantial financial impact to the business. The financial impact numbers are represented in our CDP Climate Change disclosures. The reports can be viewed on the CDP website

Metrics and Targets

We measure absolute Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions from our operations to align with our SBT and Carbon neutrality commitments. Our roadmap targets and strategies are updated based on the progress made against the set SBT targets. We have overachieved our SBT targets for Scope 3 emissions for Residential & IC & IC businesses in 2020-21, and on track with Scope 1 & 2 emissions for MWC Chennai. Owing to the improvements in accounting procedures as well as increase in the number of locations, during 2020-21, we are not on track for achieving reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We have increased our efforts towards achieving our targets for residential projects and creating sustainable products for our customers by committing to IGBC net zero and working towards making our products net zero.

Environmental Targets and Progress Trends:

FY 2023-2024
- Final Data Book – IR 2024
- Initiatives and Impact – Energy, Water, Waste & others – FY 24

Our Scope Emissions

Carbon Neutrality

In 2019-20, Mahindra Lifespaces committed to become carbon neutral by 2040. We developed a carbon neutrality action plan for our residential developments. We are in the process for developing the same for our Integrated Cities and Industrial Clusters.

Our approach to carbon neutrality

Race towards Net-Zero

Increased use of cement and steel is a major driver of building related carbon emissions. Globally, the buildings and construction sector accounts for approximately 50% of the demand for cement and 30% of steel . Collectively, these factors emphasize on the importance of extending the lifetime of buildings and increasing the use of alternate materials to cement and steel. At Mahindra Lifespaces, our approach to mitigating climate-related risks includes adoption of sustainable manufacturing practices and implementation of initiatives that result in a reduced environmental footprint.

To be able to manage our emission profile, we quantify and report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to operations. We monitor GHG emissions from our project sites across all three scopes. We manage our emissions through passive architecture, energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives at the design stage. At the construction phase, efficient material and waste management practices are adopted to mitigate emissions.

We formally committed to IGBC Mission on NET ZERO working towards the vision – “India to become one of the foremost countries transforming to Net Zero by 2050”. As part of the net zero commitment, we are working towards making our product portfolio net zero through the following strategies

As part of the CRD strategy, we partnered with Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) to strengthen our design specifications related to climate-responsive design and energy demand reduction and ensure that all our future projects are compliant with ‘Eco-Niwas Samhita’ (Energy Conservation Building Code for Residential (ECBC-R) Projects in India).

Water Conservation

1. Combating water crisis

Water scarcity affects every corner of the world. At the current rate of unsustainable consumption, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages by 2025. According to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas of the World Resources Institute, India is ranked 13th among the world’s 17 most stressed countries. With severe water challenges, developers are struggling to meet water demand for construction, landscaping, and customer needs. Measures such as ban on construction or reduction in piped water supply to construction sites have heavily impacted the real estate developers. Such measures can lead to increased construction costs and stalling of projects. However, this also provides opportunities for integration of water efficient infrastructure such as rainwater harvesting to ensure conservation. Hence, Sustainable water management at all phases of construction and use of buildings is the need of the hour.

The changing world scenario has deepened our resolve to contribute to a better world. A world which does no harm to the environment and enhances inhabitants’ health and well-being. For us, sustainable habitats should enable access to local food, in situ farming, in house composting, recycling, with focus on clean air, clean water, and clean energy. Since embarking on our sustainability journey more than a decade ago, we have put in place a number of policies, systems, and processes to measure our impact and minimise our environmental footprint. Our goal has been to maximise energy and water efficiency, reduce air emissions and increase the use of sustainable resources. We have established an integrated systemic approach that straddles all stages of a building’s life cycle and incorporates active and passive design elements in all our building to yield resource efficiency during construction as well as occupancy stage. Additionally, we analyse the resource requirements at different stages of construction phase (i.e. excavation, building of core and shell, and finishing) and our interventions are structured to target the different stages and increase efficiency. We utilise the Integrated Management System to evaluate and improve our environmental performance. The Sustainability team conducts internal audits at periodic intervals for all our sites. Additionally, the MD & CEO also assesses the performance on these parameters every month during projects review meeting.

Water is a critical resource used throughout the lifecycle of the real estate development such as preparation of mortar, mixing of cement concrete and for curing work etc. Even during the occupancy stage, regular availability of good quality water is an essential requirement of our customers. The water quality and availability in rapidly urbanising India is already taking a toll on the water resources. This makes it imperative for us to use water judiciously.

Currently, we used under 0.03 cu. m. of water per sq. ft. of residential area developed, which has reduced by more than 60% from 2019-20. On the other hand, we used 682 cu. m. of water per acre for the development and maintenance of Integrated Cities & Industrial clusters, a decrease of 25% from FY 2019-20. We actively worked on water risk assessment for our businesses and strengthened our water security strategy through risk assessment, reduction in demand, conservation, and rainwater harvesting.

Read more on our water conservation approach & efforts (hyperlink to page 2)

2. Our Water Commitment

3. Our Water Conservation Approach

Water scarcity is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Our freshwater resources are dwindling at an alarming rate. Cities like Chennai faced crippling water crisis this year. The situation is set to worsen as 21 Indian cities are predicted to run out of groundwater by next year. Thus, it becomes imperative that whatever water we have should be used judiciously. Construction activities remain water intensive and depend on reliable supply of water to operate.

At Mahindra Lifespaces, our operations are heavily dependent on the availability of water. It is an essential commodity for preparation of mortar, mixing of cement concrete and for curing work. And access to good quality water is imperative to our customers during the occupancy stage. Along with rapid urbanisation, the increasing demand for water is linked to the various sources of consumption. We are constantly stepping up our efforts in adopting water conservation practices and reducing water consumption in our operations. Unavailability of water would result in delay in work leading to untimely delivery and cost implications.

While our dependence on groundwater for our water requirements exposes us to the risk of rapid rate of groundwater depletion, deployment of efficient water sustainability strategies would allow us to develop future-proof measures drawing examples from leading industry practices. To such an end, we have classified our sites based on water stress into safe, critical and over-exploited. This classification enables us to adopt customised mitigation measures that respect the complexity of each location we operate in & ensures water conservation at every stage of our project. Conservation strategies are truly effective, when embedded in the design stage, to measure and manage water consumption during construction and occupancy over and above ground water recharge in the majority of the sites.

3. Classification of our Sites based on Ground Water Availability

We have constituted two cross-functional teams at Mahindra Lifespaces and Mahindra World Cities to develop, monitor, and evaluate water conservation strategies. The teams evaluate current approaches, site specific challenges, and different business scenarios to identify the potential impact on business arising from water risk. The solutions are identified, carefully analysed for impact, investment and time duration and rolled out in a planned and scientific manner. The teams utilise proven tools such as hydrogeological studies, to determine appropriate locations for developing optimal water recharge locations. In 2020-21, we saw a decrease in water intensity for both residential and IC&IC projects. In 2020-21, there was a reduction in water intensity for both our residential and IC&IC projects. We have started exploring other water source to reduce our reliance on ground water which reflects in reduced usage of groundwater in our operations. We also saw a substantial increase in use of treated water.

All our residential projects have an onsite Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of varying capacities, which are used for treatment of domestic wastewater. The treated water is reused for the purpose of landscaping, flushing and cooling, within the project thereby making our projects Zero Liquid Discharge sites. At our integrated cities and industrial clusters, wastewater from our customers is treated at an onsite STP, as mandated by the Central Pollution Control Board. Our industrial customers are obliged to install and operate an in-house STP, as mandated by the local regulations. The sludge produced from STPs are disposed as per the local regulations.

We, at Mahindra Lifespaces, take immense pride in being one-of-its kind organisation offering green building solutions to our customers. As a responsible developer, we’ve institutionalised an approach that straddles the entire lifecycle of a building from site selection, active and passive design, environmentally friendly construction, all the way to occupancy to yield resource savings. Some of key features of our developments include energy-efficient lighting, use of renewable energy, alternative building materials and water recycling and reuse.

4. Site Selection

Land acquisition is a critical phase for our operations. Cross-functional teams carry out extensive environment and/or social assessments as a part of due-diligence process for new acquisition. Water risk is one of the key parameters considered for evaluation. So water is considered a critical component right during the site selection even before designing for water conservation. We use water assessment tools such as climate central, India Water Tool, WWF Water Risk filter, Aqueduct Water tool for an initial assessment of the project site in terms of vulnerability to water risk. Hydrogeological studies are then conducted to at our project sites to understand the groundwater recharge potential as part of our conservation strategy.

For mitigating water stress at our larger formats, i.e., IC&IC, we conducted hydrological studies to inform our interventions, reduced stormwater discharge, strengthened infrastructure for grey water, and rejuvenated Kolavai lake at Mahindra World City, Chennai.

5. Design

Groundwater recharge is integrated into the design through water-efficient plumbing fixtures – Low flow fixtures for optimal water management with infrastructure for rainwater harvesting, treating of domestic wastewater, and reuse of treated water for landscaping and flushing. In our IC & IC business, we are utility service providers for our customers & ensure water supply with dedicated lines for fresh and recycled water.

6. Construction

We reduce our dependence on freshwater use for construction activities through reuse of wastewater post treatment. We have also started harvesting rainwater in our projects to be utilized for construction thereby reducing water related impacts at our sites. We explore & use alternative materials such as curing compound that replaces water and gypsum that uses less water leading to water savings in operations.

7. Occupancy

Along with designing for water conservation in our products, we create awareness amongst our customers on additional ways to conserve water & are currently assessing the potential of installation of water meters in upcoming projects that would help achiev more water savings & bills for our customers.

Read about our water saving initiatives here (hyperlink to page 3)

8. Water Consumption at Mahindra Lifespaces at a glance

As we have zero discharge, our water withdrawal is equal to water consumption

9. Water Saving Initiatives at Mahindra Lifespaces

Water conservation is integrated into our products right from the site selection stage till end-of-life of our products. Along with ensuring water savings in our products, we also encourage research & innovation in water conservation at every stage of our product development resulting in resource & cost savings. Some of the innovative ideas implemented across our projects are listed here.

10. Alternate process for groundwater recharge

Every project site is complemented by a lengthy mix of paved roads, serving the dual purpose of guiding road traffic, as well as effective drainage of rainwater. Our project at Vicino, Mumbai observed an opportunity to use an alternate process for laying pavers without the use of plain cement concrete (PCC) bed. Pavers were used on compacted earth and without PCC bed allowing rainwater to percolate and recharge groundwater, rather than running off to drain. Reducing the runoff into drain also reduces the load on city storm water drainage system. Along with rejuvenating the ground water, paver roads also helped in reducing cost for pathway repairs. It is more efficient to maintain paver road than replacing or repairing concrete pathways. Additionally, paver roads provide better safety for vehicles in terms of anti-skidding.

11. Water Sustainability Assessment at Mahindra TERI Centre of Excellence (MT CoE)

Water related activities at MTCoE included rapid water audit for five properties of Mahindra Lifespaces to assess water efficiency and inform residents about sustainable water use and conservation. City level water sustainability assessments were also undertaken to understand demand and supply scenario in Chennai and Pune & corresponding reports were launched in 2020-21. These reports captured existing water sources and infrastructure, potential risks in water management and the recommendations for sustainable water management.

Read more about MT CoE here (hyperlink to MT CoE page)

12. #MahindraEcoBrickChallenge

As part of our ‘Making sustainability personal’ program – associate level engagement program on sustainability, through our social media campaign named #MahindraEcoBrickChallenge, we encouraged the community to clean up water bodies by creating an ecobrick. This initiative was appreciated by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

13. #Water2me Challenge

Water scarcity is a growing concern for our Company. In order to create awareness and encourage action to conserve water, #Water2me challenge was held on World Water Day across our sites. We invited our sites to report on water-related challenges and actions taken to conserve water. #Water2me challenge acted as a platform to enable our sites to come up with solutions to address the water issues. The challenge was organized with the main objective of encouraging our on-site “Water Soldiers” pan India to report water related challenges to “Water Generals” (Project Managers/O&M Heads). Our Water Soldiers truly valued water as an important resource and participated enthusiastically. This challenge instilled a sense of responsibility in our employees towards water that drove saving water intuitively.

Project Luminare and Happinest Kalyan won the challenge for undertaking the corrective measures for water conservation leading to water & cost savings.

14. Green Hero – Recognising Employee Initiatives

Our IC & IC business at Mahindra World City, Jaipur requires huge quantities of water for landscaping purposes. Majority of the demand was fulfilled through use of water treated by sewage treatment plant on site. However, it was not sufficient in summer months, when the temperatures would go upto 48º C. To cater to the increased water demand, our employee Mr. Mahendra Singh Sisodia restored a water body. Now, the water body attracts local wildlife and migratory birds. Nature enthusiasts and employees flock to this area to indulge in bird watching and photography. Recognising his efforts, Mr. Sisodia was nominated as Green Hero.

15. Customer Engagement on sustainability

One of the leaders in green homes, we embed the message of sustainability in all our marketing and outreach initiatives. We carried out two successful campaigns on sustainability in 2020-21. Through our campaign on ‘Shower Ki Sacchhai’, we inspired people to bring about a behavioural change and take initiatives to conserve water in their day-to-day lives. The success of the initiative can be gauged by the fact that more than 200 enquiries were received on application of water harvesting techniques. The campaign on #IAmGreenArmy encouraged people to join our sustainability movement. These campaigns generated 86 million impressions and reached 14.1 million people.

Read more about #IAMGREENARMY here (hyperlink to Page on IAMGREENARMY)

Waste diversion away from Landfill

1. Supporting and Creating Circularity in real estate

Indian real estate sector accounts for 20% of annual raw material consumption in the country. Aspirations for secure, safe, and sustained employment opportunities has seen an increase in demand for housing solutions in cities. The desire to own a property is exerting pressure on limited stock on natural resources, making resource efficiency the need of the hour for the economic, social, and environmental sustainability. We are cognisant of the need to integrate optimal material use and waste management into our construction activities. Sustainable habitat will be a pipe dream if we do not focus on waste. In this pursuit, we have initiated integrating principles of circularity in our operations.Buildings, typically designed on a ‘take-make-dispose’ model, are responsible for more than one-third of global resource consumption. This approach of construction also results in significant generation of construction and demolition (C&D) waste.

With stakeholders becoming aware of the environmental costs of construction, Mahindra Lifespaces has made efforts to transition to circular economy. It is based on three principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, and regenerating natural systems. Such interventions also have an impact on our emission reduction.

These measures are also aligned to the ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)’ on,

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we manage waste produced during construction, by eliminating and minimising waste, reusing, recycling, and safe disposal at designated sites. We also manage the domestic waste generated by our customers in the use phase. This gives us the opportunity to adopt best practices such as converting biodegradable waste into biofuels and compost, and inculcate behaviours related to sustainable waste management among our customers.

Read more about Mahindra Lifespaces waste management efforts (hyperlink to page 5)

2. Our Commitment

As part of our ‘Sustainability 2.0’ journey, we aim to achieve zero waste to landfill for our sites.

3. Waste Management during the Pandemic

COVID has resulted in increased use of disposable masks and PPE. However, we procured reusable masks and PPE for workers resulting in no COVID-related waste at our residential locations. We also laid down the COVID waste management guidelines at our sites and offices. We saw influx of COVID-related waste in our cities, and worked with our IC & IC customers to handhold them on various waste related sensitisation and connected them to right vendors for waste management.

Design Stage

1. Design for better waste management

Innovative techniques to reduce, reuse and recycle waste are incorporated right at the design stage for our Residential & IC & IC projects, which influences the operational efficiency of the waste collection, segregation, treatment within the premises, cost of servicing the waste management activities, and the diversion rate. Estimations on the amount of waste generated for different waste types are done based on the occupancy of the designed project. Various available waste treatment & disposal mechanisms for these waste types are analyzed within the project area followed by Waste management vendor selection based on the wide range of treatment offerings on different types of waste & the space requirement within the premises.

Construction Stage

The construction sector is responsible for generation of enormous quantities of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in India, and this trend is likely to further increase in coming years. Management of this waste is a challenge, as most of the waste is disposed, either in designated landfills/ dump sites or often in unauthorized places, causing a host of safety and environmental problems. We are conscious of the need to use alternative materials for construction that can curtail the use of virgin materials in order to reduce environmental footprint in terms of energy consumption, pollution and waste disposal.

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we ensure responsible management of waste during construction. Our idea of circularity in construction is based on the business model of using materials for as long as possible, while reducing waste through reuse, recycling, and upcycling and safe disposal at designated sites. We also manage the domestic waste generated by our customers at Integrated cities and Industrial clusters. The biodegradable waste generated is converted into biofuels and compost.

With the objective of identifying measures for reuse and recycling of waste during construction, we have developed a detailed inventory of waste at all the project locations.

Our green building strategies guides us in the use of materials with recycled content and post-consumer recycled materials
With enhanced resource efficiency through recycling at our industrial clusters, Mahindra World City Chennai became the first integrated city in India to be certified as Zero Waste to Landfill. We are working towards achieving the same for Mahindra World City, Jaipur.

At least 75% of our construction waste is diverted from landfills. Under our construction waste management plan, we track all recyclable waste and ensure it is collected and segregated at a demarcated location.

1. Waste Management Initiatives at Mahindra Lifespaces during construction

We also use our patented ‘Fly ash brick with low thermal conductivity’, in our projects. This has allowed us to incorporate recycled waste as an input in our raw materials to the extent of 35%. However, our primary focus remains at avoiding wastage and reuse of materials through proper handling, and skill workmanship.

2. Our Waste Inventory

3. Our Waste Inventory – 2020-21

We, at Mahindra Lifespaces, employ innovative techniques to manage waste generated during three stages of a project namely; design, constructions and occupancy. We minimise waste production by reusing, recycling, and safe disposal at designated sites. At Mahindra World City Jaipur, construction and demolition (C&D) material debris and scrap were consolidated and segregated for re-use in temporary fencing and road barricades. At other sites, we have identified opportunities to convert biodegradable waste generated into biofuels and compost and bring about a behavioural change towards waste management among our customers.

Hazardous waste generation in the residential segment has increased due to reporting sludge waste, battery related waste & empty cans under appropriate waste category this year. All the other residential sites have reported negligible hazardous waste. In the residential segment, 3 of our project sites recycled or reused 100% of the waste generated thereby diverting the complete waste away from landfill.

In the IC&IC segment, we continued our efforts to achieve the target of Zero Waste to Landfill for all the sites. Mahindra World City Chennai portrayed an exemplary example of circularity with 100% waste being diverted away from the Landfill and being recycled/reused.

Occupancy Stage

Waste Management in Customer Homes

Our strategy on waste management doesn’t stop with construction stage, we ensure to maintain circularity throughout the lifecycle of the products that we build. All our buildings are equipped with colour coded bins – red, green and blue to collect recyclable waste such as inorganic waste/hazardous waste, bio-degradable waste/organic waste and paper/plastic/cardboard waste respectively. All the treated biodegradable waste is converted into manure and is used for landscaping. Bio-degradable waste is treated on the premises through provision of organic waste converter with proper training on its usage provided to our customers.

Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWL) at Mahindra World City (MWC) Chennai

In the IC & IC segment, we continue our efforts to achieve the target of Zero Waste to Landfill for all the sites. We identified opportunities to convert biodegradable waste generated into biofuels and compost and bring about a behavioural change towards waste management among our customers.

Mahindra World City Chennai portrayed an exemplary example of circularity with 100% waste being diverted away from the Landfill and being recycled/reused.

What did Mahindra World City, Chennai do about its waste?

Strategy to ensure 100% waste diversion

Impact

Single use plastic free sites

‘Single use plastic free site campaign’ organized for our staff members and workers. This platform is used to educate our workers about the 3R principle (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and importance of waste management. To put this knowledge to practice, our workers are encouraged to collect and segregate plastic waste on site and from neighbouring areas. A quiz was also conducted to test the awareness about plastic among workers. All participants were recognised and were given plants as a token of appreciation.

In February 2020, we achieved single use plastic free status across all locations by prohibiting the use of plastic bottles, cups and plates, and cutlery. We have also incorporated the ban on single use plastic in our event guidelines as well our customer connect events. As a result, we avoided over 800 kg of plastic across locations. We continue to intensify the campaign to cover customer gifting as well. At Mahindra World City, Chennai and Jaipur we are tracking single use plastic items in the waste stream and are working with customers to enforce single use plastic ban in respective workplaces.

Concrete Plastic Roads

We at Mahindra are constantly looking at innovative and productive ways to utilise waste. Flimsy, single-use items like shopping bags and foam packaging are the ideal raw material for inclusion in plastic-concrete road. They are difficult to recycle, hog space in garbage dumps, and clog city drains. Concrete plastic roads serve as a ready-made landfill for such trash. In our ‘Happinest Palghar’ project, 15% of sand used in concrete mix was replaced with shredded plastic waste. In this pilot initiative, 140 kg of plastic waste was used to substitute sand. Not only was the plastic-concrete mix economical, it also had a higher compressive strength than the conventional mix. Switching from asphalt to plastic roads would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions when compared to traditional road construction. Such roads also have substantially higher water resistance than conventional asphalt or bitumen-based roads, abrasion resistance, and more durable. Through this initiative, we seek to promote circularity in plastic waste.

Responsible e-waste disposal

Mahindra Lifespaces, prior to being classified as a bulk consumer, as per the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, undertook the task for responsible disposal of e-waste. We tied up with Eco e-Market, which handled and recycled our e-waste. Approximately 344 kgs of e-waste was generated and collected from the locations at Pune, Mumbai and Chakala. The waste led to the recycling of components including 99% metals, 80% glass and 99% plastic. 1% mercury and lead components were disposed-off in a controlled landfill and as per MOEF/Chemical and Fertiliser policy. The recycling of e-waste helped avoid 879.34 kgCO2e emissions, 12,057.3 l of water and 424.8 l energy equivalent of fuel through recycling of waste & thereby avoided 5,904.5 m3 of landfilling.

Pollution Mitigation

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we are committed to sustainable construction, responsible consumption of natural resources, and pollution mitigation. We undertake several measures to monitor and improve our ambient air, water, land and noise quality both during the construction phase and the occupancy phase. We are committed to developing and maintaining an environment that enhances human health throughout the lifecycle of our products and fosters transition towards achieving our goal of maintaining 100% green portfolio.

To maintain the healthy environment, separate areas are allocated for each of the construction purpose including stock piling, material storage and materials reuse, driveway for in and out of carriage vehicles, temporary shelter (labour colony) for construction employees (within the site but away from construction work area). We have ‘Standard Operating procedures (SOPs)’ in place for environmental management that includes pollution mitigation measures and quarterly updates on the construction activity and relevant mitigation measures taken for the same are communciated through project site sustainability maturity assessment.

Our Construction work areas are isolated from finished areas using temporary barriers to mitigate the impacts of air, noise, water, and soil or land pollution on the workers and occupants. All the materials are stored in appropriate places and covered to avoid any environmental and health impacts. All our workers are provided with PPEs, dust control masks to prevent any health hazards. Mahindra Lifespaces takes number of such pollution mitigation measures for varied pollution type.

Air

Air pollution – both ambient (outdoor) and household (indoor) are considered the biggest environmental risks affecting health. By virtue of the industry, construction activities such as excavation, drilling, material transportation, loading and unloading, concrete and mortar making, cutting and filling, and movement of equipment generates dust and different pollutants such as PM2.5, PM10, NOx and SOx into the ambient atmosphere. If left unmanaged, these can have adverse impact on the health of onsite workers and the quality of life of people living in cities.

At Mahindra Lifespaces, we are cognizant of these adverse effects of air pollutants & developed action plan on ways to keep the pollutant level within requisite levels. Our main objective under Air Quality management is to reduce air quality problems resulting from construction process in order to help sustain the comfort and well-being of construction workers and building occupants. With 100% green portfolio certified by IGBC/GRIHA ratings, we carry out the measures as listed in the green building certification reference guides for managing Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) systematically during construction because it benefits the health of everyone who works on the site, not just the eventual occupants of the building.

As part of the action plan, we have installed an online monitoring station at MWC Jaipur and Project Luminare which indicates daily value of ambient air quality criteria pollutants that helps manage the pollutants with the mitigation measures. We are currently in the process of strengthening our data management systems to monitor and report the air quality data from few of our projects from next year onwards. Apart from online real time monitoring of air quality, we also conduct monthly third party ambient air quality testing at designated places across the project site during construction as a proactive compliance aand air pollution mitigation measure and for any adequate measures to be taken to maintain healthy and comfortable environmwnt for our workers and customers.

Our air quality performance at MWC Chennai and MWC Jaipur was considerably good where the data trends indicated a satisfactory AQI and a decreasing trend.

Air Quality Monitoring at Luminare

Building construction is responsible for the release of gases and dust (SOx, NOx, and particulate matter), causing air pollution in the vicinity of the project sites. As a real estate developer, we are aware of this challenge and have been taking measures to mitigate the same. At our Luminare project site, this is further compounded due to a Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) plant in the vicinity of the project.

Some of the measures adopted by our project team during construction include dust suppression initiatives, sprinkling of water on loose soil, covering of construction materials, and earth slope protection using green net. Due to these measures, the ambient air quality (concentration of NOx and SOx) are under the permissible limit.

Air Emissions

In 2019-20, our residential business experienced decrease in point source emissions as the projects procured electricity from the grid. However, our sites at MWC Jaipur and MWC Chennai, saw an increase in direct air emissions. The primary reason for the same was the increase in the running hours of DG sets. The DG sets are used as backup for operating Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) installed in the integrated cities. There was a considerable increase in the operation of STP DG sets which can been attributed to the large volume of rainwater ingress in the sewage lines. Additionally, the unavailability of electricity from grid had also triggered excess use of DG sets.

On the other hand, in 2020-21, point source emissions from our residential business increased significantly due to additional construction sites. However, our site at MWC Chennai saw a decrease in direct air emissions due to the pandemic.

We, at Mahindra Lifespaces ensure that we are not only compliant with respect to pollution reduction, but go a step further to avoid pollution at our construction sites through proper monitoring and management & through design interventions in the developed products.

Noise

Unlike general industry, construction activities are not always stationary and in one location. Construction activities often take place outside where they can be affected by weather, topography, atmosphere and landscaping. Construction noise makers, e.g., heavy earth moving equipment, move from location to location and is likely to vary considerably in its intensity throughout the day On construction sites there are many different noise sources and these sources exhibit differing types of noise such as background noise, idling noise, blast noise, impact noise, rotating noise, intermittent noise, howling, screeches and squeals that need to be controlled.

Mahindra Lifespaces adheres to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, CPCB and state regulations too. We ensure that the high noise levels on construction sites are lowered using commonly accepted engineering and administrative controls and compliant to the various noise pollution control rules of CPCB and other regulations.Normally, earplugs and other types of personal protective equipment (PPE) are used to control a worker’s exposure to noisy equipment and work areas. However, as a rule, engineering and administrative controls should always be the preferred method of reducing noise levels on worksites. Only, when these controls are proven unfeasible, earplugs as a permanent solution should be considered.

1. Engineering Controls

Engineering controls modify the equipment or the work area to make it quieter.

2. Administrative Controls

These are management decisions on work activities, work rotation and work load to reduce workers’ exposure to high noise levels.

Effective solutions to control noise at construction sites include,

Land or Soil

Land pollution refers to deterioration of the earth’s land surfaces, at and below ground level. The cause is the accumulation of solid and liquid waste materials that contaminate groundwater and soil. Soil at and around a construction site may become contaminated due to air transport followed by deposition of construction dust as well as water runoff of construction contaminants. Soil may constitute a sink for pollutants and some of those may accumulate in soil and persist over longer periods of time. When waste is deposited onto an area of land, the permeability of the soil formations below the waste can increase or reduce the risk of land pollution. The higher the permeability of the soil, deeper the impact.

The principal direct environmental impact of soil quality is the potential soil contamination from the following sources;
• Spills or leaks from construction machinery
• Waste generation/management
• Accidental leaks

Although the above impact (i.e. soil contamination) will be localized within the spillage zone/area, but potential migration of such contamination to groundwater aquifer may represent significant environmental risks. We at Mahindra Lifespaces ensure proper measures to mitigate impact on land during construction and operation phase.

During the construction stage, various sources of land pollution include;

To help reduce the environmental impact of construction sites, we work with authorized partners that offer comprehensive builder solutions to achieve cost-effective construction recycling and waste disposal plans. Also, we reuse most of the waste materials in our construction activity and avoid dumping at the site thereby preventing land/soil pollution.

Pollution prevention measures taken at different stages of construction

Water

Surface water runoff and the groundwater close to a construction site could get polluted with various materials used in the construction work. VOCs, paints, glues, diesel, oils, other toxic chemicals, and cement are the potential materials that could lead to water pollution during construction. Mahindra Lifespaces understands the importance of water and its quality maintenance in construction. We use the entire water withdrwan from multiple sources with zero discharge to water bodies. Also, the hazardous liquid waste such as oil, diesel, grease generated during construction is properly stored and disposed as per waste management rules and plan.

Drinking water quality is monitored and tested through thrid party agency to enssure health and wellbeing of all the workers working at the site.

Flora & Fauna

Mahindra Lifespaces incorporates the various impacts due to contruction in the environmental management plan and tracks & maintains these impacts and mitigation
measures at various stages of construction activity. We maintain the native species at the projects with no impact to the ecology of the site. Our Biodiversity conservation plan ensures that there is no impact to the varoious plantations at the site and helps raise our efforts to increase the tree cover at the sites.

Indigenous/local plants are planted within the project area as part of our landscape development plan to mitigate any construction related impacts to flora of the site. We are incorporating bird baths and butterfly gardens into our landscape development along with organic food gardens and fruit trees.

Making Sustainability Personal (MSP)

Fostering a culture of Sustainability

Our Approach

Our MSP initiatives

Awareness

Participation

‘In Conversation’ series

Capability Building

Promoting Decent Employment

Sustainability capacity building

Employee Social Options (ESOPs)

Our volunteering commitment

Safety at Work

Fostering a culture of Safety

Institutionalised safety management system

Safety during the Pandemic: Our COVID-19 response

Emergency Response Team

Safety in Homes

Customer Health & Safety

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Creating Sustainable Communities

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee

Environment & Sustainability

Health

Climate Change

Climate Change and Our Decarbonization Pathways

Our Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)

Strengthening Mahindra Lifespaces’ climate resilience

Our Climate Strategy

Future Priorities

Climate Scenarios and implications on our business

Expected outcome resulting from the alignment of our climate strategy to TCFD

Our Key Climate Change-related risks

Metrics and Targets

Our Scope Emissions

Carbon Neutrality

Our approach to carbon neutrality

Race towards Net-Zero

Water Conservation

2. Our Water Commitment

Waste diversion away from Landfill

1. Supporting and Creating Circularity in real estate

2. Our Commitment

3. Waste Management during the Pandemic

Design Stage

1. Design for better waste management

Construction Stage

1. Waste Management Initiatives at Mahindra Lifespaces during construction

2. Our Waste Inventory

3. Our Waste Inventory – 2020-21

Occupancy Stage

Waste Management in Customer Homes

Zero Waste to Landfill (ZWL) at Mahindra World City (MWC) Chennai

What did Mahindra World City, Chennai do about its waste?

Strategy to ensure 100% waste diversion

Impact

Single use plastic free sites

Concrete Plastic Roads

Responsible e-waste disposal

Pollution Mitigation

Pollution Mitigation

Air

Air Quality Monitoring at Luminare

Air Emissions

Noise

1. Engineering Controls

2. Administrative Controls

Land or Soil

Water

Flora & Fauna

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