Corporate Sustainability Architecture: A Case-Study for Tata Steel

Bio : Mayank Gupta, holds Master’s in Public Policy from Kautilya School of Public Policy. Previously, he completed his undergraduate degree in Commerce from St. Xavier’s Kolkata specializing in Finance. He has key interests topics like: Blended & Climate finance, Impact Investing, Semiconductor Manufacturing Potential. He has been working on live projects in both national and international spheres supporting companies and governments in their net-zero and sustainable development goals.

He was associated with Tata Steel for the purpose of his capstone project for a duration of 3 months. He has worked closely with diverse teams/departments within Tata Steel to present his findings on corporate sustainability architecture. He has also been associated as a policy intern with NITI Aayog last year and had the opportunity to work in parallel with IFC and Ministry of Finance. As a prerequisite for policy professionals, he has sufficient field experience with UNICEF to improve public health outcomes through VHSND programs addressing vaccine hesitancy and health-hygiene related literacy among rural women.”

Project Outline: Businesses have a wide range of impact on the external environment at the same time exogenous factors directly and indirectly affect the business. Sustainability in corporate behavior has become fundamental to derive profit with purpose. This project report has been prepared to highlight emerging trends and practices in corporate sustainability architecture from the perspective of Tata Steel Ltd. The interlinkage between steel and sustainability have been highlighted in this study. The importance of finance which enables sustainable business growth has been established and the emergence of a sustainable finance framework for sustainable bond issuances have been discussed. The kind and the constituents of the framework from the Tata Steel perspective has been provided. ESG ratings also form part of this project report where key material gaps in performance related to sustainability have been identified for Tata Steel. Comparative analysis and benchmarking have been conducted to highlight various practices in this field. The findings of this study reveal that GHG emission reduction is one of the most fundamental sustainability issues. Projects like procurement of renewable energy for business operations, investment into low carbon production technologies, educational support for dependent communities have also been identified. The report concludes with general recommendations for corporates particularly steel producers which is related to the findings of this study.