ICICI ESG Report - Energy Management and Conservation

Energy Management and Conservation

The Bank is committed to energy efficiency and is always seeking to adopt environment– friendly practices in its operations. Our efforts include adopting--energy efficient practices, green features at premises, water conservation measures and paper saving.

Our strategy to manage our environmental footprint is based on efficient usage of energy with a focus to manage and conserve it. The Bank’s concerted and continuous, multipronged efforts have led to a reduction in energy consumption in its operations. Our energy conservation strategy focuses on three areas to help us achieve our energy goals. They are improvement of existing energy efficiencies, investment in superior design and technology and adoption of renewable energy.

The Bank has a dedicated team which is tasked with improving the energy efficiency of its operations across the country. In addition, this team collaborates with industry partners with expertise in energy conservation to optimise energy consumption at our premises. We have actively adopted new technologies and energy efficient practices to reduce our operational emissions. Our ongoing efforts towards this endeavour range from undertaking audits at our large offices and branches to identify areas for improving energy efficiency and adopting innovative technologies favourable to the environment. Our recent initiatives include:

We have implemented energy savings efforts in 1,100 branches having high energy consumption. This has helped us to save 6.52 Mn kWh (kilowatt hour) energy at these branches in fiscal 2021.
We have deployed Lithium-ion battery storage systems at our branches. These are an eco-friendly alternative to Diesel Generators (DG) and help avoid the pollution caused by DGs and reduce the scope-1¹² emissions under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. We have deployed these systems at locations where local pollution levels during winter are high.
In fiscal 2021, under our energy conservation drive at our branches and ATMs, we replaced old air-conditioning systems with a capacity of over 4500 Ton of Refrigeration (TR) with new inverter based, 5-Star rated systems. This has helped us save more than one-fourth of the energy that was previously consumed by the air-conditioning equipment. Moreover, the new airconditioners are equipped with either R410a or R32 refrigerants¹³ which are recognised as environment-friendly with low GWP ¹⁴ (Global Warming Potential).
We undertook a new initiative in fiscal 2021 at over 1900 branches, to replace carbon dioxide based fire extinguishers with clean agent fire extinguishers that are less damaging to the environment. These environment-friendly extinguishers use only 30% of the carbon dioxide as compared to the earlier ones. It thus helps to mitigate around 70% of potential GHG emissions from fire extinguishers at our branches.
We implemented an Indirect-Direct Evaporative Cooling (IDEC) system at our office premise in Jaipur. IDEC or the twostage evaporative cooling is among the most advanced and energy efficient cooling systems. This new system is integrated with the existing air-conditioning to reduce the load on the chillers. This improved Power Utilisation Effectiveness (PUE) by 30% during summers and 60% in winters.

12. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Scope 1 - Direct GHG emissions that occur from sources such as boilers, furnaces, vehicles, etc. owned or controlled by an organisation.
13. Refrigerant is a medium to distribute heat, commonly used in refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners.
14. Global Warming Potential (GWP) refers to the ability of a GHG to trap extra heat in the atmosphere over time, relative to carbon dioxide.

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Adopting Renewable Energy

We have incorporated the usage of renewable energy in all our premises wherever feasible, with an aim to reduce our carbon footprint. In fiscal 2021, we sourced close to 5% of our total electricity consumption from renewable sources.

In order to carry out the adoption of renewable energy, we have used the following approaches:

During fiscal 2021, 97.5 KWp (Kilo-Watt peak) of new solar power capacity was added at eight of the Bank’s premises – one office located in the National Capital Region, three branches in Tamil Nadu in the towns of Poolampatti, Srirangam and Tindivanam and four branches in Rajasthan in towns of Udaipur, Kota and Abu Road. As on March 31, 2021, the total onsite renewable energy capacity at our premises was 2.9 MWp (Mega-Watt peak). The total generation from these systems was 3 million kWh during fiscal 2021, an increase of nearly 70% over the previous fiscal.

Solar panel on the rooftop of an ICICI Bank office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

We have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) to procure solar and wind energy for three of our large offices located in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai. This has been done under the open access mechanism for power sourcing. As on March 31, 2021, the total contracted capacity is 9 MWp (Mega-Wattpeak). These offices have been using renewable energy since fiscal 2016.

The ongoing efforts at the Bank to adopt new technologies and energy efficient practices in our operations have helped in reducing our operational emissions. This has been a journey of several years, that has spanned a range of activities including the audit of our premises and adopting green principles, investing in new technologies and increasing use of renewable energy sources wherever feasible at our premises. We recognise the impact of work from home and reduced travel, that significantly brought down our emissions during fiscal 2021. However, we remain focussed on ensuring our emission intensity remains within reasonable levels.

Case Study

ICICI Bank Office at Noida, Uttar Pradesh

It is our constant endeavour to aim for benchmarks in managing our enviormental footprint.This vision is reflected at Noida Sector 16, Uttar Pradesh

Indirect-Direct Evaporative Cooling Project at ICICI Bank office, Jaipur

At ICICI Bank, efficient energy management and innovative conservation underpins our strategy of managing the Bank’s environmental footprint.