"Delivering On Sustainability Targets Is Becoming Increasingly Important" CHRO, Mphasis

In an interaction with Urvi Shrivastav, Editorial Lead, BW ESG, BW Businessworld; CHRO Mphasis, Srikanth Karr, speaks about the ESG trends and the contribution and plans of Mphasis in this light.

What are the key focus areas of Mphasis ESG?

Everything we do aligns with our commitment to sustain and accelerate stakeholder value. We are a purpose-driven company with an exceptional vision to create a conscious, ethical, and inclusive business. We translate our ESG vision to reality by committing to meaningful goals. We are determined to accelerate our commitment to tackling climate change by investing in renewable energy, efficient waste and water management, and other green initiatives. To have a long-term influence on the planet and all our stakeholders, we have integrated environmental goals into our business strategy, risks, and procedures.

As an organization that is fuelled by innovation, we place great value on our people to grow as a company and maximize positive outcomes by focusing on certain key areas - diversity, equity, and inclusion, learning and development and employee well-being. With good governance practices, coupled with innovative solutions, we are creating a thriving environment for our stakeholders to accelerate positive change. These ethical practices are delineated by our company’s strong governance frameworks. They guide us in becoming agile, engendering stakeholder trust, and fostering ethical decision-making in a tech-driven world. Mphasis’ ESG policies create a unified approach to promoting responsible practices across our operational geographies. Sustainability is central to our business, to drive profitability as well as to attract, retain and develop the best talent.

At the core of every sustainable business, the will and ability to continuously chase improvements, every single day, is crucial. The criticality of delivering on sustainability targets is becoming increasingly important each day. I am heartened to see the collective effort of our employees, management, investors, and clients rallying towards achieving our ESG goals.

Any specific goals for FY23 in terms of ESG?

Our ESG mission focuses on reducing company-wide environmental footprint, building sustainable supply chains, and building a diverse professional culture and transparent and ethical governance, all converging on to ‘Tech for good’. Our goals for FY23 are divided into three separate categories:

Environment

· Reduce carbon footprint value year on year to manage negative implications related to climate change.

· Lower electricity consumption by 5% year on year to improve operational eco-efficiency and lessen fossil-fuel dependency

· Accelerate efforts on improving energy efficiency and phasing out ozone-depleting substances

Social

· Strengthen our business environment by protecting, preserving, and respecting the rights of all our stakeholders

· Build an inclusive and diverse workplace that attracts, develops, and retains the best talent in an environment that fosters high performance

· Recruit and empower women, veterans, LGBTQ+, and persons with disabilities across the organization

· Invest and uplift communities and drive positive outcomes in the areas of education, livelihood creation, environmental sustainability, and equitable development.

Governance

· Stretches beyond statutory requirements

· Focuses on the enhancement of long-term interest of stakeholders

· Governance practices are based on accountability, transparency, and ethics

· Reduce the risk of liability for improper conduct such as bribery and corruption at all levels within our company

· Proactively assess vulnerabilities, strengthen IT infrastructure and deploy plans to minimize cyber security incidents

· Co-create a responsible supply chain with diverse and high-quality suppliers globally

We will also be focused on CSR to support environmental conservation projects that can help us improve our ESG performance in FY23. We recently launched a unique Afforestation and Watershed Drive for the next three years. The Department of Horticulture, the Government of Karnataka, and an NGO, United Ways of Bengaluru, are collaborating on this cause. Under the initiative, a dense forest is being set up on an 11-acre plot, which is part of the 228 acres of Botanical Garden at Doddasaggere Botanical Garden in the Tumkur district of Karnataka. Additionally, more than 1100 percolation wells are also being constructed in Bengaluru to conserve rainwater under the "One Billion Drops" campaign. Each percolation well can conserve 1,28,000 liters of rainwater annually and help augment the groundwater table level in the catchment area.

We are committed to expanding our renewable energy capacity to power our everyday activities to meet our emission reduction goals. 54% of the total energy that we used in FY 22 came from renewable sources. We have also invested in a 20-kilowatt onsite rooftop solar power plant in Mangalore, India, which Mphasis manages completely. We are collaborating with building management and others to boost our renewable electricity mix by pursuing off-site renewable energy projects in situations where energy is purchased on our behalf or where space is limited. This is in keeping with our objective to reduce emissions by using renewable energy to power our workplaces.

Our approach toward sustainability is built on a range of policies and initiatives to resolve global environmental concerns such as climate change and global warming. As one of the early adopters of renewable energy, we have set a YOY target for reduction of energy consumption by 5% and carbon

footprint by 1% and are consistently perming towards achieving the same. We are also working towards providing a strong waste management system to protect the environment, increase community health, help in compliance, and contribute to greater sustainability. Several programs are underway with technology playing a transformational role for positive outcomes in education, livelihood creation, and equitable development.

Which are the key pillars driving ESG at Mphasis?

Our approach to ESG is driven by four specific pillars - Stakeholder value, good governance, inclusion, and climate sustainability.

· Architecting stakeholder value - We apply a ‘Tech for Good’ approach to both business and society in delivering stakeholder value

· Applying good governance - We demonstrate a sound culture and ethical business practices with robust governance structures

· Incorporating inclusion - We provide our people with a safe and empowering professional experience by driving equity, diversity and inclusivity, knowledge and learning, innovation, agility and wellness, and care

· Engineering climate sustainability - We leverage our technology capabilities to catalyze positive actions on climate change, invest in exceptional tech-enabled practices and provide end-to-end sustainability services

Across our processes, we uphold and are committed to conducting business with the highest ethical standards and business practices. Various measures are taken to ensure accountability and to strengthen our corporate governance capabilities as well as adopt a proactive approach to risk management.

How ESG is creating values for Employees, customers, and the environment under one roof?

ESG is now a major criterion for investors, shareholders, and customers to help create value for them by ensuring that companies produce returns that are sustainable over the long term. The global sustainable investment reaching $30 trillion exhibits the acceleration towards ESG values which is sparked by increased societal, governmental, and consumer awareness of firms' larger impacts, as well as that of the investors and executives who understand how a strong ESG proposition protects a company's long-term prosperity. Moreover, employees of today are driven by not just the financial incentives that the employer has to offer. The overall vision of the organization, their views towards inclusivity, diversity, and various other social issues are just as important for them to consider a long-standing relationship with their employer. Hence, to create a sustainable business model, ESG measures centered on employees are just as important.

We are constantly innovating to make our operations more efficient and resilient (or as we see it, ‘Tech for Good’ for our business). Notable interventions during the past year include our Delivery Transformation and Digitization upgrades, which add value in terms of adoption of NextGen delivery practices, program management, engagement operations rigor, and making remote working models robust and effective. Our home-grown iPG tool, a Project, and Program Governance tool that helps manage our contractual commitments to clients in terms of deliverables, milestones, and process compliance, has reached a mature stage of completion this year. Our new start-up rigor process has been set up to ensure proper planning and resourcing for new projects, based on best practices from past projects. A separate Transformation Programs Management Group (TPMG) has been formed within the Company to ensure the successful execution of delivery transformation programs within Mphasis.

We also provide our people with a safe and empowering professional experience by driving equity, diversity, and inclusivity, knowledge and learning, innovation, agility and wellness, and care. We believe that in the modern business world, the empowerment of the workforce gives organizations an edge over their competitors. We understand that the process of empowering our people for greater success is an ongoing and evolving process that cannot be left on autopilot. It requires constant innovation and concerted efforts. We take great pride in the fact that this year, our employee engagement – Net Promotion score improved from 7.91/10 to 7.99/10.

Leaders should keep such connections in mind in a world where environmental, social, and governmental problems are more important than ever. It adds value to establishing close ties with various facets of society as it results in a more resilient and robust business model and growth.

How can Enterprises create higher value with their ESG proposition?

Businesses need to understand which of the elements of ESG are most important to their key stakeholders, their industries' priorities, and where to concentrate their ESG efforts. Identifying the key focus areas will help enterprises narrow down their ESG proposition and in turn, create higher value in their endeavors. We are a responsible business that takes an active role in dealing with the ESG risks that can have an impact on our value creation capabilities. Some of our initiatives include:

Enhancing sustainability through emerging technologies

Using blockchain technology and quantum computing, we have expanded our services to assist our clients to improve their sustainable business models. Our ESG and sustainability-focused technology initiatives have helped our clients boost efficiency, dramatically reduce energy consumption, and lower carbon emissions from their operations.

Over the past year, we have worked with several clients to improve their ESG integration across their operational model, measure and manage their ESG performance, develop a compelling narrative around ESG themes and improve investor dialogue. Two notable engagements are our work with an ESG-focused FinTech start-up working on affordable housing for financially and socially disadvantaged minority communities, and one of Canada’s largest Class I freight railways. Our technologies enabled our clients to expand their service offerings as well as achieve operational and resource efficiencies, via automation and innovation-led advancements.

Strategic partnerships to build Cloud Guild

We are working closely with several technologies and cloud partners, with a focus on expanding our Cloud business, which will allow our clients to accelerate their digital transformation and migrate towards agile, secure, and collaborative business processes. Our services are being used across various industry sectors, including Banking, Insurance, Healthcare, travel and transportation, and other sectors which require Cloud and AI/ML services. Our Cloud Partners, who are supporting us in our journey to stretch our technological capabilities, include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, Snowflake, and VMWare Tanzu.

AWS Marketplace to expand our machine learning reach

Leveraging our partnership with AWS, we provide our clients with an end-to-end cloud and cognitive portfolio of services. As a leader in machine learning services, we continue to expand our portfolio through the AWS Marketplace, thereby facilitating the expansion of our global AI footprint.

Our ready-to-use offerings on the Marketplace allow developers to get hands-on experience in AI-based solutions in enterprise applications. By simplifying data experimentation and extracting deeper insights from data estates, our subscribers can gain unique insights into their business and improve their productivity, while reducing costs and associated risk. These offerings spread across 7 industry areas and 5 Machine learning categories.