OREANDA-NEWS. October 8, 2012. Tata Consultancy Services (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), the leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm released its sixth corporate sustainability report under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 3.1 framework. The report highlights TCS's perspective on sustainability including corporate governance, human resources, corporate social responsibility, health, safety and environment management, including the activities of its eco-sustainability business unit during the financial year April 2011-March 2012.

The TCS sustainability report has been externally assured by KPMG Advisory Services and has received an A+ rating check for having reported on a maximum number of parameters. This rating check has been further validated by GRI. The GRI framework serves as a generally accepted framework for reporting on an organisation’s economic, environmental and social performance. It is designed for use by organisations of any size, in any sector or location.

Creating conditions for sustainable growth and building awareness about the need for sustainability among its base of over 240,000 employees globally are key ongoing initiatives across TCS.

“Our annual sustainability report is a good indicator on the progress we have made on the various goals we have set across the organisation. We continue to drive various environmental and other community initiatives that aim to promote sustainable practices across the organisation and our stakeholders,” said Ajoy Mukherjee, executive vice president, head, global HR and corporate sustainability at TCS.

Some of the key highlights of the report are:

Achieved 28 percent decrease in consumption of electricity in terms of kilowatt per person*.

Achieved 31 percent reduction in per person carbon footprint (scope 2)*.

Achieved 13 percent reduction in per person fresh water consumption*.

Achieved 72 percent decrease in paper consumption*.

Over 58,362 person hours were spent on volunteering in CSR activities.

About 57,90,604 beneficiaries were reached.

Over 11,141 persons were made literate in FY 2012 out of a total of over 200,000 through the TCS computer-based functional literacy programme.

As many as 20,800 farmers were covered through mKRISHI in eight states of India.

(*Reductions given are over the baseline year 2007-08.)

The TCS Sustainability Report 2011-12 focuses on TCS’s global operations, and on significant economic, environmental and social factors that impact the way TCS does business, including its relationships with key stakeholders. The sustainability reporting guidelines of GRI are used to illustrate TCS’s progress and performance in corporate sustainability activities.