As part of our content series, The Future We Must Create, we spoke to three signatories based in the Asia-Pacific and worked with local artists to bring their vision of a better future to life. For Mahindra Group, a better future is about improving the lives of those who live on our planet by achieving net-zero carbon.

An industry stalwart supporting India’s progressive development since 1945, Mahindra Group is a global federation of companies operating in many sectors like renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality, and real estate. Companies within Mahindra Group, such as Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Logistics, have made commitments to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040, double energy productivity, adopt 100% renewable energy, send zero waste to landfill, and become water positive. As part of these efforts, the Group has developed a diverse green revenue portfolio with businesses in renewable energy, auto recycling, electric vehicles, green buildings, and micro-irrigation.

Among these initiatives is an impactful nature-based project, Hariyali, meaning greenery in Hindi. The project launched in 2007, focusing on improving India's green cover and protecting biodiversity by committing to plant 1 million trees annually in the deforested Araku Valley. Within 15 years, over 20 million trees have been planted as a result of this project. These trees are now making a collective impact by contributing to carbon sequestration (removing carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, from the atmosphere). There are also fruit and forest trees that are helping to improve the livelihoods of Adivasi farmers and their communities—tree saplings provided to farmers include guava, mango, custard apple, orange, lemon, papaya, sapota, moringa, neem, bamboo and teak.

“Project Hariyali is one of the many initiatives we created to positively impact the environment and transform the lives of our community. We hope to uplift individuals by creating new means of livelihood for them,” says Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mahindra Group. “However, to achieve our goal of net-zero carbon by 2040, collaboration is crucial. Sometimes, strategy finds itself missing from the sustainability war room, and corporations must work together to create meaningful strategies for lasting change. This is why companies within Mahindra Group joined The Climate Pledge.”

A 2022 Amazon-commissioned study of 750 APAC business decision-makers with responsibility for environmental and societal sustainability corroborates Anirban’s observation. The study found that more than 2 in 3 businesses in APAC see climate collaboration as a decisive factor in reaching a net-zero carbon future, yet, the lack of access to cross-sector networks continues to impede cooperation.

Co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019, The Climate Pledge is a commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. As a climate collaboration platform, over 375 signatories across 54 industries and 34 countries have joined the Pledge to-date. Signatories of The Climate Pledge agree to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonization strategies in-line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, as well as neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.

“It is extremely challenging to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040 if companies don’t work together,” says Ghosh. Through The Climate Pledge, companies within Mahindra Group will continue to collaborate and connect with various international and national corporations to align on transformation strategies. With hundreds of successful projects and several others underway, we are in constant discussions with partners to decarbonize our industries. These strategic alliances are pivotal to reaching our targets. For corporations within the Pledge ecosystem that need more help with their decarbonization goals, we also commit ourselves to sharing knowledge and experience on what works and what doesn’t.”