Organised by the Tata Sustainability Group, as its flagship event, TSC 2022 was inaugurated by the Group Chairman and was hosted at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai on 29th November, 2022. Mr. Siddharth Sharma, the Group Chief Sustainability Officer delivered the welcome address, detailing out the Group’s Sustainability Approach and the role the Tata Sustainability Group plays in realising the Group’s Sustainability Vision.

As part of the inaugural address, the Group Chairman emphasized that while sustainability is one of the biggest challenges facing corporates today, it is also a big opportunity. Comparing the sustainability journey to an ultra-marathon, the Chairman encouraged companies to sharpen their sustainability agendas, lay out their decarbonisation plans as the world transitions to a low-carbon economy and invests in innovative solutions.

Moderated by Mr. Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Sons, the panel discussion on volunteering began with participants reminiscing on the philosophy of our founders to keep the community at the center of everything we do. Mr. Bhat took this opportunity to reiterate the group aspiration of 4 per capita volunteering hours by 2025 which was inked by the TGSC (Tata Group Sustainability Council) and discussed the many benefits of volunteering not only for the communities we serve, but also for employees at an individual and professional level. He then welcomed the esteemed panelists from four Tata Group companies- Mr. Puneet Chhatwal, MD & CEO, Indian Hotels Company Ltd; Mr. Sanjiv Lal, MD & CEO, Rallis; Mr. A.S. Lakshminarayanan, MD & CEO, Tata Communications and Mr. Milind Lakkad, Global Head, Human Resources, TCS to discuss Volunteering @Tata: Embedding Quality and Scale.

Exploring how we can build quality and scale in our volunteering programmes, at the Tata Sustainability Conclave 2022

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO, Indian Hotels Company Limited
Mr. Puneet Chatwal shared how IHCL moved from per capita volunteering hours (PCVH) of 0.59 in FY21 to 2.25 in FY22. He spoke about how volunteering contributed to the core value of “Tajness” and he specially touched upon the company’s focus on volunteering even during the depth of the pandemic which adversely impacted all businesses, to the good times when IHCL’s business is witnessing an historical high validated by a green bottom line.

Sanjiv Lal, Managing Director & CEO, Rallis India Ltd.
Mr. Lal has been very passionately and personally involved in the CSR and volunteering efforts of Rallis. As a senior leader, he candidly shared his biggest motivations to do so and how it was never at the cost of other sacrifices. He also spoke about the unique focus the business, CSR and volunteering efforts of Rallis had on rural communities, mainly farmers and how they manage to involve employees in volunteering with these communities while simultaneously achieving high per capita volunteering hours (PCVH) on a YOY basis.

Amur Lakshminarayanan, Managing Director & CEO Tata Communications
Mr. Lakshminarayanan shared the significance of the DRIVE week at Tata Communications and how it has emerged today as a flagship fun-filled volunteering programme for the company. He also shed some light on the global business presence of Tata Communications, how the company has been able to execute Drive Week in international locations and the approaches they have adopted for the same, as well as some of the challenges they have had to overcome on this journey.

Milind Lakkad, CHRO, Tata Consultancy Services Limited
Mr. Lakkad spoke passiomately on the digital ‘Adult Literacy Programme’ which has been a high impact CSR programme at TCS. He shared the company’s plan to democratise this through the ‘Each One Empowers One platform’ and how employees across the Tata Group can participate in this to scale impact manifold. With the help of some personal examples, he shared the impactful role volunteering plays in a large tech organisation like TCS, and the approach TCS has adopted for volunteering towards achieving 4 PCVH by 2025.

This session recognized and celebrated the volunteering efforts of Tata Group companies and their employees during the Tata Volunteering Week. The Tata Volunteering Week Awards have been instituted to recognize companies that have taken special efforts to curate unique volunteering programs or leverage maximum employee participation within, as also in collaboration with employees across the group. They also seek to recognize individual volunteer champions who clocked maximum number of volunteering hours; company SPOCs who excelled in the way they conducted and promoted TVW activities; as well as leaders who have actively participated in the TVW edition.