JSW Cement has commenced a pilot of Electric Vehicles (EV trucks) trials as part of its plan to significantly reduce carbon footprint in logistics operations. The company plans to achieve this by replacing fossil fuel-based vehicles with EV Trucks. JSW Cement is one of the few cement companies to begin EV trials in logistics. This pilot project has been initiated by integrating 5 EV Trucks on the route of its manufacturing operations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Currently, JSW Cement’s carbon emission intensity is 173 kg/Tonne which is about 30% of the global cement sector’s average of 590 kg/Tonnes. JSW Cement ranks first in the Sustainalytics ESG risk rating globally in the construction material industry group comprising more than 140 companies. From this pilot project, it is expected to avoid more than 150 tonnes of carbon emissions which is equivalent to the amount of CO2 absorbed annually by 6,000 trees.

JSW Cement currently has a capacity of 19 million tonnes per annum in India. It plans to add 2 million tonnes during this calendar year (2023) with a medium-term plan of achieving 60 million tonnes capacity in the next 5 years. During this period, the Company is expected to make significant investments in various interventions to reduce its carbon emissions.

According to  Nilesh Narwekar, Chief Executive Officer of JSW Cement, “Sustainability is at the core of our business operations across the Group. With the lowest emission intensity, JSW Cement is already leading the sector through its decarbonization initiatives. We are working on multiple fronts to achieve our ESG Goals. The EV Trucks pilot project, currently on between our manufacturing operations in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh is an important milestone in making our future much greener and more purposeful. Based on the success of these pilot trials, we will scale-up the integration of these EV Trucks across our cement operations in India.”

JSW Cement has procured the current EV trucks from Murugappa Group. Upon successful completion of the pilot project, the Company aims to transition to EV trucks to support its in-bound and out-bound logistics operations across all the manufacturing units.