The Indian Oil Corporation Limited's (IOCL) LPG bottling plant at Sarpara received GreenCo Gold certification on August 3, 2022. After getting the GreenCo certification for its Sarpara LPG bottling plant in Assam, IOC now plans to make all its units green and sustainable.

The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII)- Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre awarded the certification under the GreenCo- Green Company Rating System. The certificate is valid till August 2, 2025.

Congratulating IOCl on the achievement, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, RameshwarTeli tweeted, "My Heartiest congratulations to @IndianOilcl  LPG Bottling Plant at Sarpara for clinching the first  @CII_GreenCo Gold in North East. May your standards always remain high & sustainable. Keep up the good work. "http://: https://twitter.com/Rameswar_Teli/status/1554882740088033289?t=Y8nicxhEzNUzfgJkjB0k0Q&s=08

The Green Company Rating System:

The GreenCo system is aimed to facilitate Indian industry to make substantial improvements in their environmental performance thereby saving both natural and financial resources.

The CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre is working with stakeholders to promote Green practices in industry and businesses, and offers world-class advisory services on the conservation of natural resources. Industry personnel are trained on the latest Green concepts and facilitated for implementation of better systems and implementing global best practices in green.

Under the 'Green Company Rating system' (GreenCo rating), companies are evaluated on the environmental friendliness and sustainability of their activities using a life cycle approach- Product design, Materials used, procurement, vendor management, logistics, packaging, manufacturing, distribution, product use, disposal, and recycling. The parameters for rating include-

1.       Energy Efficiency

2.       Water Conservation

3.       Renewable Energy

4.       GHG Mitigation

5.       Waste Management

6.       Material Conservation, Recycling, and Recyclability

7.       Green Supply Chain

8.       Product Stewardship

9.       Life Cycle Assessment

10.   Green Building features, Biodiversity & Innovation

The certificate is offered based on the points incurred, ranging from the lowest Bronze to Silver, Gold (National best), and Platinum (World Class).

The Sarpara LPG Bottling plant has been certified the National Best in the Oil and Gas sector.  Previously, the IOCL Guwahati Terminal-Betkuchi was certified with GreenCo Silver, the first to receive a GreenCo certification in the Northeast.

 The IOCL Sarpara LPG bottling plant:

The Sarpara LPG bottling plant of IOCL was established in September 2000, bottling both domestic and commercial LPG cylinders of Indane. The plant has total tankage of 900MT- Horton sphere tank of 600 MT and two horizontal tanks with 115 MT capacity each.

 Per day, the plant bottles an average of 16000 cylinders, amounting to 4.5-5 lakh cylinders monthly. “We are a 60,000 MT per annum plant. The Sarpara Plant has also signed a hospitality MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited to cater to their requirements, apart from exporting supplies to Bhutan,” informed an official.

 The plant supplies 612 cylinders (including both domestic and commercial) to Bhutan per day, and 1530 cylinders to HPCL.

 GreenCo parameters adopted by Sarpara LPG bottling plant:

 Following the implementation of energy-efficient methods, the IOCL plant has reduced its energy consumption by 29 percent in the last three financial years. During this period, from 2019-22, IOCL has invested Rs. 225 lakhs in sustainable projects leading to 538 kWh of energy savings. The proposed investment for the current FY is 395 lakhs.

 The percent share of Renewable Energy increased to 6 percent of the total electrical consumption with an investment of Rs. 83 Lakhs in the last three fiscal years. A further investment of Rs. 110 lakhs has been proposed for 2022-23. “This will further increase our present 9 percent renewable share to 21 percent which is the highest that can be achieved in line with government guidelines,” informed an IOCL official.

 With Water Conservation methods, the specific consumption of Process water in the Sarpara plant has been reduced by 32 percent, and specific consumption in domestic water by 25.3% Investment in the last three years. An investment of Rs. 157 lakhs has already been made, and Rs. 20 lakh is further proposed for the present FY.

There has been a 26.59 percent reduction in hazardous waste over the last three years and a 25.29 percent reduction in hazardous waste generation during the same period. Rs. 35 lakhs has been invested already between 2019-2022, and Rs. 40 lakh is the proposed investment to be made in Waste Management this year.

 GreenHouse Gas Emission: There has been an offset in carbon emissions in the last three years by 25.86 percent; a total of 145 MT equivalent to Rs. 83 lakhs of investment. “Offset will be more with the upcoming  230 kW PV Solar Plant,” added the official.

 “We are consciously procuring products from other GreenCo certified companies like procuring paints with procuring paints with Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) from Asian Paints, Berger, New Bharat, etc.; cement from Daimia, Ultratech; furniture from Godrej Interio; eco-friendly dearing and housekeeping agents from Haylide,” she added.

 The plant is equipped with taps with automatic sensors/low flow ware, bio-toilets, waterless urinals as part of the go green initiative. Installations have been made of a 10 KLD Sewage Treatment Plant, 5 KLD Effluent Treatment Plant, 100kg/day Organic Waste Converter, Piezometer for groundwater table monitoring, energy monitoring through SCADA as well as water monitoring through Telemetry, all to minimise the damage to the environment.

 “The location is having lowest Specific Energy Consumption with same capacity bottling plants in

India as per Internal Benchmarking within IOCL and also compared to plants of other OMCs as per external benchmarking,” stated IOCL.

 Ramesh Ganesan, Executive Director and State head of IOCL said to Business Northeast, “We are going full force to make all the IOCL locations of the region Green and sustainable. IOCL has 10 bottling plants and 13 Terminals in the Northeast, and we are aiming to certify all of them under the Green Company Rating System this year. Our business has to be sustainable and for that one factor is causing minimum damage to the environment and reducing the carbon footprint.”

 “The Sarpara plant missed out on Platinum certificate by a few points as construction of the 230 kW PV Solar Plant was going on during the audit. We will reapply in 6 months again and we hope to achieve the World Class certification this time,” he stated.