Carbon emission by Indian IT down 85% due to WFH, digitisation: Study

Pandemic has propelled India's $194 bn outsourcing industry towards carbon neutrality with hybrid working models, e-mobility and digital disruption for campus hiring

Work-from-home and limited travel have done some good for the environment. According to a study by UnearhInsight, a metrics benchmarking and market intelligence firms found that an estimated 85 per cent drop in carbon emissions during the year. Carbon emissions were around 300,000 tonnes, from a pre-pandemic level of around two million tonnes of carbon emission annually.

The Covid-19 pandemic has propelled India’s $194 billion outsourcing industry towards carbon neutrality with hybrid working models, e-mobility and digital disruption for campus hiring. The study conducted for FY 2020-21 included around 2000 plus outsourcing technology companies in India including IT, ITeS, Engineering, GIC/GCC and Startups.

The study observes that today only 4-5 per cent of an approximate 4.4 million workforce in the outsourcing industry is traveling to work.

According to Gaurav Vasu, Founder & CEO, UnearthInsight “COVID19 disruption has made Outsourcing organizations, clients’ and employees’ environment friendly helping them accelerate their journey towards Carbon Neutrality and also Digital Workplace, improving operating margins in the long run. We see a greater realisation among companies on issues related to carbon emissions, hybrid workplaces and WFH policy and these are trends which will shape the future.”

Even before the pandemic, tech companies and captives like TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Unisys, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle captives were already reducing carbon emissions with the adoption of Digital Employee Transportation Apps clubbed with Electric Vehicle fleet providers.

UnearthInsight study estimates over 20% to 25% employees to return back to work by early next year as global and domestic IT firms’ complete vaccination of employees & families. This is when pre-pandemic pilots and investments of larger Tech and Captives who deployed Disruptive EV (Electric Vehicle) Startups like Lithium Urban Tech & Trivision Mobility along with AI Transportation Tech Platforms Routematic, Moveinsync, BlueSmart and Sun Telematics will pay off as companies aim to move from ~5% Employee travel on EV to over 25-30 per cent by 2025 helping achieve carbon Neutrality targets. Also, significant adoption of Digital Tools to avoid future domestic and international travel needs with consumer-grade experience will also aid Carbon Neutrality targets.

Covid-19 disruption also made the largest industry players move from pilot to large scale deployment of technologies like Digital Campus Hiring Platforms which helped significantly reduce carbon emission earlier generated by travel to over 1,000-plus campuses across the country.