"It is imperative that goals toward increased growth are carefully reconciled with the need to bring down greenhouse emissions drastically." BS Shantharajum, CEO, Indus Towers Limited

Technologies are constantly in a state of evolution. Operators and service providers chase efficiencies to remain competitive. Like other industries, telecom too involves several steps and activities that result in greenhouse emissions. It is imperative that goals toward increased growth are carefully reconciled with the need to bring down greenhouse emissions drastically.

As a leading player in the telecom industry, Indus Towers' strategy is not only limited to usage of alternative energy to power its towers, but also to work on all other aspects like using green equipment to follow a process that puts less impact on the¬environment and using a business model that advocates greener ways to doing business. The company's green roadmap starts with using green telecom equipment to green design of passive telecom sites, through enhanced site sharing and power generation through green sources.

Indus Towers' 11,000 Sites Turn Green

Indus Green City project was conceived to drive one of the key values of the company, which is its commitment toward the environment. Indus cell sites have telecom equipment which require a 24 x 7 uninterrupted power supply for 365 days to support the mobility network.

A telecom tower of Indus Towers uses various energy sources including grid electricity, diesel generators, and batteries amongst other things. Diesel generators (DGs) and batteries are used due to erratic electricity supply in India. The company's operations run in 16 telecom circles where electricity supply varies from as high as 24 hours in a day to no power in various geographies.

Indus strives for maximum utilization of grid power first, thus reducing the consumption from sources that are detrimental to nature. The Green City Project aims at going DG free whereby DG shall not be used as a backup source and instead other technology solutions will be deployed to support network operations.

The company has developed various solutions through joint initiatives with its business partners, which have been technology breakthroughs in promoting green telecom sites on a mass scale. Some of them include free cooling units, inverter solutions, and high power batteries. These solutions were deployed at sites and DG was thus eliminated at these sites.

As of March 2012, Indus has added six major green cities, viz., Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Palanpur, and Gandhinagar. In these cities and towns, all sites which are within the limits of municipal corporation, are not using DGs and therefore relying just on grid power and other non-polluting backup sources. Replicating the model of a green city across geographies has been a major achievement of the company in FY11-12.

Going forward, Indus envisages promoting the green concept to its sites rather than cities, whereby the company shall focus on making a green site and increasing its portfolio. As of March 2012, Indus has 8000 green sites and the plan is to have 20,000 green sites by the end of March 2013.

Indus' strategy is not only limited to usage of alternative energy to power its towers, but also to work on all other aspects like using green equipment and using a business model that advocates greener ways of doing business. The compnay presently boasts one of the largest portfolios of green sites amongst all telecom companies in India. Indus is planning to deploy all possible solutions to power telecom towers in the near future and plans to be the largest green energy deployer in the world for telecom infrastructure industry.