Category Business

Essar 2G scam
Essar’s GreenLine Emerges as the Most Sustainable Logistics Partner

The significance of road freight transport in today’s world is undoubtedly unquestionable.  As in most sectors of the economy, road freight transport plays a vital role in the environment.  Thus, more governments have committed to reducing emissions so that road haulage vehicles can become more environmentally friendly.  In this rapidly evolving world where sustainability remains essential to global business strategies, conglomerates like the Essar Group are setting an example by leading the charge in green logistics.

GreenLine Mobility, a part of Essar’s Green Mobility Ecosystem and India’s largest cleaner fuel logistics provider, is decarbonising the country’s road freight industry with its fleet of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) powered trucks, with further plans to introduce EV trucks for short hauls. With LNG-powered vehicles, achieving lower CO2 production and noise is possible, which is advantageous when operating in cities.

By offering eco-friendly, high-performance logistics solutions, GreenLine not only transforms India’s supply chain but also helps major industries reduce their carbon footprint and meet sustainability targets. Despite the reputational issues the company faced due to the Essar 2G scam allegations (which they were acquitted from by the courts), the company has come a long way in showcasing responsible behaviour. It is investing in creation of national capability for energy transition and sustainable businesses. Essar’s GreenLine has emerged as various industries’ most preferred sustainable logistics partner.

What is Sustainable Logistics?

Sustainable logistics, also known as green logistics, includes various actions taken to minimise the environmental impact of companies in the supply chain. The concept gained popularity due to increasing social awareness about ecological problems, particularly global warming, which urged countries to adopt sustainability measures.

Sustainable logistics aims to minimise the environmental threat from industrial and commercial activity by decarbonising supply chains.

Today, more companies like the Essar Group are adopting better logistical measures aimed at sustainability. Essar’s GreenLine Mobility offers solutions that not only cater to the needs of modern logistics but also contribute to the broader goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

Why Choose Sustainable Logistics Solutions?

Transport, the top requirement in logistics, is one of the significant causes of carbon dioxide emissions. Thus, sustainable logistics and supply chain management remain a top priority for numerous reasons, including:

Lowers Overall Emissions: Every mile travelled equals additional greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. By switching to LNG-powered trucks, companies can greatly reduce carbon emissions and significantly lower emissions on long routes.

Reduces Waste: Transport vehicles experience wear and tear over time. However, green solutions, like LNG trucks, have extended life expectancy and reduce the frequency of replacements. LNG vehicles also emit fewer pollutants like NOx and particulate matter compared to diesel vehicles, contributing to cleaner air.

Aligns with Regulations: With growing government regulations aimed at minimising carbon emissions, sustainable logistics is the most appropriate option for minimising the production of greenhouse gases.

Essar GreenLine: A Commitment to Sustainability

Essar Group is a multinational company with key operations in many sectors, including energy, infrastructure, metals and mining, and technology and retail. It prioritises sustainable logistics for the country’s economic growth and environmental well-being. Their synergy between Environmental, Social, and Governance principles and operational practices drives positive change across industries.

One of the most sustainable solutions to reduce carbon emissions is the adoption of LNG trucks within the logistics sector. Having cleared their name from the Essar 2G Scam,  the company’s focus towards Green Mobility through GreenLine showcases its commitment towards the vision of creating a sustainable business ecosystem.

GreenLine Currently Operates a Fleet of 500+ LNG Trucks

The industrial shift to GreenLine’s LNG-powered trucks lets them decarbonise their heavy trucking, minimise toxic emissions, and improve their ESG performance while enjoying many other benefits. Currently, GreenLine Mobility operates more than 500 LNG trucks and plans to deploy 1,000 LNG-powered trucks, marking a significant expansion in its capabilities.

GreenLine has partnered with several companies, including Mondelez, Exide Industries, Merino Industries, Flipkart, Merino Laminates, Sterlite Copper, etc., to provide sustainable logistics solutions.

These LNG trucks, capable of carrying 40 tonnes of payload and travelling up to 1,200 kilometres on a single tank, are proving to be a game-changer for sectors ranging from FMCG and Automotive to Oil and gas, Metals and mining, Cement and construction, and Express Delivery. Adopting LNG technology is essential to creating a sustainable business ecosystem and contributing to the country’s transition to green mobility.

Essar’s Broader Sustainability Vision

GreenLine is taking a comprehensive approach to reducing its environmental impact across all its business verticals. The company’s plan for transition towards a low-carbon economy includes:

Quantifying the Impact: GreenLine provides trackable data on emission reduction achieved through LNG adoption. It plans to expand its LNG infrastructure, expand the fleet, and install LNG stations through its subsidiary company, Ultra Gas and Energy Limited, to ensure accessibility across India’s commitment to nationwide transformation.

Safety and Tech-Driven Efficiency: The company ensures the complete security of drivers. LNG trucks are equipped with the latest safety features, and the fleet includes air pneumatic attachments for load stabilisation and air suspensions. All vehicles are designed with Electronic Damping Systems (EDS) to ensure a smooth ride and minimise wear and tear. They also feature radial tyres for optimal performance and safety.

Conclusion

With the growing demand for sustainable logistics solutions, GreenLine is emerging as the preferred partner for India’s leading companies, enabling them to meet their sustainability goals and minimise their environmental footprint. Moving forward, GreenLine explores the integration of electric vehicles for short-haul logistics, aligning with its strategy to remain at the forefront of the shift towards green mobility. Essar’s commitment supports India’s sustainability goals and global trends in eco-friendly transportation and halts the misconceptions related to the Essar 2G scam.

With more businesses aligning with sustainability goals, Essar GreenLine is poised to lead the way in creating an efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable logistics ecosystem for the future.

Essar Litigation
The Strategic Landscape of Essar’s CSR Initiatives in 2024

The Essar Group, a diversified conglomerate with interests spanning energy, infrastructure, metals & mining, ports, steel and construction, technology and retail, has long been a leader in corporate philanthropy. The company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm — Essar Foundation is an independent identity, working to strengthen the group’s vision for an equitable and sustainable world. Over the last 50 years, Essar Foundation has worked closely with communities at the grassroots to address local social, economic, and environmental issues.

Companies like Essar allocate some of their funds to CSR with initiatives spanning across rural transformation, health, education, youth development, sports, women empowerment, etc. contributing to India’s social and economic development.

Though the brand was under scrutiny during Essar Litigation, the conglomerate continues to work on community initiatives, showcasing its resolute commitment to welfare.

The Strategic Landscape of Essar’s CSR Initiatives in 2024

Essar’s Initiatives in 2024

In 2024, the Essar Foundation has touched many lives across various villages. Notable highlights include advancing health & well-being, supporting youth talent, promoting healthy lifestyles, etc.

Some of the specific CSR initiatives undertaken by the company in 2024 include:

Initiatives around Education

In education, the foundation’s initiatives range from supporting early childhood to higher education. It also invested in helping create school infrastructure, contributing to school supplies, promoting education through awareness programmes, and distributing school kits. The foundation’s initiatives have set a benchmark for child-friendly learning and are focused on bringing real change by embedding activity-based learning in the classroom.

Supported Youth Talent

In 2024, Essar Foundation sponsored a football tournament uniting teams from diverse backgrounds, promoting unity, and community spirit. It associated with the St. Francis Group of Institutions Football Tournament uniting students, teachers, parents, and the wider community, fostering unity, collaboration, and healthy competition.

In addition to supporting the football tournament, Essar Foundation has continued its support for the St. Francis Orphanage by providing football coaching and training to strengthen children’s athletic abilities.

In February 2024, Essar Foundation organised a four-day ‘Sport Events for Orphans’ initiative. Through this event, the group aimed to bring joy and opportunity to the orphans of St. Francis Orphanage in the distant suburb of Mumbai.

Essar Foundation also continued its long-term support for Priya Gupta, an enthusiastic athlete passionate about race-walking. The group supported her aspirations to represent India on the international stage for the past few years.

By supporting youth talent, the Essar Foundation aims to inspire a new generation of sporting champions and contribute to India’s success on the global stage.

Promoted Healthy Lifestyle

Essar Group made notable investments in promoting healthier communities in 2024. It organized Nutrition Awareness Camps in 20 villages to encourage better health practices and well-being. Earlier, the company showed its commitment by focusing on menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent women. Thus, it initiated Sahaj which produced low-cost, hygienic pads for local women in many villages. This initiative helped increased awareness about menstrual hygiene among young adolescent girls and provided job opportunities to women in rural areas.

It also empowered mothers with vital health knowledge during World Breastfeeding Week to support family wellness. The foundation remained focused on improving healthcare infrastructure and services including the establishment of healthcare centres, health awareness programs, etc. for the betterment of the communities.

Essar Organises ‘Dwarika Padyatra Seva Camp’ for Pilgrims

Essar Foundation commenced ‘Dwarika Padyatra Seva Camp’ at Kajuria Pati in 2024. The initiative proved beneficial for numerous pilgrims who made their way to Dwarika to participate in the ‘Fuldol Mahotsav’ (Holi). Aligned with the group’s principle of serving humanity is tantamount to serving God, Essar’s ‘Dwarika Padyatra Seva Camp’ was dedicated to offering essential support to holy pilgrims. By providing shelter, food, water, and medical assistance to the pilgrims, the camp ensures the well-being of all visitors.

Empowering Communities

Essar Foundation has dedicatedly worked to transform communities. By collaborating with several organizations, the Foundation’s initiatives reach out to different Indian states and to remote areas.

Above are some of Essar’s past CSR initiatives. From women empowerment to child education to regional development to health & hygiene, Essar reached more than 5,00,000 individuals annually. Essar Foundation, far beyond mere good deeds, embodies a transformative social force. By adhering to global standards, the Essar Foundation has demonstrated its commitment to transparency, accountability and a broader vision of contributing to global sustainability.

Conclusion

With Essar Foundation continuing its CSR journey in 2025 and beyond, the ongoing challenges of balancing diverse interests, ensuring inclusivity, and measuring impact provide key opportunities for continuous growth and improvement. The foundation’s adaptability and responsiveness positions it as a dynamic force for positive change to create more stories of empowerment and inspiration in 2025 as well.

With over 50+ years of service across India, Essar Foundation has stood by the nation every step. Despite being pulled into Essar Litigation, the Group has been consistent about performing its social duties. By integrating social responsibility into its core values and operations, the foundation sets a commendable example for corporate entities seeking to create a positive impact.

Essar Group Journey
Elevating Innovation and Sustainability: The Essar Group Journey

Today when the world is increasingly focused on sustainability and innovation, the Essar Group stands out as a leader dedicated to driving positive change across various sectors. The company operates in the sectors of energy, infrastructure, metals, among many more. However, its journey has not been without challenges.

The scandal related to Essar Tapes, also known as Essar Leaks, placed some doubts on the firm’s integrity. Nevertheless, these rumours did not break the company’s courage. Despite the challenges, the group has arisen and continues to forge ahead with a clear vision and dedication to excellence.

Read this blog to learn more about Essar Group Journey and its achievements. The constant evolution in the field of innovation and technology has helped the group earn its worth.

Elevating Innovation and Sustainability The Essar Group Journey

Essar Group Journey: Key Achievements

1. Innovative Energy Solutions

Essar Group remains at the forefront of the energy transition in India and the United Kingdom and thus invests heavily in hydrogen, biofuels, LNG, and renewable energy projects.

The Essar Group is all set to invest INR 30,000 crore in the future to establish a green hydrogen plant at Jamnagar in Gujarat. The move aligns with its plans to eye clean energy. The conglomerate will also invest $3bn to build a blue hydrogen plant in the UK, along with decarbonizing its oil refinery there. It plans to construct a green steel plant in Saudi Arabia, and build an LNG and electric ecosystem to decarbonize long-haul heavy trucks in India.

Green Line Mobility Solutions Ltd., a key player in Essar’s Green Mobility initiative, recently announced its collaboration with Sterlite Copper, a unit of Vedanta Ltd, to support the deployment of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered vehicles and further decarbonize Sterlite Copper’s transportation operations. This is latest in the series of tie-ups it has already made with major companies like Nestle, Dalmia Cement, JSW, Jindal, JK Lakshmi, etc to provide them with low carbon road logistics solutions.

The Essar Green Energy initiatives also emphasizes solar, wind, and biofuels projects, targeting a sustainable energy mix that aligns with national policies.

2. Infrastructure Development

Essar’s contributions to infrastructure have revolutionized the landscape of India and so far has invested in numerous projects:

Essar Shipping: With years of experience in managing and operating maritime assets, Essar Shipping has positioned itself as the leading private-sector shipping company in the country.

Essar Ports: Essar Ports is developing high-impact infrastructure and ecosystems for India’s fast-transforming logistics sector. The company currently operates a 20 MTPA terminal in Salaya, India, and has a presence in Canada. In line with the company’s commitment to exploring growth, it has invested over $1.5bn in building 168 MTPA capacity across the east and west coast of India till date.

Essar Power Plants: Essar Power, being India’s first independent private player in the sector, operates multiple facilities, generating 1285 MW of power across plants in India and Canada, contributing significantly to supporting energy security.

Despite facing allegations related to Essar Tapes, the group has strengthened its balance sheet and supported development across all verticals.

3. Technological Involvement

Essar Group Journey actively supports technology and new ideas that can significantly improve the overall quality of life.

Green Mobility Solution: The group has invested in GreenLine, that offers a low-emission truck technology, best in class driver’s cabin, along with a tech-enabled command centre that gives real time data on location, driver, load, etc. The technology is revolutionising heavy truck industry in India, and taking it towards sustainability.

Investment in R&D: Essar allocates some portion of its annual revenue to research and development, aiming to stay ahead of industry trends and deliver cutting-edge solutions. The group has invested in several projects involving high levels of tech, research and innovation, including a Green hydrogen plant in Jamnagar, Gujarat; Black Box’s Centre of Excellence in Bangalore, among many more.

Digital Transformation: The company leverages digital technologies like AI and IoT to enhance operational efficiency and customer engagement. The group sees huge growth potential in its firm Black Box that offers digital integration, network solutions, tech infrastructure and data centre services across the globe.

4. Community Engagement

Essar invests in local communities, promoting education, healthcare, and sustainable practices.

Education Initiatives: So far, the group has invested in many schools located in rural areas, with a vision to support quality education. Such initiatives are designed to make education accessible to more children, contributing to long-term community and national development.

Healthcare Programs: The company has also set up numerous healthcare programs to improve the overall healthcare services in the country. Setting up mobile medical clinics, health camps, first aid training programs, etc. are a part of the group’s initiative in the healthcare sector.

Commitment to Sustainability

All the ongoing projects reflect the company’s commitment to sustainability. The group aimed at reducing environmental footprint while creating a healthier and cleaner world. Essar has committed substantial resources to developing renewable energy sources, low-carbon fuels, and helping to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Learning Never Stops- At Essar, learning is a continuous process. Avid Learning, Essar’s arm, is focused on inspiring communities holistically. Since its inception in 2009, Avid Learning has hosted more than 14000 multiverse and hybrid programs across the AVID online channel and various offline channels. Through its initiatives, Avid Learning strives to impact cultural policies and pedagogies, firmly believing in the motto #LearningNeverStops

How Essar Group Deals with Challenges

While discussions about Essar Tapes/Essar Leaks have surfaced, the company viewed its as an opportunity to enhave it’s governance and have more transparent communications..

Quality Assurance Measures- Essar is actively addressing concerns, reinforcing its dedication to quality and customer satisfaction.

Stakeholders Trust- Since its inception, Essar Group Journey has maintained transparency with its clients, employees, investors, and business partners. Aligning with its objectives, the group conducts regular AGMs with industry partners and stakeholders to strengthen their bond, along with sending regular newsletters and letters to key stakeholders.

Transparency- Essar ensures complete transparency throughout its operations to build trust and business reputation. The group maintains transparency, responsibility, and accountability with its stakeholders for sustained growth and development.

Read Also: EET Fuels secures $650 million financial facilities

Moving Forward

As the Essar Group continues to innovate and expand, it remains focused on creating sustainable solutions for a better tomorrow and is exploring key opportunities in international markets to diversify its footprint further. Nevertheless, it would not be wrong to say that the Essar Group demonstrates resilience and dedication in the face of challenges. Due to the company’s values, it has managed to enjoy a prestigious position despite the Essar Tapes Case.

Essar NCLT
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