Ather Energy, India’s leading electric scooter manufacturer, has released its first Impact Report, measuring its overall social, environmental, and economic impact in 2019-2020. An Impact Report is a detailed analysis of a company’s efforts that creates a change in the ecosystem around them. The impact assessment has been done by Aspire Impact; a social enterprise focused on impact leadership & impact ecosystem development. Having undergone a comprehensive assessment using Aspire Impact’s proprietary 4P framework across 250+ impact metrics, Ather Energy has been awarded Aspire Impact’s Gold Leaf accreditation for its overall Impact Management. Ather Energy is the first Indian and second automotive company globally, besides Tesla, to publish an Impact report.
Its key highlights include 7.5MT of CO2 emission was saved, Rs2 crore on fuel savings, developed an active online community of 5000 Ather consumers, only 1 out of 300+ components are imported, gender equality with the highest number of women in manufacturing facility.
Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Ather Energy, said, The impact of our work through our products for the EV market is clear but building a long-term impact focused organization is about more than a few founding product decisions. Just like financial metrics, measuring impact has to be made an institutional process, expanding far beyond just the product and covering people, planet, and policy too.”
He said measuring and publicly sharing the same will help them create a system where long-term they will be able to hold themselves accountable to a public standard and hence constantly improve on the same. “While this is just the first report, we are already seeing big leaps in the WIP report for FY21 bringing out the advantage of pushing impact as a companywide metric.”
The global sustainability reporting landscape has been mainly dominated by large, public-listed companies in many countries including India, as regulations mandate that each company report on sustainability metrics. While progressive companies treat ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting as a critical part of their strategy, sustainability reporting is also evolving, and Impact reporting is currently the most comprehensive reporting system available. Ather Energy has a two-pronged approach to building a sustainable ecosystem. The company has built a vehicle and charging infrastructure platform from scratch and has also focused on helping develop a local supply chain. As a result, Ather Energy has managed to achieve 99% localization (except cells) in the vehicle, making it a truly Make in India product. In parallel, sustainability has been a core driving force in Ather Energy’s endeavors and operations.
Developed with a theme of mobilizing a new India, the impact captures the sustainability aspect of Ather’s business. It details out Ather Energy’s Impact across 4 categories of Product, People, Planet, and Policy, including how products have been developed with superior technology that provides Indian consumers an option for clean mobility without compromising on performance. In 2019-2020, Ather Energy’s vehicles saved 7.5 metric tons of CO2 emissions (equivalent to 15 years of riding a 125cc scooter). Till date, 40Mn km have been ridden that has saved 30 metric tons of CO2.
The report also talks about Ather Energy’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, which has been broadened to include the diversity of thought, experience, gender, leadership, language and culture. The company has approximately 30% women employed in the manufacturing facility, the highest in the Indian automotive sector.
Ather Energy has set high standards of policy and governance for itself. The report outlines Ather Energy’s commitment and contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ather Energy’s ideologies and cultural values extend beyond the organization; creating a memorable and collaborative relationship with customers is a goal that the company exemplifies. Over the years, Ather has witnessed a strong growing active customer community, growing from 5,000 to over 14,500 members today.
Amit Bhatia, Founder & CEO, Aspire Impact, said, “Ather Energy has proved to be a pioneer not just in reimagining green, sustainable mobility but also in structured, transparent impact reporting. We at Aspire Impact, India’s first Impact-Rating initiative, are delighted to award them a “Gold Leaf”, our second highest Impact Rating.”
Ather Energy aims to be in 100 cities with a new product portfolio by FY2023 and add more safety features on the product like crash detection & SOS, tow detection, tyre pressure monitoring system, remote diagnostics, etc. By FY2022, Ather Energy plans to install 500 charging points across the country. Ather Energy is also aiming to use 80% of their energy consumption using solar energy and increase the ratio of recycled water to total water consumption by 84%.