Ather Energy releases its first impact report

Electric scooter manufacturer Ather Energy on Tuesday released its first impact report, measuring its overall social, environmental and economic impact in 2019-2020.

The impact assessment has been done by Aspire Impact; a social enterprise focused on impact leadership and 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 said that it is the first Indian and second automotive company globally, besides Tesla, to publish an Impact Report.

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.

The company said that it 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 per cent localisation (except cells) in the vehicle. In parallel, sustainability has been a core driving force in Ather Energy’s endeavours and operations, it said.

Developed with a theme of mobilising a new India, the impact captures the sustainability aspect of Ather’s business. It details out Ather Energy’s Impact across four 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, 40 Mn 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 per cent women employed at the manufacturing facility, the highest in the Indian automotive sector.

The report outlines Ather Energy’s commitment and contribution towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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 per cent of their energy consumption using solar energy and increase the ratio of recycled water to total water consumption by 84 per cent.

Tarun Mehta, co-founder and 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 organisation 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.

“Measuring and publicly sharing the same will help us create a system where long-term we will be able to hold ourselves 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,” he added.