Business Responsibility Report

  1. Governance related to BR
    1. Indicate the frequency with which the Board of Directors, Committee of the Board or CEO to assess the BR performance of the Company. Within three months, 3-6 months, annually, more than 1 year:

      Quarterly

    2. Does the Company publish a BR or a Sustainability Report? What is the hyperlink for viewing this report? How frequently it is published?

      The Corporate Sustainability Report for Tata Steel India is published annually and uploaded on its website. The 2013 Report is available on: http://www.tatasteelindia.com/corporate-citizen/pdf/csr-12-13.pdf

Section E: Principle-wise Performance

Principle 1 - Business should conduct and govern themselves with Ethics, Transparency and Accountability

  1. Does the policy relating to ethics, bribery and corruption cover only the company? (Yes/No). Does it extend to the Group/Joint Ventures/Suppliers/Contractors/NGOs/Others?

    Yes. The Tata Code of Conduct (available on http://www.tatasteel.com/about-us/ethics/business-ethics.asp and http://www.tata.com/aboutus/articlesinside/Tata-Code-of-Conduct) serves as the ethical roadmap for all Tata companies. All suppliers, partners and joint ventures are expected to adopt Tata Code of Conduct (TCoC) or a joint code of conduct incorporating all elements of the TCoC.

  2. How many stakeholder complaints have been received in the past financial year and what percentage was satisfactorily resolved? If so, provide details thereof, in about 50 words or so.

    A total of 341 stakeholder complaints were received in Financial Year 2013-14. Of them 105 were not valid and 73 not applicable. All except 61 have been satisfactorily resolved during the year.

     

    Stakeholder wise Concerns Received in Financial Year 2013-14
    Anonymous Employees 163
    Contract Employee 17
    Employee 110
    Non-Employee 11
    Vendor 37
    Concern Analysis
    Stage FY 13 FY 14
    Open 32 61
    Not Applicable 18 73
    Not Valid 95 105
    Valid 65 102

Principle 2 - Businesses should provide goods and services that are safe and contribute to sustainability throughout their life cycle

  1. List up to 3 of your products or services whose design has incorporated social or environmental concerns, risks and/or opportunities.
    • High strength steel: Automotive high strength steel grades maintain the safety standards of vehicles whilst improving fuel efficiency, through light weighting.
    • Value Analysis & Value Engineering (VAVE) service to the auto majors in which cross-functional teams of both companies work on re-engineering of component design in order to reduce weight of vehicles. This improves fuel efficiency & less GHG emission.
    • Nest-in housing solution: The house is designed with an optimum combination of Steel & non Steel material which gives the house an elegant and attractive look and it can be built within just 9 days including its foundation. The light structured construction method makes it relatively safer against seismic forces compared to other conversational houses. The speed of construction may also help individual house builders as well as Government bodies to complete their various housing projects in time - in disaster areas of Odisha (cyclone hit), Uttarakhand (flash flood). The Nest-In Bio-toilet is an integrated solution, commercialised in Financial Year 2012-13, made up of a Bio-toilet system and Nest-In super structure. It can be installed at any place as it does not require a sewage-line connection for disposal of waste from toilets. The bio-toilet system is developed under licence from DRDO. The Bio-digester disposes human waste in 100% eco-friendly manner and generates colour less, odourless water and inflammable gas.
  2. For each such product, provide the following details in respect of resource use (energy, water, raw material etc.) per unit of product (optional):
    1. Reduction during sourcing/production/distribution achieved since the previous year throughout the value chain?
      • High strength steel: In terms of process change and the cross flow of material between units, the difference during the steel making process in resource input is minimal. Therefore the Company focusses on the overall parameters rather than individual steel grades of High Strength Steel. High strength steel: In terms of process change and the cross flow of material between units, the difference during the steel making process in resource input is minimal. Therefore the Company focusses on the overall parameters rather than individual steel grades.
      • VAVE (Value Analysis/Value Engineering) service: This entails brainstorming of ideas by studying the BOM (Bill of Materials) of the vehicle to reduce the car weight. Resources used in VAVE are basically experts of R&D, Technology, Production, Planning experts for each company to generate & implement the ideas.
      • Nest-in: No reduction in resource usage observed in Financial Year 2013-14 for Nest-in solution. It is an excellent building solution which does not pollute the environment like cement & brick in the conventional RCC. It does not need any welding, cranes or usage of water therefore making the construction pollution free & environment friendly. It is made of cold rolled high strength steel sections. The frames are joined by using patented 'Dipple Klick' technology. The roof is made of Tata Shaktee roofing sheets while the Wall Panels are of cement bonded particle board on the internal & external side with high density insulation wool in-between for insulation against heat & cold resulting in comfortable living. The Bio-toilet uses DRDO approved Bio-digesters that require no sewerage line connections or additional sceptic tanks for disposal of black water or waste. The technology is 100% bio-friendly, eco-friendly and is being used by defence in Siachen glaciers.
    2. Reduction during usage by consumers (energy, water) has been achieved since the previous year?
      • High strength steel: While exact measures are not possible Tata Steel make extensive use of life cycle assessment to advise its customers in the design of their products made from steel to help minimise energy usage.
      • VAVE service extended to 4 Auto majors in Financial Year 2013-14 compared to two in Financial Year 2012-13.
      • 137 Nest-in dwelling made in Financial Year 2013-14 compared to 31 units in Financial Year 2012-13.
  3. Does the company have procedures in place for sustainable sourcing (including transportation)? If yes, what percentage of your inputs was sourced sustainably? Also, provide details thereof.

    Tata Steel Group's Responsible Procurement Policy embeds Green Sourcing in the Annual Business Plan. Approximately 67 per cent of the inputs (based on spend) are sourced sustainably.

  4. Has the company taken any steps to procure goods and services from local & small producers, including communities surrounding their place of work? If yes, what steps have been taken to improve their capacity and capability of local and small vendors?

    5. Yes, 18-20 per cent of total procurement spends including goods and services are from local SMEs, traders, service providers, AA (Affirmative Action) rated vendors and NGOs. Procurement Division has multiple supplier engagement programmes for improving the capacity and capability of strategic suppliers including local.

    Tata Steel shares technical cum operational knowledge for improvements in the vendor value chain and safety standards. Opportunities are available during trials at the pilot scale to Plant level. Year on year targets for business to be given to local and small vendors are enhanced.

  5. Does the company have a mechanism to recycle products and waste? If yes what is the percentage of recycling of products and waste (separately as <5%, 5-10%, >10%). Also, provide details thereof.

    6. About 6 per cent scrap is utilised during steel making in addition to slag generated, which contains 15-20 per cent of steel. Tata Steel's Metal Recovery Plant separates and segregates its metallic components into various sizes. Metallic fines are used in the Sinter plants. Steel (below 300 mm size fraction) is re-melted for in-house steel making, while part of the 20-80 mm steel is used in the Blast Furnaces as a substitute for sinter.

Principle 3 - Businesses should promote the well-being of all employees

  1. Total number of employees: 36,199
  2. Total number of employees hired on temporary/contractual/casual basis: 198 [85 (hired in Financial Year 2013-14)]
  3. Number of permanent women employees: 2,101
  4. Number of permanent employees with disabilities: 110
  5. Do you have an employee association that is recognised by management?

    6. Yes. Tata Steel recognises 26 trade unions at various locations.

  6. What percentage of your permanent employees is members of this recognised employee association?

    7. 95.11 per cent of TSL's employees (excluding officers) in India are members of recognised employee associations.

  7. Please indicate the number of complaints relating to:

    8. (i) Child labour, forced labour, involuntary labour, sexual harassment in the last financial year and pending, as on the end of the financial year; (ii) Sexual harassment; (iii) Discriminatory employment

    Apart from seven (7) cases of sexual harassment, no complaints were received in the other categories.

  8. What percentage of your under mentioned employees were given safety and skill up-gradation training in the last year?

    9. 65.47% of employees were trained on safety and skill up gradation training (Technical & managerial together).