~ Green lighting of Victoria Memorial & Tata Centre, the two icons of Kolkata to make a green statement ~

Tata Steel, today unveiled its new nationwide environment awareness campaign “Greenfection” to raise awareness & urging the citizens of the nation to save the environment. The launch of the “Greenfection” campaign was marked by Green Lighting of 184-ft high grand white structure, Victoria Memorial and the 17- storey Tata Centre – icons of Kolkata.

Explaining the rational behind the campaign Mr. Sanjay Choudhry, Chief, Corporate Affairs, Communications, Tata Steel said, “At Tata Steel we believe actions by a group of people or organizations won’t be enough. It needs to spread exponentially, like something infectious. Greenfection is the consciousness and resolution to impact the environment in a positive way. That is what we want to spread. From person to person, from cities to villages and vice versa; till the whole nation is infected with the will to make a change to create a greener, happier future.”

He also added, “As part of the campaign, Tata Steel will take several on-ground initiatives to take the message closer to people. We will use all possible mediums like social networking sites, schools and eco clubs, campus activation to draw everyone’s attention to ecological concerns on the occasion of World Environment Day to attract participation from youth to save the environment.”

Tata Steel has partnered with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature - India) and will be using their nature clubs in schools across 10 cities in India and will conduct a tree planting campaign. Further, the company is introducing “Plant a Sapling” programme for all the employees on the World Environment Day across all locations of Tata Steel. Screening of films on environment for the school children, interactive sessions on environment are some of the other programmes happening.

Tata Steel has been investing in environmental sustainability and has played a vital role in boosting the biodiversity of the areas where it operates. The company over the years has taken several environmental initiatives for the conservation, preservation and restoration of flora/fauna/biodiversity and has focused on five principal areas of environment management: optimizing all the natural resources to their fullest extent, focusing on water conservation and management, waste utilization and energy conservation, pollution control (to reduce CO2 emissions) and land reclamation along with protection of forest cover.

The company’s commitment towards environmental issues associated with steel production processes is reflected in its Vision 2012 - to reduce CO2 emissions to less than 1.7 tonnes per liquid tonne of steel (t/tls) by 2012. Further, Tata Steel has established a separate Environment Department inside the Works to constantly monitor the air and water pollution and take remedial measures accordingly. It established a separate section in the steel works to carry out plantation works on the unused areas in the works, create lawns and gardens, to carry out road side avenues, also to save the undisturbed pockets of natural habitats.

About Tata Steel
Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel Group is among the top ten global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of over 28 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). It is now the world's second-most geographically-diversified steel producer, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Tata Steel Group, with a turnover of US$ 29 billion in FY '09, has over 80,000 employees across five continents and is a Fortune 500 company. The Group’s vision is to be the world’s steel industry benchmark in “Value Creation” and “Corporate Citizenship” through the excellence of its people, its innovative approach and overall conduct. Underpinning this vision is a performance culture committed to aspirational targets, safety and social responsibility, continuous improvement, openness and transparency. In 2008, Tata Steel India became the first integrated steel plant in the world, outside Japan, to be awarded the Deming Application Prize 2008 for excellence in Total Quality Management.