15 January 2025
The Economic Times
Interviews
India’s leading decarbonisation
solutions provider ReNew Energy Global Plc has
secured the highest score for a pure play RE company in the Indian power sector
in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment
results, released last week. ReNew scored 71 out of 100. In FY 2023,
it scored 55.
In an interview with KumKum Dasgupta,
Vaishali Nigam Sinha, co-founder and chairperson of sustainability
at ReNew, discusses the significance of new rating and the company’s
efforts to foster a strong ESG culture.
What does S&P
rating signify for ReNew?
It is a testament to our continuous
focus on embedding sustainability in everything we do and delivering quantum
leaps in ESG-centered growth. Above everything else, the rating underscores our
commitment to not only pushing the envelope on what's achievable but also
setting new benchmarks to bolster the clean energy transition in India.
India’s RE sector
is growing. But what is the kind of skill gap in the sector?
The RE sector is evolving rapidly, and so is the demand for skills—engineering
skills and technical vocations being among the most critical. Unfortunately, there
is a significant skill gap in emerging technologies like green hydrogen, energy
storage, and advanced grid integration. Within technical engineering, there is a
high demand for digital skills, especially in advanced analytics and data
analysis. As we progress toward more advanced projects incorporating AI, data
analytics, and digital twin technology, these skills are becoming increasingly
vital.
Skills related to the operation and handling of OEM machinery are also
crucial. Project management skills are in high demand to address technical and
logistical aspects of projects. In a largely male-dominated industry, it’s
essential to increase the participation of women leaders and leverage the
benefits of a more diverse workforce.
What’s the level of women’s representation in the sector?
Women make up 11% of the workforce in India’s RE industry, significantly
lower than the global average of 32%. However, this percentage is still higher
than the representation of women in other energy industries, including coal,
oil & gas, and electric utilities. When we look at the rooftop solar
sector, the workforce is far from gender parity. The proportion of women in
office-based roles such as design, pre-construction, and corporate operations
is higher compared to other areas of the value chain (18% and 34%,
respectively). However, women make up only about 1% of the workforce in
operations and maintenance and less than 3% in construction and commissioning.
How is ReNew addressing the twin challenges of the skills gap and
women’s participation?
We view the skill shortage as an opportunity to cultivate a
skilled workforce. Our approach to addressing the skill gap and ensuring
diversity begins at the talent pipeline level. Through strategic partnerships
with governments, multilateral institutions, and educational bodies, we focus
on both fostering cutting-edge technology and skilled individuals.
Our two key projects:
Project Surya trains
low-income women salt pan workers in the Little Rann of Kutch as solar panel
and solar pump technicians. Green Tech
Accelerator supports women entrepreneurs in innovating and accelerating
climate solutions. At the entry-level, our talent acquisition team is bringing
in an increasing number of female graduate engineer trainees and diploma
engineer trainees into STEM roles. In the past four years, we've hired and
trained more than 200 individuals under these programmes, with women accounting
for 12.9% of our STEM hires in FY 2024. Similarly, at the mid-and senior
levels, we empower women through training and mentoring programmes. ReNew has
committed to having 30% women in the workforce by 2030, and we’ve achieved 40%
diversity at the board level. Beyond our diversity initiatives, we’ve also
established ReNew Academy to promote a culture of empowerment, continuous
learning, and innovation. By 2030, we aim to significantly increase female
representation in STEM roles across all levels, not just through recruitment
but also by promoting internal mobility and upskilling opportunities for women.
Currently, ReNew's gender ratio stands at 14%, which is better than the
industry average, and for our sites across the country, we have 9% diversity.
Two of our solar facilities are all-women sites run by women engineers.
What are STEM initiatives to enhance women’s participation?
Our talent acquisition team actively recruits female graduate engineer
trainees (GETs) and diploma engineer trainees into STEM roles, focusing on
all-women colleges to promote diversity at the entry-level. This initiative has
led us to achieve a campus hiring diversity percentage of 52%. Our STEM target
for FY24 was 10%, and we’ve already achieved 12% women in all STEM roles. Nearly
30% of the Green Tech Accelerator cohort is made up of women (7 out of 25
entrepreneurs). The Recruit HER initiative focuses on hiring more women,
particularly in middle and senior-level management roles, eliminating biases, enhancing
diversity, and encouraging more female leaders. This initiative is also part
ofthe company’s KPIs. Employees at ReNew are encouraged to refer women
candidates for job opportunities, with enablement guidelines requiring 25% of
CVs shared for senior roles to be from diverse candidates and 100% of placement
hiring for exiting women to be diversity hires. Importantly, we ensure zero
gender-based wage disparity through regular audits and benchmarking studies. We
have conducted pay-parity assessments for four consecutive years. Our managers
also undergo gender sensitisation training to eliminate biases in performance
evaluations.
Vaishali Nigam Sinha (COFOUNDER – RENEW & CHAIRPERSON –
SUSTAINABILITY)
Urji Calculator