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In an interaction with Urvi Shrivastav, Editorial Lead, BW ESG, BW Businessworld; Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India, talks about sustainability as part of a company’s goals and their role in the same.
What initiatives does Acer have in place to promote sustainable business practices?
Every company has a responsibility to promote a future where companies focus on a healthy environment. Being a technology-based company, we aim to offer institutions more options to reduce their carbon footprint. Acer recently launched its Vero series range of products globally and in India. For this and other initiatives we are shortlisted for RE 100 collaborator, and even awarded by the same one. We have taken initiatives in our product range as well as promoting a sustainable future through our services and product range.
How does the Vero series add to Acer’s sustainability index?
We strongly believe in reduce, reuse, recycle. This is firmly embedded in our Vero range, which is achieved using post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. 30 percent of the material used in the Vero series in PCR, that is, we have recycled the plastic. 50 percent of the caps comply with the PCR key. At the same time the Vero series is energy efficient, offering the same level of performance to the consumer. We are ensuring that by 2025, 30 percent of all our products contain PCR plastic. Likewise, we are working with most of our suppliers to ensure that they are all committed to RE 100 by 2025. Our aim is to achieve an 80 percent carbon reduction by 2050 compared to the baseline year of 2009.
What about the 2023 expansion plans for Acer, and how do you plan to make it a sustainable expansion?
One is to raise awareness among people about the need for a sustainable future by using less plastic. We have undertaken various initiatives for this, for example, we have our ‘Project Humanity’, where we educate our consumers on various forums to use less plastic. For our employees and suppliers, we are running less campaigns by raising awareness about using less power and how they can help the environment and the Earth. We have been recognized by the industry for these initiatives.
We also encourage consumers to practice the three Rs, that is, reduce, reuse and recycle, in all areas of their lives. For our supply chain partners, we have made it mandatory that they use more recyclable products. However, this is an area that requires a lot of effort. As far as 2023 plans are concerned we have introduced a series of Aero laptops. Moving forward, PCR-compliant products will be used on our desktops, keyboards, stationery and other products in the mobility category.
What lessons will you be taking from previous practices going forward, particularly in relation to the supply chain and the whole channel?
We’ve seen a pandemic but it’s a disruption we’ve never seen before. It made us all very health conscious. Recognizing this, we launched a series of ‘pure Acer’ products, including an air purifier. We are just getting into this product category, and as time goes by Acer will be launching many products from this family. We are trying to develop clean air, clean water and clean energy solutions.
The second part is towards ecosystems, where everyone is making an effort towards a better environment. Our initiatives include all stakeholders across the supply chain to ensure we become carbon neutral by 2050. We aim to achieve an 80 per cent carbon reduction across our ecosystem by 2050. as far as our omni channel is concerned, it is part of the environment. today. Due to the pandemic, more people have moved online for their day-to-day shopping. The convenience of online shopping has us moving in the same direction. We have partnered with major e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart, and we also have our own Acer e-store. At the same time there are consumers who want to see the look and feel of the product, see its features etc. which further pushes the omni channel idea.
Since Acer is a high-tech company it will be affected by recent developments like the launch of 5G. What will be Acer’s contribution to this new technology?
5G is currently in its early stages, but hopefully by 2023 the major telco service providers will have decided to offer this in at least major cities before expanding. It will be a game changer as it definitely gives better performance etc. Acer will be a strong gaming brand using the 5G initiatives. Being a technology first company, we were the first to launch a 5G laptop in 2021 itself worldwide.
Acer is also a proponent of Make In India, what initiatives has Acer taken in this area?
Acer is a strong proponent of the local touch of a global brand. As a result, when we started Acer in India in 1999, we started manufacturing in Pondicherry. The focus at that time was more on stationery products such as laptops and servers that were on the market at that time. We have been collaborating with the government to figure out how manufacturing can move to India, not only for local consumption but also for exports. Last year we entered the manufacture of monitors, tablets, and notebooks as product categories. We firmly believe that it is our responsibility to develop our ecosystem in India. So we are connected to some of the electronic manufacturing services, where we put the technology, the business, etc.
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