ReNew India Initiative is focussed on empowering communities and improving their quality of life through education and giving them means of livelihood in alignment with ReNew’s vision and mission. The program is based on three broad indicators of development: Human, Social and Natural capital.
As we move closer to the 2-degree Celsius threshold and rapidly use up the carbon budget, the adverse effects of climate change become more and more apparent, with anthropogenic activities exacerbating environmental degradation. The low-income communities and the marginalized face the greatest degree of climate risk, due to maximum exposure to the devastating impacts of climate change, be it on agriculture, livelihoods, health, water security, human rights, displacement and so on.
Among these communities, women and children are most vulnerable, and there is an urgent need for sustained solutions to safeguard them from these impending threats. Keeping gender parity and a brighter future for the youth in focus, building resilience against climate change within these communities becomes critical.
As a renewable energy company, our core business has positive cascading effects on various aspects of sustainable development, permeating right down to the last mile and empowering communities in rural areas where we have our operations. Our overarching goal is to act as a responsible corporate and arrest the worryingly rapid pace of climate change through well-planned initiatives focused on building resilient communities.
At ReNew, we work closely with local communities to create a positive impact on the communities in which we operate, both directly and indirectly. We strive to identify needs in local communities for our community development programs and have open and transparent dialogues with relevant stakeholders.
The process starts with undertaking a detailed Environment Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for all potential projects. The exercise is aimed to assess and predict potential adverse social and environmental impacts and to develop suitable mitigation measures. The outcome of the study helps the CSR team develop its broad framework for social responsibility initiatives which is followed by a detailed community need-assessment exercise to map the baseline data and community expectations.
ReNew has a adopted a robust planning process to design and implement its various social responsibility initiatives. Community consultation is an integral aspect of this process. At ReNew, social responsibility initiatives are designed through a bottom-up approach, keeping in mind macro-level socio-economic challenges that run through the length and breadth of the country.
A match of both of these, any social program that is implemented across ReNew’s areas of operations undergoes a formal community consultation. Key principles followed during community consultations are as follows:
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- Integrity – Every consultation is open and transparent.
- Inclusive – Every consultation is inclusive from a stakeholder viewpoint to ensure that a full range of perspectives are included.
- Responsive – Every consultation is in form of a dialogue to assess accurate Information
Following are the methods and approaches adopted towards community consultations:
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- Focussed group discussions
- One-to-one interviews with key informant groups
- Surveys
Stakeholder engagement is an integral element of the program planning process. It improves the understanding of local conditions and stakeholders’ concerns and is essential for identifying effective strategies for mitigating negative impacts.
Stakeholder strategy
| Stakeholder |
Mode of engagement |
Outcome |
| Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) |
Consultation meetings, monthly planning and review meetings |
Plans for community development, monthly review and audit of CSR program |
| Local Government |
One-to-one meeting with district officials |
Effective and smooth implementation of CSR activities, communication of the CSR program at district level |
| Panchayats |
Frequent one-to-one meeting with Sarpanch, Gram Sevaks and other PRI members for effective implementation |
Convergence with government schemes, smooth implementation of CSR program |
| Local Communities |
Community level village meetings, Participatory Rural Appraisal for village mapping and need identification |
Identification of the needs of the community, bottoms up planning of CSR interventions |
| ReNew Business Teams |
Random field visits by business team members |
Effective monitoring of CSR programs ensuring gap analysis and continual improvement |
At ReNew, there is a dedicated team which works in close conjunction with business teams to plan, develop, supervise, and monitor social development programmes.
The roles and responsibilities of the team Include:
