By Venkat Garimella, VP – Sustainability for Greater India, Schneider Electric India
India’s energy transition stands at a defining crossroads where ambition must meet delivery and climate intent must translate into operational change. What began as long-term net-zero pledges has become a present-day performance imperative. In 2025, net-zero is no longer a distant milestone; it is the new baseline. The distinction is no longer who has set targets, but who is delivering transformation. In this new landscape, credible businesses are reimagining net-zero not as a side goal, but as a core operating model that reshapes how they plan, invest, govern, and grow. This is not just a climate strategy. It is a business strategy for a decarbonising world.
Making ESG the engine of long-term growth
Across boardrooms and investor meetings, environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance has moved from the margins to the center of enterprise value. Investors, regulators, and customers now assess ESG outcomes as leading indicators of resilience, competitiveness, and long-term growth.
For Indian companies, this is both a challenge and a generational opportunity. Domestically, frameworks such as the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report and the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme are making ESG integral to governance and compliance. Globally, market access is increasingly tied to meeting sustainability benchmarks, including mechanisms such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Evidence from global studies shows that companies with strong ESG integration secure better access to capital, greater stakeholder trust, and higher operational efficiency. This requires moving beyond disclosures to embedding ESG in business strategy, capital allocation, and operating models — influencing everything from sustainable supply chains and circular operations to workforce diversity and governance standards. The decade ahead will be defined by those who treat ESG as a strategic growth driver, aligning sustainability with innovation, cost efficiency, and market expansion.
Managing scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions is central to net-zero success
Achieving net-zero demands a complete view of emissions across scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled operations. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heat or cooling. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions across the value chain, from raw materials and transportation to product use and end-of-life.
For most companies, scope 3 represents nearly 70 percent of total emissions and is the hardest to measure and influence. Yet regulators, investors, and customers increasingly demand transparency at this level.
The opportunity lies in turning scope 3 action into a competitive advantage. Leading companies are mapping value chain emissions, collaborating with suppliers, and using digital tools for real-time tracking and reporting. In manufacturing, this means sourcing low-carbon materials, optimising transport routes, and designing products with lower lifetime footprints. These steps reduce carbon exposure, prepare businesses for emerging carbon pricing, and strengthen their position in sustainability-conscious markets.
Electrification and digitalisation as the twin engines of decarbonisation
It is at the intersection of the digital and the electric that the foundations of a sustainable future are built. Electrification is the most effective vector of decarbonisation, replacing fossil-based systems with cleaner and more efficient alternatives. Digitalisation, powered by artificial intelligence, provides the intelligence to optimise these systems across their lifecycle. From design and build to operate and maintain, digital technology enables the creation of energy twins, process twins and infrastructure twins. These virtual models allow organisations to simulate outcomes, anticipate risks and maximise efficiency before physical assets are deployed. In practice, this means infrastructure can be designed with precision, projects can be built with minimal waste, and operations can be continuously optimised through predictive analytics.
By aligning digital models with real-world performance, businesses can improve reliability, reduce costs and deliver stronger environmental outcomes. Digital and electric are not separate pathways but converging forces that transform ambition into measurable progress and shape the sustainable infrastructure of the future.
The way forward for Indian Inc.
The path to net-zero is no longer defined by ambition alone, but by execution at scale. For Indian companies, the opportunity lies in integrating ESG into core business strategy, tackling scope 3 emissions through value chain collaboration and deploying electrification and digitalisation as the twin engines of decarbonisation.
Those who act now will not only meet compliance requirements but will position themselves as preferred partners in global markets that value low-carbon, resilient and socially responsible business models. The coming decade will reward companies that treat sustainability not as a constraint but as a driver of competitiveness. The time to move from targets to transformation is now, and the businesses that harness the power of digital plus electric will shape both India’s economic growth and its net-zero future.
