Sustainability is not a CSR checkbox. It's now shaping boardroom decisions, executive pay and business strategy

Sustainability is no longer viewed as a compliance exercise by India Inc. Instead, companies are increasingly embedding it into core business strategy, with top executives saying it is becoming critical for growth, risk management and long-term competitiveness.

Speaking at the fifth edition of the Mint Sustainability Summit 2026, chief sustainability officers (CSOs) from some of India's largest business groups—including Aditya Birla Group, Tata Sons, Mahindra Group, JK Organisation, Piramal Pharma and Eternal—said sustainability today is as much about business opportunity and resilience as it is about environmental responsibility.

It is not just about meeting compliance requirements. It's about business risk, business opportunity and, in some cases, business survival, the executives said.

Leading by example

Piramal Pharma, whose businesses span contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), complex hospital generics (critical care) and consumer healthcare, chose to operate some of its plants on biomass despite coal being the cheaper alternative.

Ganesh Tripathy, global head of sustainability and EHS at Piramal Pharma Ltd, said sustainability initiatives should extend beyond business benefits and create value for society.

"We realised that if we want to do good and be in the top tier of sustainable companies we have to take the bullets ourselves…. Sustainability which you have to do should not just be something which is good for the business, no, it should be good for the mankind."

Tripathy added that the company's share of green energy operations has risen from 7% to 26% in just three years.

Driving accountability

At Tata Sons, the sustainability journey gathered momentum in 2021 with Project Aalingana, the group's roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 while investing in technologies for the future.

Chacko Thomas, group chief sustainability officer at Tata Sons, noted that the auto business of the conglomerate has a balance scorecard which carries a meaningful weight tied to sustainability performance, which directly affects bonuses.

“In Tata Motors, the balance scorecard has a certain very significant number attached to the sustainability, … the performance are impacted if you don’t meet that standards,” said Chacko Thomas.

Not every sustainability initiative, however, receives immediate board approval.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy projects often find support because they deliver financial returns within two to three years. Investments in areas such as water conservation and heat mitigation require greater persuasion.

“Heat is a subject we have been trying to get a lot more engagement on. From a climate risk perspective for India, heat and the impact from heat on labor productivity… Those are the areas where you really need to do a little bit more effort beyond the obvious things.” said Ankit Todi, chief sustainability officer at Mahindra group.

Learning quickly

When a good idea fails, the best remedy available is to admit that it went wrong. A similar kind of incident was faced by Deepinder Goyal led Eternal when the company built rest shelters for delivery partners consisting of phone charging points, washrooms.

Nobody used them, because the shelters weren't on the way to anywhere a delivery partner needed to be. "It is not the spend that people resist. It is the return on that spend, and is it really moving the needle on experience?" said Anjalli Ravi Kumar, chief sustainability officer at Eternal.

They changed the approach and partnered with petrol stations and restaurants instead where the delivery partners could take a stop.

Regulatory evolution

JK Organisation, which has businesses spanning tyres, cement and paper, believes India's sustainability regulations remain relatively limited for now.

Anil Kumar Makkar, group chief sustainability officer at JK Organisation, said Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) remains the primary mandatory requirement, with carbon trading likely to be the next major regulatory milestone.

"For large sectors such as cement, aluminium and steel from an export standpoint, if you look at the US the situation is not even as good as it is here. Major compliances requirements which are coming in the Indian industry are more focused from the European side."

Deeksha Vats, group chief sustainability officer at Aditya Birla Group, said the role of a CSO has evolved into that of a strategic advisor, helping businesses navigate changing regulations, risks and opportunities while recognising that every business operates differently.

“Understanding the context, understanding the ethos and the pace of organisation because what Ultratech can think can do in their journey and pace will be very different from what chemical can be. I think that's a very important thing to be able to contextualize to be able to therefore guide, advise and say care if this regulation is not feeling right to you,” she said.