Sustainability @Arihant: How Arihant Capital is Committed to Reducing its Carbon Footprint
Investing is at the heart of everything we do. At Arihant Capital, we strive to master the art of investing with a heart. We celebrate the 5th of June as World Environment Day, and this time we took it as an opportunity to look back at how Arihant Capital has reduced its carbon footprint over the previous year.
Just as we advise investors in the stock markets to have a long-term investment horizon, we take a long-term, measured approach in our actions. This way, we can make meaningful and sustainable steps and act as true champions of our clients and investors. We look at the world through your eyes and keep your values and perspectives at the heart of everything we do.
Let us start with the basics: a carbon footprint is a measure of the impact that we have on our environment.
Being good stewards of our environment, we recognize that our environmental footprint has an impact on the climate at large. We take appropriate steps to conduct our business in ways that reduce and mitigate our environmental impact. These steps include increasing efficiency in our business processes and in our energy use. Smart investments, such as the use of energy-efficient LEDs in all our offices and the use of the latest technology have helped us significantly improve our carbon footprint.
“The best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the next best time is NOW.”
With this in mind, Arihant Capital ran a month-wide campaign with a famous environmentalist, Prasiddhi Singh promoting both financial and environmental health.
Start a SIP, Plant a Tree
We collaborated with Prasiddhi Singh, a child prodigy who has made it her life’s mission to make actionable changes for the environment. Prasiddhi has led the plantation drive for thousands of trees and 14 forests. Arihant Capital and Prasiddhi worked together and this collaboration promoted investment in both the financial and environmental future.
Through its various initiatives, Arihant Capital helped in the plantation of more than 500 trees in and around Indore.
Employee Education: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Did you know 10 lac water bottles are sold every minute worldwide? And that close to 89% of these plastic bottles end up in landfills – polluting our oceans, endangering marine life and our health too.
At Arihant, we actively promote sustainable lifestyle habits among our employees. Sustainability has always been at the heart of our business – whether it is taking care of our employees, giving back to the communities or taking care of the environment.
We use various media to educate our employees, and channel partners to reduce the usage of plastic bottles countrywide. Removing plastic water bottles from companies equals less waste, less cost, and less maintenance. We are proud to say that we provide point-of-use (POU) water filtration systems in our offices countrywide to cut down on single-use plastic bottles.
Our staff are encouraged to use separate bins for different type of waste materials. Segregating waste materials makes recycling easier- the dry waste can be recycled and the wet waste is sent to the city administration for composting.
An average Indian has 2-3 cups of tea one day. Multiply that by the number of employees in a company and you have a mountain of single-use cups in one month, just for tea!
Here’s a quick look at some figures:
- By switching to reusable ceramic cups instead of single-use paper cups, we save close to 2 lakh cups every year from ending up in landfills or in the oceans.
- By encouraging reusable water bottles with our point-of-use filteration systems we prevent the use of 2.8 lakh single-use water bottles in one year.
Research indicates that avoiding meat is one of the biggest things an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental impact – even more than switching to a hybrid car. We are proud to say that Arihant is a meat-free company – we do not serve meat, or other animal-foods, at any of our offices, or while hosting any events and does not allow staff from expensing meals containing meat.
Responsible Workflows
The financial broking segment was riddled with paperwork. With the advent of technology and the internet, the industry has evolved. In our digitization push, we have made all client reports available online. Customers can now access digital statements from the Arihant mobile app and WhatsApp; perform online transfers and even open an account online.
Arihant Capital recently announced the launch of its new eKYC platform. This is a completely paperless process involving the use of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning technologies to verify personal details. This portal leverages secure NSDL and UIDAI-backend databases to verify a client’s identity. It also makes bank verification paperless using secure transfers. With the new process, even In-Person Verification is not required. This easy-to-use eKYC journey will significantly contribute to reducing our carbon footprint.
Similarly, in all aspects of our operations, we’re improving efficiencies, streamlining and creating paperless workflows. We also take utmost care in choosing vendors that care as much as we do and are working on building strong internal sustainability practices.
Empowering Budding Eco-warriors
“Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world”
Nelson Mandela
On the occasion of World Environment Day, we conducted a drawing competition for kids on the theme of environmental conservation. Some beautiful drawings emerged, but the winner at the end of the day was Mother Earth.
As many as 30 young and enthusiastic eco-warriors learnt about the significance of sustainable choices. They saw how small actions within their control can make a huge difference in a fun and interactive session. We gifted the kids plantable stationery containing seeds of various plants which can be grown at home.
Sustainable Investing
Actions like greenhouse emissions, racial discrimination, and bad governance, were often overlooked for great financial performance in big corporations. It is time for that to change! We strive to drive a change in the mindset of investors and value companies not only by the rupees they earn but also by their impact on society. This is known as ESG investing.
Our company’s leadership has always highlighted the importance of ESG investing. Our research and marketing team strive to publish only those calls that “feel” right to invest in. We constantly track the developments in the sustainability theme to educate our investors about its prospects. We evaluate companies using sustainability criteria while evaluating their financial performance.
ESG Investment Products
Increasingly, individual and institutional clients are looking for ways to manage their portfolio risk by considering ESG themed products. They want focus on value-based investing to make an impact on the world. To meet these changing investment perspectives, Arihant is building sustainability-themed products. We are constantly investing in ways to offer products and services to empower clients with personalized ESG centric investing guidance.
At Arihant, currently, we are offering ESG mutual funds to our investors. Our research team is actively identifying companies with high ESG scores. We use all opportunities to educate our clients on the need for incorporating sustainability into their investments.
Arihant Capital, believe that small steps can make a big impact. A lot of work goes under the hood to ensure you get the right tools to invest in companies you believe in.
