<a href="https://www.metlife.com/about-us/corporate-responsibility/metlife-foundation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MetLife Foundation</a> and <a href="https://www.onestage.co.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OneStage </a>have launched &#8216;Plastic-Free Gurugram,&#8217; a sustainability programme aiming to reach over 100,000 residents by cutting single-use plastic use and improving waste management. 



Unveiled during <a href="https://www.pnbmetlife.com/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.pnbmetlife.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PNB MetLife&#8217;s</a> 25th anniversary, it engages RWAs, institutions, and malls. 



A baseline survey of 228 respondents found 84.4% segregate waste at home, but 77.8% still use disposables at gatherings.

MetLife, OneStage launch plastic-free Gurugram initiative

<a href="https://www.pepsico.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PepsiCo </a>said on Thursday its PepsiCo Positive (pep+) sustainability programme is driving measurable growth across its global operations, with India emerging as a key market for the initiative&#8217;s expansion.



In its 2025 ESG Performance Update, the company said it has extended regenerative, restorative and protective farming practices to 4.7 million acres across more than 60 countries, achieved 100% water replenishment at company-owned facilities in high-water-risk areas, and cut virgin plastic use in primary packaging by 6%.



&#8220;We&#8217;re excited by the momentum we&#8217;re building as pep+ continues to transform our business end to end,&#8221; said Jim Andrew, PepsiCo&#8217;s chief sustainability officer. He said the company is &#8220;evolving our product portfolio to offer more choices&#8221; while strengthening the business for the long term.



In India, PepsiCo Positive is being implemented through the company&#8217;s Partnership for Progress philosophy, which engages roughly 36,000 farmers across 14 states. The company sources 100% of its chip-grade potatoes locally in the country.



&#8220;In India, our growth is deeply connected to the strength and resilience of the ecosystem around us,&#8221; said Yashika Singh, chief corporate affairs officer and sustainability head for PepsiCo India &amp; South Asia, adding that the approach turns interdependence into shared growth across farmers, communities and consumers.



The company has partnered with start-ups to bring digital tools to its farmer network. Its Mitti Didi initiative offers soil-health diagnostics to thousands of farmers, while the Lay&#8217;s Smart Farms programme, developed with Cropin, spans more than 18,000 mapped acres and reaches over 7,000 farmers. Micro-irrigation has reached full adoption across key potato-sourcing regions, including more than 2,300 acres in Uttar Pradesh.



On water, PepsiCo said its Pune manufacturing facility has cut water use by more than 90%, part of a broader effort that has replenished 23 billion litres of water globally since 2010 and reached about 97 million people with safe water access.



The company is also advancing circularity in India, complying with local Extended Producer Responsibility rules and redesigning packaging with mono-material and polyolefin-based structures, alongside a shift to 100% rPET bottles for select beverage products. Biomass now makes up 97% of PepsiCo India&#8217;s fuel mix.



On transport, the Kosi–Pataudi EV Green Corridor, run with Kalyani Powertrain Limited and Vayudoot Road Carriers, operates thirteen 32-foot electric trucks covering roughly 6 lakh electric kilometres annually. PepsiCo India has retrofitted more than 800 vehicles for last-mile delivery.



The company said more than half of its beverage portfolio by volume in India is now low- or zero-sugar, alongside new offerings such as Red Rock Deli baked variants with 40% less fat and millet-based Kurkure Jowar Puffs.

PepsiCo Positive drives sustainable growth across India

Hitachi Vantara, the data infrastructure and hybrid cloud unit of <a href="https://www.hitachivantara.com/sustainability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hitachi Ltd.</a> (TSE: 6501), said on Thursday it has set a validated net-zero target to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions across its global value chain by fiscal year 2040.



The company said its near- and long-term emissions targets have been independently validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a body that sets standards for corporate climate goals, giving customers and partners assurance the plan aligns with current climate science.



The announcement comes as data centers face mounting scrutiny over energy use tied to the AI boom. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48646" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Congressional Research Service report</a> cited by the company found cooling systems account for 38% to 40% of data center electricity consumption, underscoring the stakes for infrastructure providers.



&#8220;Customers increasingly expect their technology suppliers to demonstrate that their climate commitments are credible and backed by action,&#8221; said Simon Ninan, senior vice president of business strategy at Hitachi Vantara. He said the validated net-zero target &#8220;holds us accountable to measurable progress.&#8221;



Under the near-term plan, Hitachi Vantara aims to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions 98% by FY2030 from an FY2024 baseline, and reduce Scope 3 emissions 51% per usable petabyte of storage sold by FY2036. The long-term goal calls for a 97% cut in Scope 3 emissions per petabyte sold by FY2040.



The company said it reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions 43% in FY2025, helped by sourcing half its energy from renewables. It has also expanded sustainability features across its VSP One storage platform and is aligning products with Hitachi&#8217;s Eco-Design Management Guidelines.



Hitachi Vantara pointed to customer results from its VSP 360 Clear Sight monitoring tool: Turkey&#8217;s DestekBank cut data center energy use 25% and total cost of ownership 20%; India&#8217;s Malayala Manorama reduced power and cooling costs 70% and rack space 66%; Turkey&#8217;s Garanti BBVA estimated its Hitachi Vantara systems use about 30% less energy than rival systems; and Brazil&#8217;s Aquiris used the platform to support wastewater treatment operations processing more than 110 million cubic meters annually.



&#8220;Sustainability is most effective when it is embedded into decision-making across the organization,&#8221; said Courtney Hadden, sustainability director at Hitachi Vantara, adding that the SBTi validation gives the company &#8220;a clear, science-based framework&#8221; to track progress.

Hitachi Vantara commits to validated net-zero by 2040

The <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gates Foundation </a>said on Tuesday it would spend at least USD 1 billion over the next two years to widen access to artificial intelligence, a bold bet that the technology can narrow rather than widen the gap between rich and poor countries.



The commitment was unveiled alongside the foundation&#8217;s <a href="https://www.gatesfoundation.org/goalkeepers/report/2026-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">10th annual Goalkeepers Report</a>, titled &#8220;Make This Matter: AI, Equity, and the Choice We Can&#8217;t Delay.&#8221; The report argues that the window to shape who benefits from AI, and how quickly, is closing fast.



Under the plan, 40% of the money will go to education, including AI tutoring designed to individualize student learning and teaching tools for classrooms in the United States and abroad. Another 40% is earmarked for health care, spanning diagnostics, clinical decision support for frontline health workers, maternal and newborn care tools, and drug and vaccine discovery.



A further 10% will support agriculture, including AI-generated advice tailored to smallholder farmers&#8217; soil, weather and crop conditions. The remaining 10% will fund digital infrastructure, such as building datasets in languages current models do not yet understand.



The Gates Foundation AI strategy rests on three priorities set out in the report: making tools work in every language people speak, designing them around the contexts where they will actually be used, and investing in the people and access needed for communities to shape the technology themselves.



More than 90% of the data used to train early large language models came from English-language sources, the report said, leaving many communities poorly represented in the systems built on that data. It also calls for countries and communities to decide how their own data is managed and protected.



Bill Gates, chair of the foundation, wrote that the organization was created in part to address a basic market failure, in which those with the greatest needs have the least power to steer innovation and investment. AI presents the same challenge, he wrote, only at far greater speed, because the most capable tools will be built first for those most able to pay.



&#8220;We can harness AI for good. But it won&#8217;t happen by accident,&#8221; Gates wrote, adding that success should be measured not only by what AI does for the most profitable users but by what it does for the people who stand to gain the most.



The foundation said its funding would scale up partners already working to close access gaps, with examples cited from clinics, classrooms and small farms. It also urged technology companies, governments and other philanthropies to commit resources, expertise and public advocacy, noting that affordable access will require action from industry as well as public investment.



The Seattle-based foundation is led by Chief Executive Mark Suzman under the direction of Gates and its governing board. Goalkeepers is its campaign to accelerate progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Gates Foundation AI push: bold USD 1 billion health pledge

Two weeks after devastating Nepal-Tibet floods swept through the border region near Gyirong Port, 77 participants of<a href="https://isha.sadhguru.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Isha Foundation&#8217;</a>s<a href="https://kmy.gov.in/?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Kailash Manasarovar </a>Sojourn and three volunteers remain unaccounted for, the organization said in an update on Saturday.



&#8220;77 participants of the Kailash Manasarovar Sojourn and 3 volunteers remain unaccounted for. This number is unchanged since our last update. The authorities have indicated that identification work at the site is ongoing and, given the conditions, may take considerable time,&#8221; it said in a statement.



Isha Foundation said it remains in contact with Chinese, Indian and Nepali authorities, as well as embassies representing 19 countries, to track information on those affected by the Nepal-Tibet floods. Identification details and photographs have been shared with search-and-rescue teams where appropriate, the group said.



Access to the site remains restricted on both sides of the border. Chinese authorities have barred private individuals and organizations from the Gyirong Port area for forensic and rescue operations, while Nepali authorities have similarly restricted access on their side. Isha volunteers stationed in Gyirong Town were required to leave after Chinese authorities limited the area to official personnel only.



In Nepal, around 25 local volunteers have been coordinating with hospitals, mortuaries, police and government offices, sharing documentation with Nepal Police, Nepal Tourist Police and the Nepali Army to widen search efforts, according to the statement.



International media were granted access to the site on day 12 of the response, though the organization said subsequent coverage had not produced new factual developments.



Isha Foundation said it is also assisting families with practical matters, including coordinating with a Nepal tour operator and DHL to ship belongings left behind by participants in Kathmandu. The group operates a hotline and email address across eight countries and said it aims to respond to inquiries within 24 hours.



The organization reiterated it will not release names, images or personal details of affected individuals to protect their privacy, and pledged to continue sharing verified updates as new information emerges from the Nepal-Tibet floods response.



Contact: <a href="mailto:yatra.kailash@ishausa.org">yatra.kailash@ishausa.org</a>

Two weeks after devastating Nepal-Tibet floods: 77 Isha Foundation pilgrims still unaccounted

<a href="https://www.fleetguard-filtrum.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fleetguard Filters Pvt Ltd (FFPL)</a>, a manufacturer of filtration solutions for on- and off-highway applications, said its annual blood donation camps across Pune concluded this week with a cumulative collection of 773 units of blood.



The blood donation camps were held across four locations — Loni, Wadki, Nandur and Baner — as part of the company&#8217;s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, with the final camp at Baner concluding on September 9.



Loni recorded 270 donations, followed by Nandur with 332 and Wadki with 126, bringing participation across the three manufacturing sites to 728 units. The corporate office in Baner added a further 45 donations, taking the overall total for this year&#8217;s blood donation camps to 773.



The company said the camps, held annually across its Pune offices and manufacturing plants, form part of its broader focus on healthcare and preventive healthcare under its CSR initiatives.



Niranjan Kisloskar, Managing Director, Fleetguard Filters Pvt Ltd., said the company&#8217;s responsibility toward surrounding communities extended beyond its business operations. He said the blood donation camps gave employees a simple but meaningful way to contribute to a cause that could directly support lives in need, adding that participation levels reflected employees&#8217; commitment to social impact.



Fleetguard said its CSR initiatives are aimed at creating long-term social value through programmes spanning healthcare, education, environment, rural development and community welfare, with healthcare and preventive healthcare — including blood donation and health camps — remaining a core focus area.



Fleetguard Filters Private Limited, established in 1987, is a filtration solutions provider partnered with Atmus Filtration Technologies, formerly Cummins Filtration U.S.A. The company holds NABL accreditation and serves on- and off-highway applications across multiple industries.

Fleetguard blood donation camps collect 773 units in Pune

<a href="https://renvion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Renvion Solutions Private Limited </a>said on Thursday it had begun operations on an integrated South Delhi waste collection and transportation project, deploying the city&#8217;s first large-scale zero-emission collection fleet under a public-private concession with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).



The project, run through special-purpose vehicle South Delhi MSW Solutions Private Limited, was awarded via a three-stage Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (DBFOT) tender. It covers 23 wards across roughly 190 square kilometres and is designed to process about 1,400 tonnes of waste daily.



The South Delhi waste collection network will consolidate door-to-door collection from households, businesses and institutions with street sweeping, drain silt, horticulture and domestic hazardous waste, including sanitary waste, company officials said.



Renvion said the initiative marks a transformative shift for the capital&#8217;s sanitation infrastructure, introducing an all-electric, BS-VI-compliant primary and secondary collection fleet aimed at cutting emissions and noise in dense residential areas. The company added the project would create more than 2,000 jobs in the zone.



Operations will be backed by a Command &amp; Control Centre using GPS tracking, RFID-tagged vehicles and containers, and weighbridge systems with geofencing and infrared monitoring. Sixty Fixed Compactor Transfer Stations will anchor secondary waste transport.



Delhi Mayor Pravesh Wahi, speaking at the launch event, said 176 new vehicles were being inducted and that five wards — Green Park, Greater Kailash, Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj and Chittaranjan Park — had been prioritized for improved sanitation services. He said source segregation remained essential to the project&#8217;s success.



Ishaan Alla, Chief Executive Officer of Renvion Solutions Private Limited, said the project reflected a shift toward integrated, technology-enabled environmental infrastructure and demonstrated the company&#8217;s commitment to building systems that recover value for growing cities.



Renvion operates in seven countries, processing more than 6 million tonnes of waste annually across over 30 facilities and generating more than 750 million units of green electricity each year through its Waste-to-Energy operations, the company said.

Renvion debuts South Delhi waste collection overhaul

In a major push for rural development,<a href="https://www.hclfoundation.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> HCL Foundation </a>and the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced a landmark extension of their Samuday partnership, renewing the flagship rural development programme for another five years, through 2031.



The two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony in Lucknow, in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister and Rural Development Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Minister of State for Rural Development Vijay Laxmi Gautam, and senior government officials.



Maurya said the state government remains committed to integrated rural development, noting that the Samuday partnership had driven significant change in Hardoi district over the past 11 years, and that the renewed MoU aims to replicate this transformation in other districts of Uttar Pradesh.



Since its launch in Hardoi in 2015, the Samuday partnership by HCL Foundation has grown into one of India&#8217;s largest government-CSR collaborations. The programme now spans 579 Gram Panchayats across 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh, reaching more than 3 million people. It is also active in 95 Gram Panchayats in Tamil Nadu&#8217;s Thoothukudi district, benefiting over 140,000 residents.



Under the renewed Samuday partnership, focus areas will include strengthening rural livelihoods, improving education and healthcare access, promoting climate-resilient agriculture, advancing water and sanitation infrastructure, empowering Panchayati Raj institutions, and deepening convergence with government schemes, besides extending the programme&#8217;s footprint to additional districts.



Dr Nidhi Pundhir, Director, HCL Foundation, said the organisation works closely with communities and government bodies to strengthen rural ecosystems and build development models that can be scaled across geographies. She added that the past decade of the Samuday partnership had shown how government, communities and the private sector could jointly deliver lasting impact, and that HCL Foundation looks forward to deepening this collaboration.



Samuday&#8217;s impact since 2015:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Over 1.99 million people reached through health and nutrition programmes</li>



<li>More than 534,000 students benefited from improved learning environments</li>



<li>113,000+ farmers supported with better agricultural practices</li>



<li>85,000+ youth and women aided through livelihood initiatives</li>



<li>2,224 kWp of renewable energy infrastructure created</li>



<li>2,300+ households covered under waste management interventions</li>
</ul>



HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCLTech, has so far impacted over 8.5 million lives across its programmes in education, sports, health, sanitation, skilling, livelihood and environmental sustainability.

HCL Foundation, UP govt renew Samuday pact till 2031

India’s Social Stock Exchange (SSE) is not a new bourse like NSE or BSE. It is a dedicated segment within these exchanges where not‑for‑profit organisations (NPOs) can raise money for social projects through listed instruments. The idea: use the familiar machinery of the stock market to route philanthropic and CSR capital, while improving transparency, governance and accountability.



What problem is it trying to solve? For years, companies mandated to spend on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) under Section 135 of the Companies Act have channelled funds via grants, trusts, foundations and government funds. But there was no regulated, market‑like platform that could:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Vet social enterprises in a standard way,</li>



<li>Disclose how money is being used, and</li>



<li>Let multiple funders participate in the same project with clear terms.</li>
</ul>



SEBI’s SSE, operational since 2023, was built to fill this gap.



How does it work?



Eligible NPOs register on the SSE and issue Zero Coupon Zero Principal (ZCZP) instruments. These are not typical bonds:



Zero coupon: Investors get no interest.



Zero principal: There is no repayment of the principal amount.



In effect, a ZCZP is a donation structured as a listed security. The money raised must be used for the NPO’s stated social projects, with disclosures on the exchange platform.



What changed in 2026? The big shift came on May 27, 2026, when the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) amended the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 and Schedule VII of the Companies Act. Two changes matter most:



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>ZCZP on SSE is now an eligible CSR activity</li>
</ol>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A new item (xiii) was inserted into Schedule VII: “Subscription to zero coupon zero principal instruments on Social Stock Exchange.”</li>
</ul>



 2. A 10% cap and an exemption



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Companies can now route up to 10% of their total CSR expenditure in a financial year into ZCZPs listed on SSE.</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>For this slice, they are exempt from conducting a separate impact assessment, which has been a major administrative burden for CSR teams.</li>
</ul>



In parallel, SEBI eased some SSE norms in April 2026, including extending the NPO registration window and lowering the minimum subscription threshold, to make it easier for credible NPOs to come in and for issues to succeed.



Why should companies and NGOs care? For companies, the SSE route offers:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A regulated channel to deploy part of CSR funds, with exchange‑style disclosures.</li>



<li>Lower compliance load for up to 10% of CSR spend, thanks to the impact‑assessment exemption.</li>



<li>The ability to co‑fund specific projects alongside other corporates through the same ZCZP issue.</li>
</ul>



For NPOs/NGOs, it offers:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Access to a national investor base (including retail with demat accounts), not just a few large donors.</li>



<li>A structure that can improve credibility and trust, given SEBI’s oversight and disclosure norms.</li>



<li>A potential path to scale recurring social programmes with clearer funding visibility.</li>
</ul>



Where is it headed? Despite the policy push, the government has not carried out any assessment on how much the ZCZP route will actually boost institutional CSR inflows, Parliament was told in August 2026. The key test now is adoption: whether CSR committees are comfortable routing part of their budgets through ZCZPs, and whether enough high‑quality NPO pipelines emerge to make the market meaningful.



Early movers are already testing the model. In August 2026, <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/social-stocks/from-pilots-to-policy-what-devi-sansthans-ladakh-mou-tells-us-about-social-finance-10123456/1774" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DEVI Sansthan</a>, an NPO working on foundational literacy, listed on the BSE SSE to mobilise resources for its programmes. Separately, a coalition led by ImpactScale Ventures, with support from NSE, SEBI’s advisory committee and US TIFA, announced a TB‑focused thematic raise on SSE, aiming to help 15+ TB NGOs register and 8–10 list projects to raise around Rs 50 crore via <a href="https://www.csrvoice.com/post/social-stocks/no-assessment-zczp-instruments-csr-funds-government/1753" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ZCZPs</a>.



The bottom line The Social Stock Exchange does not replace traditional CSR. It adds a regulated, market‑linked option for a slice of CSR money, with the promise of greater transparency and easier compliance for that portion. The 2026 amendments—especially the 10% cap and impact‑assessment exemption—are designed to nudge companies to try the route. Whether SSE becomes a meaningful channel for India’s CSR pool will depend on how quickly credible NPOs list, and how comfortable boards become with this new instrument

Social Stock Exchange: A Game-Changer for CSR in 2026

<a href="https://ariesagro.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aries Agro Limited</a>, a specialty plant nutrition company, said on Sunday it is expanding its Aries Agro CSR initiatives in 2026 through two technology-driven programmes designed to empower underserved communities in education and healthcare.



The company said the initiatives would directly reach more than 2,000 rural students, 55 visually impaired individuals and 90 upper-limb amputees across India, combining digital infrastructure, assistive devices and rehabilitation support.



Rural Education Push



Under the first programme, Aries Agro is setting up computer labs with laptops across eight rural schools in Rajasthan where digital access previously did not exist. Working with <a href="https://www.indivillage.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IndiVillage Foundation</a>, the company said the initiative will empower 600 girls aged 6 to 16 with training in coding, artificial intelligence, software design and game development, while 1,500 additional students will receive foundational digital literacy training.



Company officials said the goal is to close the rural digital and gender divide and build workforce-ready skills among young girls in technology fields.



Assistive Technology for Disabled



The second programme, according to the company, will empower 55 visually impaired college students and professionals in Lucknow and Ahmedabad with AI-powered smart glasses that convert printed text to audio in 20 languages and support object, currency and sign recognition.



Separately, Aries Agro is distributing electronically functional prosthetic hands, capable of lifting up to 10 kg, to 90 farmers and daily wage workers in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra who lost limbs in workplace accidents. The programme includes physiotherapy and counselling to help beneficiaries adapt long-term.



Key partners include Dr. Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University in Lucknow, Torchit Foundation and <a href="https://www.inali.in" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inali Foundation</a>, the company said.



Aries Agro said its broader CSR strategy aims to build lasting capability and infrastructure rather than provide one-time assistance, reinforcing its Aries Agro CSR initiatives as a long-term model for inclusive development.