For Samir Somaiya, sustainability is a way of life rooted in responsible stewardship of nature, where economic growth, environmental care, and social well-being go hand in hand. He believes the future of the chemical industry lies in biorefineries, renewable feedstocks, regenerative agriculture, innovation, and collaborative research that delivers commercially viable, low-carbon solutions.
Views of Samir Somaiya, Chairman and Managing Director, Godavari Biorefineries.
Chemical Industry Digest (CID): What exactly does sustainability constitute for your company? What is your company’s policy on sustainability? How is sustainability influencing your company’s long-term business strategy and investment decisions? Do you view sustainability as an area to tap business opportunities?
Samir Somaiya (SS): Sustainability is fundamental to what we do. I want to quote two shlokas from our scriptures:
The first from the भूिम सू त-माता भूिम पु ॊहं पृिथ या:- meaning that the earth is my mother and I am her child.
The second:समु ्वसने देिव पवत नम डले । िव णुप नम तु यं पाद पश म व मੇ ॥ The mother goddess resides in the waters and the mountains. Forgive me for stepping on you.
The last line is पाद पश म व मੇ ॥ I have always thought of interpreting scriptures deeply, into how that can be translated into our daily lives. Forgive me for stepping on you means to have a light footprint. That translates into everything we do. We are a biorefinery. We convert agriculture derived biomass into foods, biofuels, electricity, bio-based chemicals and bio-materials. It has been and is our strategy for all times.
CID: How important is circular economy thinking in your manufacturing and product lifecycle strategies?
SS: Since we are a biorefinery, everything we do is circular. Our feedstock is derived from the land. We convert it to food, fuel, and bio-based chemicals. In this, we also co-create with the farmers to see whether their farming practices could also be made more circular and sustainable. We research on Principles of regenerative agriculture, intercropping combined with remote sensing and soil analysis to improve soil health and consequently crop yields. More than 80% of our energy for steam comes from biomass, and the majority of our feedstock.
CID: How is your company redesigning products or processes to make them greener and more sustainable? Do you revisit your existing product state to audit it from sustainability principles?
SS: We constantly look at how we can make our existing processes better. Since most of our products come primarily from low renewable feedstocks, our effort is also to make more and different products from these renewables.
CID: What concrete steps is your company taking to reduce emissions across manufacturing operations?
SS: We measure our scope 1,2 and 3 emissions. The first step is to know where we are. The next step is to actively work to reduce them. Since much of our feedstock is biomass, we work with our farmers to use principles of regenerative agriculture to reduce their carbon footprint, while at the same time improving soil health and the soil microbiome (often not measured in these sustainability frameworks but equally important.
We have started a research project to convert our biogenetic carbon dioxide into dimethyl ether. This is a research project currently in the pilot plant that we are doing together with ICT Mumbai. This will reduce CO2 emissions while at the same time, if successful, be able to use in an LPG blend.
There are similarly multiple projects that we are doing together using renewable feedstock to make innovative bio-based chemicals. One such project is the making of bio-butanol. We do make the product today, but have also signed a licensing deal with Catalyxx for a new technology to make it at lower cost.
CID: What role does R&D play in accelerating sustainability initiatives within your organisation? Are you collaborating with startups, academia, or technology providers to develop sustainable solutions?
SS: R&D is indispensable. We work with KJ Somaiya Institute of Applied Agriculture Research to work on soil health and improving crop yields. We have also been working with faculty from Somaiya Vidyavihar University and Michigan State University in this effort. We have also been working with ICT Mumbai in our effort to convert CO2 to DME. We work with academia and technology providers in our efforts. Importantly, we have more than 50 scientists working in our own research laboratories. It is important to have innovation embedded in our culture.
CID: How are digital technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, Industrial IoT, and Digital Twins helping improve sustainability performance? How do you see AI transforming sustainability management and operational efficiency in the chemical sector over the next decade? Any deployment of these technologies in your company?
SS: We are beginning to use AI across the organization. It has started with a higher degree of digitization of our practices. The next step is to train our employees to make them AI ready, and then to start exploring AI use cases across the organization. These steps do also go in parallel.
CID: Are customers increasingly demanding sustainable and lowcarbon products? How is your company responding to this shift?
SS: In principle, all customers want to switch to sustainable and low carbon products. In practice, it is more nuanced. The war in the Middle East has suddenly transported us to a time where fossil resources became scarce and prices increased. Many companies realised that it is important to have alternate supply chains that were reliable and sustainable. Some companies have always prioritised a move towards sustainability and low carbon in their purchase decisions. These are driven by board room commitments or also by their customer preferences. For example, in the area of personal care, end use customers will also prefer and pay a premium for products made from sustainable processes.
Other customers work closely with us to co-create sustainable substitutes for their fossil raw materials. These can be ‘drop-ins’ or new molecules. Close research and co-creation sometimes results in a substitute that also has enhanced properties. We also focus on competitiveness. In addition to being low carbon, how close can we be to the fossil prices. The answer varies from product to product, but it is an important factor that we keep in mind.
CID: How is your company aligning with evolving ESG regulations and sustainability reporting frameworks?
SS: We measure our scope 1,2 and 3 emissions. We are also certifying ourselves through many organizations such as Bonsucro, Ecovadis and others. We also engage in dialogue with them to give our perspective on sustainability. We believe innovation is the bedrock. And that sustainability should be defined as financial, environmental and social, place and in time.
