ACC Limited -CSR Activities

Today we define Corporate Social Responsibility as the way a company balances its economic,
social and environmental objectives while addressing stakeholder expectations and enhancing
shareholder value.

But ACC has undertaken social volunteering practices almost from its inception, – long before
the term corporate social responsibility was coined. The company’s earliest initiatives in
community development date back to the 1940's in a village on the outskirts of Mumbai while
the first formal Village Welfare Scheme was launched in 1952. The community living around
many of our factories comprises the weakest sections of rural and tribal India with no access to
basic amenities.

Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

“The Company shall continue to have among its objectives the promotion and growth of the
national economy through increased productivity, effective utilization of material and manpower
resources and continued application of modern scientific and managerial techniques, in keeping
with the national aspiration; and the Company shall continue to be mindful of its social and
moral responsibilities to consumers, employees, shareholders, society and the local community.

In pursuance of the above objective, ACC acknowledges the importance of the concept of inter-
dependence of all sections of society. In particular, its focus revolves around the community
residing in the immediate vicinity of its Cement Plants and Mines where it seeks to actively
assist in improving the quality of life and making this community self-reliant. In line with its
abiding concern for preservation of the ecological balance and safeguarding the health of the
community, ACC has always actively demonstrated its firm resolve to protect the environment

Mindful of its great tradition, ACC is deeply committed to enhancing its reputation and respect
built over the years in industry and society for its professional style of management based on
philosophy of the best in business ethics.”

Community & Rural Welfare

Our community development activities revolve around the under-privileged community that lives
in the immediate vicinity of our cement plants and is thus more dependent on us. The range of
our activities begins with extending educational and medical facilities and goes on to cover
vocational guidance and supporting employment-oriented and income-generation projects like
agriculture, animal husbandry, cottage industries by developing local skills, using local raw
materials and helping create marketing outlets.
At all our cement factories we share our amenities and facilities with members of the local
community. This includes sharing education and medical facilities, sports and recreation.
Wherever possible we share access to Bore Wells, drinking water and the usage of colony roads.

Education
Education is imparted not only to children of ACC employees but also more importantly to
children from rural areas who do not have access to any medium of information or education.
ACC schools maintain high standards and are open to other children of the vicinity. Often these
schools are the most preferred centers of learning in the district and adjoining areas. Wherever
possible, ACC provides funds and infrastructure to help set up local schools, colleges and centers
for learning and education.

Healthcare
ACC takes pride in providing various forms of medical assistance to the families of our
employees and also to all those living in surrounding villages. Each factory has a medical center
with full-fledged doctors and the latest of basic equipment. Mobile medical services are provided
in the vicinity and regular medical camps are held to eradicate diseases, offer medical help,
treatment and preventive care.

ACC has come out to provide support to state and national health initiatives such as the
eradication of malaria, dengue fever and the dreaded HIV.

HIV/AIDS - Workplace Policy

ACC is desirous of playing a meaningful role in the nationwide effort to eradicate HIV/AIDS
and has pledged to support the Confederation of Indian Industry in their initiative. ACC
recognizes that a fundamental step in this respect involves a clear statement of the company’s
internal policy to deal with employees affected by HIV/AIDS. CII has framed a Code of Practice
for Industry to guarantee and safeguard the rights of employees infected and affected by
HIV/AIDS. We adopt this as ACC’s internal workplace policy for HIV/AIDS. The policy states
that::
The company will provide a safe and healthy work environment for employees.
The company will educate its employees and the family on prevention, care and counseling of
HIV/AIDS.
The company will educate its employees on safe blood donation and transfusion.
If an employee has been infected, information about the illness would be kept confidential by the
company. Only the immediate superior would be kept advised to prevent any medical
eventuality.
A HIV positive employee will be allowed to continue to work in his or her job unless medical
conditions interfere with the specific job he or she is doing. On account of health conditions the
employee may be shifted to another comfortable position.
The employer should ensure that the co–employees cannot or should not shun their HIV positive
peer or refuse to work alongside them. In fact, the company will assure his or her comfort level
in the work place.
The company will, as a policy, not discriminate against any employee infected by HIV/AIDS
with regard to promotions, training and any other privileges, applicable to all employees of the
organisation.
While the company may ask a person who is being offered a job to undergo general medical tests
before the issue of the appointment letter, the test will not cover HIV/AIDS, without an informed
consent and pre test counseling of the candidate. |
The company will educate its employees and encourage them to participate in voluntary
counseling and testing. However, HIV/AIDS tests will not be a part of any annual or regular
health check ups, without the employee’s informed consent and pre test counseling.
The company will ensure that proper treatment is available to employees infected with
HIV/AIDS. The company will assist the employee in meeting the cost of antiretroviral (ARV)
drugs within the prescribed limits as fixed by the Company. The arrangements for treatment will
be made at hospitals pre-identified by the company and payment will be made directly to the
service provider. All other (non-ARV) HIV/AIDS related costs will be covered as per the
company’s prevailing scheme for Health and Medical treatment.
It is hoped that this policy will help build positive and supportive attitudes towards those infected
as well as promote health and safety amongst the employees.

HIV/AIDS treatment - Anti Retroviral Treatment Centres

In close consultation with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the management of ACC
decided to step forward to participate in the national effort to eradicate the HIV/AIDS virus that
we recognize as being among the country’s most important public health issues.
As a first step, we announced a Workplace policy for HIV/AIDS that protects the fundamental
human rights of employees who may unfortunately become affected by HIV/AIDS, while also
ensuring that these affected persons get proper care and treatment. Next we decided to set up an
Anti Retroviral Treatment Centre for HIV/AIDS treatment. We chose to put up this project in
Wadi in the state of Karnataka where we have the largest of our cement plants. Karnataka also
happens to be a state where the virus is highly prevalent.
The ACC Wadi ART Centre has all the basic physical infrastructure, Laboratory facilities and
trained medical and support personnel. It is housed in a new building constructed by us on an
independent piece of land outside our plant and colony. The building has an area of over 2500
square feet and comprises a large reception area with adequate seating, consulting rooms for the
doctors, rooms for social workers and counselors, laboratory, pharmacy, pantry and toilets.
The center is fully equipped with new machines and medical equipment as prescribed by NACO
ART guidelines. These include a state-of-the art CD4/ CD8 cell counting machine. We believe
this is the only center in the district and adjoining districts with such a machine. The ACC Wadi
ART Centre has a full complement of medical and support personnel including a doctor, nurse,
lab technicians and other staff. The doctor has been trained at Christian Medical College Vellore.
The center includes a Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre (VCTC). We will also be tying
up with reputed hospitals in Gulbarga for referaal linkages.
We aim to develop the skill and capability to run this center at Wadi as a world-class facility for
the benefit of the public, with the assistance of NACO, CII and prestigious medical institutes
such as CMC Vellore.

Disaster Relief
ACC and its employees make timely contribution to help in any national disaster. This is done
both at the corporate level, by local units and employees. Apart from the Kargil cause, collective
contributions by way of cash, food and clothing has been sent to help victims of calamities such
as the Latur earthquake, Himachal Pradesh floods, Orissa cyclone, Gujarat earthquake, Tsunami
and floods in Maharashtra.

Gujarat Masons’ Training

ACC’s contribution to the rebuilding effort after the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat was unique.
Anticipating a scarcity of skilled masons and trained supervisors for the reconstruction work -
especially in Kutch, Rajkot and Surendranagar districts, the company evolved a scheme to
provide construction related training to over 2500 unemployed persons (mostly youth) in
earthquake affected villages. Our best civil engineers were deputed to impart training on basic
skills needed to work as masons and construction site supervisors and to make earthquake
resistant structures, using local materials. This was perhaps the country’s first formal training
programme of this magnitude for masons and site supervisors, organised by ACC.

Sustainable construction projects

ACC has joined hands with ‘Holcim Foundation for sustainable Construction’ to encourage
sustainable construction projects by seeking partnerships with organizations that work in the area
of enabling sustainable improvement of livelihood and habitats. In the first step, we have
extended financial support along with Holcim Foundation to what we expect to be the most
exemplary sustainable building projects in India – the headquarters building of Development
Alternatives, a reputed non-government organization in New Delhi. We believe this project is
innovative and likely to become a benchmark for large urban workspaces and sustainable
building complexes. I am sure it will offer significant learning to students of architecture, civil
engineering and town planning. The partnership with Development Alternatives will also help us
in establishing solutions for improved rural livelihoods.

Conservation of heritage structures

The services of ACC’s Concrete experts have often been utilized in the restoration of several
national heritage buildings across the country - such as sections of the Chhatrapati Shivaji
Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) at Mumbai, the J N Petit and David Sassoon Libraries in
Mumbai, churches in Goa, palaces and royal mansions in Mysore and Hyderabad and other old
structures in the country.

The historic Vijayraghavgarh fort in Madhya Pradesh was recently restored under ACC’s
patronage. This is not a core business of the company but an act of corporate volunteering by
way of sharing knowledge and expertise.

Global Compact

ACC Limited is a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact. We are committed to the ten
principles of the Compact which foster better corporate responsibility in the areas of human
rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Established in 1936, this company has from its
very inception been conscious of its obligations to the community and has always kept in view
its social responsibilities. ACC’s Vision vividly declares the company’s commitment to its
corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues making these an essential part
of the business goals for the company. This communication on Progress provides an insight into
our recent activities in support of the Global Compact’s Objective and our efforts towards
continuous improvement. Communication on Progress

Support to national Sport

ACC has had an old and close association with the game of cricket. From the 1950’s to the 70’s,
many cricket legends were employees of ACC during their active cricket careers. This was in the
days before cricketers became like the superstars they are today. ACC was then among the few
companies which went out of its way to employ young cricketers, including budding young
Ranji Trophy hopefuls. ACC joined hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry to sponsor
India’s National Boxing team at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the Commonwealth Games.
ACC also sponsors and supports other sports at National, regional and local levels such as inter-
regional Badminton championships, youth soccer and Rural Sports Meets.

Awards & Accolades

ACC was the first recipient of ASSOCHAM’s first ever National Award for outstanding
performance in promoting rural and agricultural development activities in 1976. Decades later,
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry selected ACC as winner of its Good Corporate Citizen
Award for the year 2002. Over the years, there have been many awards and felicitations for
achievements in Rural and community development, Safety, Health, Tree plantation,
afforestation, Clean mining, Environment awareness and protection. In 2006, we were selected to
receive the Good Corporate Citizen Award of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Hinduja Foundation is an important milestone in a journey in humanitarianism which began with the
philanthropic work of Paramanand Deepchand Hinduja (1901 - 1971), founder of the Hinduja Group.

Moulded in the entrepreneurial traditions of his birthplace Shikarpur in Sind, at the young age of fourteen
Paramanand arrived in Mumbai and with his prodigious drive for taking on challenges, he established a
family business which rapidly spread to a number of countries in Asia and beyond.
Even as a young man, Paramanand was keenly aware of the debt he owed to society: the need to
transcend commercial activities and extend help to those less fortunate. The spirit of the Nationalist
Movement did not leave him untouched and he became an ardent supporter of the freedom struggle. A
teetotaler and a vegetarian all his life, he refused to deal in meat, denying himself a huge trading
opportunity. He regularly kept a portion of his profits aside for charity. He had great faith in the spirit of
progress and believed that good health and education were not only essentials for progress but
fundamental rights of every human being. He was spiritual without being fanatical and deeply conscious
of the tenet of the Bhagvad Geeta which lauds that charity which is born of a feeling that to help the
needy was one's duty. He used to say, "My Dharma (Duty) is to work, so that I can give." Paramanand's
wife Jamuna shared her husband's spirit of humanitarianism and compassion. Deeply spiritual, she
inspired those around her with her sheer simplicity and nobility of character.

1944 marked the beginning of structured charity for Paramanand and his family when he established a
charitable educational trust, the Shrimati Pahunchbai Deepchand Hinduja Trust, in memory of his mother.
Today this trust runs the KPB Hinduja College of Commerce in Mumbai. 1947 witnessed the terrible
tragedy of partition of the Indian subcontinent. Many of the uprooted families from West Pakistan came to
Mumbai. Paramanand took lead in putting together his and his friends' resources to set up relief centres,
settlements, and medical care units. In 1951 he pooled resources and set up an outdoor clinic in Mumbai
which developed into the P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, an ultramodern
tertiary care centre of international repute.

With Paramanand's inspiration was founded in 1968 the Hinduja Foundation, a public charitable trust
which has a broad spectrum of charitable objectives. As more concrete steps were under way to
implement his progressive ideas, in 1971 Paramanand Hinduja passed away. But he left behind a
committed band of institutions and enterprises deeply conscious of their social responsibility, and a family
brought up to believe that philanthropy is an honourable reward of business.

This legacy is carried forward under the aegis of the Hinduja Foundation which works in tandem with
Hinduja Foundations established in the UK and the USA. Together they form an integral part of the
Hinduja Group and strive to achieve their goals by creating socially responsible institutions; working jointly
with other institutions of repute and by supporting deserving NGOs working for similar objectives. The
other trusts established by Parmanand and activities inspired by him are dear to the Foundation which
acts as the coordinating and guiding body, lending a helping hand wherever necessary.The Group
companies have, over the years, developed a symbiotic relationship with the Foundation and their
backing is an unfailing source of support in fulfilling the dreams of the founder.

Drawing inspiration from the founder, the Hinduja Foundation believes that philanthropy, a sacred social
responsibility of all enterprise, is worthier when it encourages self help and sets an example for the
younger generations. Srichand P. Hinduja, Chairman of the Hinduja Group, leads the Foundation. "Our
aim," he says, "is to build bridges between India and the world, between the past and the present,
between generations that are and generations to come."

The Foundation's core objectives are:

• Healthcare
• Education
• Arts, Culture and Interfaith Understanding
• Social Welfare
 • Sports
• Sony -CSR
• Environmental Conservation Activities
• Established Partnership with NGO to Address the Issue of Climate Change
<CSR Report 2007 P10>
• In July 2006, Sony signed an agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
global environmental NGO, to join its "Climate Savers Programme". Under the program,
Sony has agreed to partner with the WWF to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Sony's
sites around the world, reduce CO2 emissions from product use by lowering the annual
energy consumption of major Sony products and cooperate with the WWF to raise
consumer awareness of global warming prevention.
•
- Promoting Product Energy Saving
<CSR Report 2007 P11>
• In February 2007, Sony received a Sustainable Energy Europe Award from the European
Commission, the first consumer electronics and entertainment company to earn this
prestigious prize. The award recognized Sony for its voluntary commitment and efforts to
improve the energy efficiency of its products, as well as its disclosure of information to
consumers. As of February 2007, all Sony televisions sold in Europe had a standby power
consumption below 1 watt, with 30 models achieving a standby power consumption of
only 0.3 watts, below the market average. In Japan, Sony's KDL-40J3000 model
BRAVIA LCD television has achieved an energy-conservation level of 180% relative to
Japan's energy-saving laws, representing the industry's highest energy-saving
performance2 .
•
- Environmental Conservation at Sites
< CSR Report 2007 P65-P69>
• Sony is engaged in a variety of environmental conservation activities at its sites as it
works towards its "Green Management 2010" mid-term group environmental targets, to
be achieved by 2010. In fiscal 2006, Sony's emissions of greenhouse gases (calculated in
terms of CO2) totaled approximately 2.03 million tons, down 9% from fiscal 2000 levels.
Furthermore, waste from Sony sites was approximately 193,000 tons, down 30% from
the fiscal 2000 level, while the amount of water used dropped approximately 16% from
fiscal 2000 to 24.18 million cubic meters.
•
SONY ESTABLISHES FIRST NATIONWIDE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING
PROGRAM WITH WASTE MANAGEMENT’S RECYCLE AMERICA

Program Open to All Consumer Electronics Devices

•
NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2007 – To encourage consumers to recycle and dispose of
electronic devices in an environmentally sound manner, Sony has established a national
recycling program for consumer electronics. The Sony Take Back Recycling Program
allows consumersto recycle all Sony-branded products for no fee at 75 Waste
Management (WM) Recycle America eCycling drop-off centers throughout the U.S.
• The program, which begins on Sept. 15, was developed in collaboration with WM
Recycle America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc. The
 program also allows consumers to recycle other manufacturers’ consumer electronics
products at market prices, and may include a recycling fee for some types of materials.
• This is the first national recycling initiative in the U.S. to involve both a major electronics
manufacturer and a national waste management company.
• As the Sony Take Back Recycling program expands, the number of eCycling drop-off
centers will increase to at least 150 sites within a year, with at least one location in every
state through a combination of WM Recycle America locales and WM external service
partners.
• Sony and WM Recycle America are also working towards the goal of having enough
drop-off locations in all 50 states so there is a recycling center within 20 miles of 95
percent of the U.S. population.
• Consumers will also have the option of shipping their used Sony electronics products to
select WM Recycle America locations.
• The Sony Take Back Recycling Program is part of Sony’s broader global commitment to
environmental stewardship, which spans product design, recycling, facilities management
and energy conservation across all categories.
• "Providing the highest level of service and support doesn’t stop once a purchase is made.
We believe it is Sony’s responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for
all the products we manufacture,” said Stan Glasgow, president and chief operating
officer of Sony Electronics. “Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers
will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible
manner.”
• Glasgow said that by making the recycling of Sony products easy and convenient, the
company expects to reach its goal of recycling one pound of old consumer electronics
equipment for every pound of new products sold.
• “People are seeking services to help them recycle electronic waste responsibly and
economically,” said Patrick DeRueda, president of WM Recycle America. “This
program serves consumers’ needs by offering a convenient and cost-effective waste
management solution, while demonstrating our shared commitment to providing
outstanding customer service and environmental stewardship.”
• As the technology industry sees continued growth, the amount of electronic waste is also
increasing. A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that in 2005
used or unwanted electronics amounted to about 1.9 to 2.2 million tons. Of that, some
1.5 to 1.9 million tons was primarily discarded in landfills, and only 345,000 to 379,000
tons were recycled.
• By recycling old electronics products, useful materials -- such as glass, plastic and metals
– can be collected and re-used in the manufacture of other products. Recycling not only
minimizes the amount of waste disposed, it also minimizes the extraction of new raw
materials from the earth and resources required for processing, saving energy and
reducing greenhouse gases in the process.
• A complete list of WM Recycle America eCycling Drop-Off centers can be
found by calling 1-877- 439-2795. More information about the Sony Take Back
Recycling Program is available at http://www.sony.com/recycle.