From the Sustainability Desk

The importance of sustainability is not new to HCLT. Responsible corporate citizenship has been a part of our core values and sustainability has been the driving factor in many of our initiatives, as would be evident in the pages that follow.

This year, however, marked a watershed in this journey with the setting up of a dedicated Sustainability Office. The raison d’être was to commit to a long term goal to embed sustainability in every action, thereby formally integrating environmental and social concerns into our business strategy.

This decision to establish a Sustainability Office did not stem from a previous lack of commitment. In fact it reflected recognition of the fact that sustainability is a priority for us and was a move to reinforce and further strengthen this commitment. Institutionalizing this office sharpened the focus to make sustainability integral to our operations and strategy for value “everybody’s business” did not run a risk of becoming “nobody’s business.”

The Sustainability Office runs a multi-layered corporate program to drive our sustainability vision. The CEO is the chief custodian of the entire program. Our change agents are our employee volunteers who run the initiatives through combined, individual and corporate action. We partner with multiple stakeholders to form an all inclusive working group and adopt a precautionary approach to create policies, processes and other organizational measures. The progress of all our activities is periodically reviewed by the Board of Directors. The last review was conducted for the quarter ending in March 2011.

We have adopted a three-pronged approach to Rebalance. We believe that responsible investments in sustainability will generate long term value for all our stakeholders by improving competitiveness and reducing risk. The three stages outlined below form a firm foundation as we Rebalance our organization to achieve ‘Sustainability 10’ by 2020.

Our first step was to assess the current state of sustainability. We did this assessment by engaging both internal and external stakeholders to understand their expectations.

The second stage was to identify materiality issues and articulate ‘Sustainability 10’, the top ten priorities for our organization under the framework of four broad pillars: Responsible Business, Redefine Workplace, Renew Eco System and Repay Society.

The third was to set out a clear roadmap to achieve these priorities - with short, medium and long term goals - and put together internal processes to support them. To ensure that we stayed on the right path, we set up an ongoing engagement model with HCLT stakeholders through consultation, collaboration, monitoring and participation.

This is our first annual sustainability report for the FY 2011 (July 1, 2010 - June 30, 2011). In it, we have assessed our current state on all sustainability parameters using the Global Reporting Initiative framework G3.1 and ISO 26000. In addition, the verification has been done using AA 1000 Assurance Standard. As you will read in the pages that follow, our sustainability approach goes beyond just compliance.

This report covers the performance of all the business units under HCLT. The reporting principles and methodology is in accordance with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) G3.1 guidelines. The relevant indicators and technical protocols have been followed for reporting on the various factors.

The economic performance section is based on HCL Technologies Ltd Annual Report. S.R. Batliboi & Co are the independent external auditors of the report who have audited the attached consolidated balance sheet of HCL Technologies Limited, its subsidiaries and joint ventures together as a ‘Group’.

The scope for the Renew Eco System chapter is HCLT, India based operations except for carbon measurements, where we have included global locations namely - Poland, Israel, New Zealand and Japan, which have significant number of employees per office. The Repay Society chapter covers all our activities at global level.

This report reflects the material issues, which have significant economic, environmental and social impact that can substantially influence the assessments or decisions of our stakeholders. Hence we have covered all HCL operations including Joint ventures, subsidiaries for economic performance social impact primarily in regions of India and the United States based on our significant number of employees per office. The material issues, impacts and our sustainability responses are discussed in detail under the 4 R’s - Responsible Business, Redefine Workplace, Renew Ecosystem and Repay Society.

We believe that we have commenced our journey meaningfully and we look forward to your ideas and feedback. Please write to us at sustainability@hcl.com.

July 25, 2011
Srimathi Shivashankar
Sustainability Office