In an interview with BW Businessworld, Eternal's Chief Sustainability Officer Anjalli Ravi Kumar explains how the company links climate risk to business, drives EV adoption among independent delivery partners, and reduces carbon emissions through hyperlocal weather monitoring and its three-pillar EV strategy. Excerpts:

How does Eternal address climate- and weather-related risks to business outcomes?

Eternal is now in multiple businesses which includes Zomato, Blinkit, Hyperpure and District. Three are pretty much centered on hyper-local logistics, while District focuses heavily on events, many outdoors. Climate, therefore, is both a risk and an opportunity. For instance, slightly rainy weather often drives more food orders, or extreme heat pushes people to choose home delivery. On the flip side, severe storms can disrupt orders and events.

We approach this proactively in two ways. First, managing climate risk: we built Weather Union, our own hyper-local weather monitoring network covering over 60 cities, with real-time data often more granular than IMD's. This helps us deploy delivery partners more effectively and we also share the data with nonprofits and researchers.

Second, reducing our climate impact: logistics naturally add to emissions, so since 2021 we have invested in EV adoption. As of last year, Zomato and Blinkit had 51,000 EV-based delivery partners completing over 150 million EV kilometres. Preventing 6,000 metric tonne of carbon emission, equal to planting 2.5 lakh trees.

What steps are you taking to accelerate EV adoption among your delivery partners, given that they are independent workers and not employees?

Our EV initiative has three legs, because delivery partners are independent and choose their own vehicles. To encourage adoption, we focus on awareness, access and advocacy.

First, awareness: EVs are still new, and delivery partners often have concerns about range, charging and suitability. We run online campaigns and offline events like our annual EV Bazaar -- recent edition in Bengaluru saw over 1,000 partners engage directly with OEMs, charging players, and financiers.

Second, access: many partners are migrants, students, or part-time workers. Over 75 per cent work less than six hours a day. Buying an EV outright is difficult, so through our app, partners can see available EV rentals in their zone and choose daily or weekly models. This flexibility has helped grow the ecosystem; we now work with over 40 EV partners, including OEMs.

Third, advocacy: delivery partners rarely have the means to engage with policymakers, so we step in to voice their needs. For example, many live in dorms or apartments where home charging isn't feasible. We work with state governments to highlight such issues and support their push for sustainable transport.

Given that Zomato operates as an asset-light company, where do most of your emissions actually come from, and how do you track them?

Zomato, and Eternal as a group, are fundamentally asset-light. We don't own even a single building, not even our corporate office. This is by design. As a fast-growing company, we outgrow spaces quickly; in just three years, our corporate office has shifted twice. Instead, we rely on partners and coworking spaces that can adapt with us.

As a result, only a very small proportion of our emissions come from buildings, and those fall under Scope 3 since our offices are leased. In fact, less than 5 per cent of our overall emissions are Scope 1 and 2; the remaining 95 per cent are Scope 3, or value chain emissions. Of that, more than 75 per cent comes from last-mile deliveries, while the rest is largely from purchases like cloud services, advertising and other digital platforms.

We have already published FY24 category-wise emissions on our Eternal ESG website and the FY25 numbers, audited by Deloitte, will be released soon.

You've clearly defined your 2030 sustainability goal. But looking at the near term, say over the next year or so, what specific priorities are you focusing on?

We were very optimistic about the EV growth story, and while geopolitical developments slowed momentum a bit, we are now seeing it pick up again. That makes it difficult to set a precise near-term target, but what I can say is that we are going full throttle on our three-pillar agenda: awareness, access and advocacy.

For example, on June 5th this year we launched our own rental fleet in Delhi. This helps us understand firsthand how delivery partners use EVs, what specifications matter most, and how the ecosystem can be guided to meet their needs. Crucially, we're focused on ensuring the right vehicle at the right time, place and price because adoption won't happen if it isn't affordable.