According to a study by UnearhInsight, a metrics benchmarking and market intelligence firms found that an estimated 85 per cent drop in carbon emissions during the year.
UnearthInsight estimates a mere $750 million was spent on travel costs in FY21 by outsourcing industry compared to $2.9 billion in FY20. Top five IT services companies — Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, Wipro Ltd, and Tech Mahindra Ltd — spent around $370 million on travel costs in FY21, 75% lower compared to $1.4 billion in FY20 primarily helping reduce carbon emission resulting from commute to work, domestic travel, and international travel.
“The outsourcing Industry was on track for the adoption of hybrid working models, electric mobility even before covid however the pandemic and quick adoption of digital tools/technology has dramatically changed the scenario and today carbon emission reduction looks sustainable over a longer period of time,” said Gaurav Vasu, founder & CEO, UnearthInsight.
“Covid-19 disruption also made the largest industry players move from pilot to large-scale deployment of technologies like digital campus hiring platforms which helped significantly reduce carbon emission earlier generated by travel to over 1000+ campuses across the country,” UnearthInsight said.
Even before the pandemic, tech companies and captives like TCS, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Unisys, Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle captives were already reducing carbon emissions with the adoption of Digital Employee Transportation Apps clubbed with Electric Vehicle fleet providers.
UnearthInsight study estimates over 20% to 25% employees to return back to work by early next year as global and domestic IT firms’ complete vaccination of employees & families. This is when pre-pandemic pilots and investments of larger Tech and Captives who deployed Disruptive EV (Electric Vehicle) Startups like Lithium Urban Tech & Trivision Mobility along with AI Transportation Tech Platforms Routematic, Moveinsync, BlueSmart and Sun Telematics will pay off as companies aim to move from ~5% Employee travel on EV to over 25-30 per cent by 2025 helping achieve carbon Neutrality targets. Also, significant adoption of Digital Tools to avoid future domestic and international travel needs with consumer-grade experience will also aid Carbon Neutrality targets.