New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) Over the past nine months, as many as 1,000 PVR INOX Ltd employees across 25 movie theatres in 20 cities have switched over to wearing uniforms made with fabric recycled from 38,000 PET bottles. The fabric mix of these uniforms is 65 per cent recycled polyester and 35 per cent cotton.
Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR Inox Ltd, shared this information after the launch of a sustainability campaign (#YourTurnToAct) headlined by a two-minute film featuring actress Bhumi Pednekar, who has been making news with her own pan-India ‘Climate Warrior’ initiative.
Bijli said the film will be screened at all PVR INOX cinemas, reaching the message of easy-to-follow sustainable lifestyles to the three lakh people who on average visit a theatre run by the company somewhere in India. “Sustainable living,” as Bijli put it, “is everyone’s responsibility.”
As a corporate entity, PVR INOX has rolled out a series of actions to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its cinemas over the next two or three years. The company, for instance, has a road map to make sure all its 30,000 staff members switch over to uniforms made out of recycled PET bottles.
Bijli noted that at the unveiling of the short film, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) students drew Bhumi’s attention to unsustainable practices of the garment industry. He said it made him start thinking about how PVR INOX could become a vehicle for recycling the waste generated by the garment sector.
The company’s other sustainability initiatives include those aimed at energy and water conservation, such as installing flow restrictors in wash basin taps to conserve water, or replacing Xenon lamp digital projectors with laser projectors that consume less power.
With its water conservation effort alone, Bijli pointed out, PVR INOX was able to cut down water use at its cinemas by 70 per cent.
Likewise, the company has replaced single-use plastic in F&B served to customers with food containers made out of bagasse, which is the waste generated after sugarcane is crushed, and coated paper straws made with biodegradable polymers. Paperless ticketing and QR code entry to gain access to PVR INOX cinemas are the other sustainable practices highlighted by the company.
On being asked why PVR INOX is going so big on sustainability, Bijli underlined that this was the need of the hour and said: “There is no Planet B — so the turn to act is now before it is too late.”
–IANS
srb/
