JAGRITI BHUTORIA
Abhijith Menon
Madhavi Suresh Babu
Vinay Betkekar
Shivindra Kumar
Hrushikesh Soman
Goa Institute of Management
Divya Singhal
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Lidia Bastianich, the renowned celebrity chef was once heard quoting, “Today's innovation is tomorrow’s tradition”.
SUKRAFT RECYCLING PVT LTD is a company with its deep roots in India, the country where inspiration meets innovation. SUKRAFT is a company that believes in attaining success through KRAFT, a craft that weaves together the various Sustainable Development Goals and strives to use environment friendly technology. SUKRAFT also promotes strong work ethics, corporate social responsibility and high standards of customer service. With the continued persistence and concentrated efforts of 1500+ employees and 20 years of service to the nation, SUKRAFT is now a trusted brand for supplying BF quality papers of the finest quality.
With 6 vast plants spread across India, SUKRAFT looks at the world through the lens of sustainability and incorporates the reduction of carbon footprint, waste management and pollution control in its day-to-day operations. We interviewed Mr. Vijay Patel, the management representative at the Goa Plant of SUKRAFT to discuss how they recycle and reuse paper to create a healthy ecosystem in order to lessen the dreadful environmental impact, turn waste into revenue and all in all, contribute highly towards a global sustainable future for the country, and in turn, the world.
“ Look around,
Let’s recycle,
it’s fantastic.
Don’t forget,
about paper and glass,
Recycle together,
with your entire class.
We’ll make sure,
we never litter,
Let’s recycle,
we’re not quitters.”
SUKRAFT RECYCLING PVT LTD was founded in 1996 by the Patel family, a group of enthusiasts who incorporated the message of the above poem into practical application and started the company. It started on a small scale that has now emerged as a leading manufacturer, dealer, distributor and supplier of kraft papers across India.
The Patel family were originally timber merchants and sought to make a difference in the industry and leave an everlasting mark through their long-term visionary innovation. With not much competition and research in the paper manufacturing industry then, the Patel family established the very first plant in Raipur. Post which they expanded and established units in Nashik, Chennai, Mumbai with its most recent unit in Goa. “We have been responsibly using renewable and recyclable raw materials and attempting to improve energy efficiency with better practices," Mr. Patel was quoted saying. At SUKRAFT, paper is made using recycled fiber generated in a uniquely integrated deinking and repulping system, giving fresh life to an already dead and discarded sheet of paper. All the machines use self-generated electricity through turbines set in factories itself; water as a by-product goes out of production lines but doesn't get wasted because it is again recycled and reused in operations by the company. As an effect of reduced water pollution, land/soil pollution is also minimized. In addition to these measures, there is a commendable control on air pollution with the effective use of cyclone dust collectors and wet scrubbers on a disciplined basis.
Even after adopting such sustainable practices, the level of quality maintained by the organization is astonishing with the production of paper ranging from 100 GSM to 250 GSM where the BF range varies from 15 BF to 25 BF. At SUKRAFT, the service providers are focused towards delivering quality products and are self-involved in the whole supply chain from the procurement, operation and delivering products to the communities.
Barrack Obama once said,
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek.”
On the advent of making change actually happen, the Patel family laid the foundation of SUKRAFT, keeping the long-term benefits of all stakeholders in mind. The founders envisioned an organization that targeted sustainable profitable growth with the aim of bringing in an environment-friendly attitude and setting an example of how competitiveness and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. With such global benchmarks and highly dynamic vision, the then small-scale company started experiencing large scale growth and expansion and has now successfully set up its base in 6 different locations spanning across the country.
With the selfless goal of saving nature and satisfying the needs of consumers in the most balanced and harmonious way possible, SUKRAFT aims at upgrading and innovating the existing systems to provide impeccable environment friendly products and services. Skillfully weaving through its vision, SUKRAFT has been instrumental in bringing a massive change with reduced energy costs, enhanced brand reputation, increased customer loyalty, improved risk management, ever-lasting business relations and unmatched environmental sustainability. This interminable zeal in 2018 earned them the prestigious and highly credible FSC Accreditation alongside the GMP and IPTAA Licenses.
As Jim Rohm once said, “For every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward.”
SUKRAFT has managed to make that everlasting impact on the lives of many with its undying efforts to bring about a noticeable change. It focuses on providing budget friendly products and services and constantly strives to use environment friendly technology that causes minimal negative impact on the environment. Along with this, ethical behavior and personal integrity form the core of the organizational culture and values.
SUKRAFT NINJAS, as they call themselves, are armed to deliver customized products and services that surpass customer expectations. They have worked hard to earn the reputation of supplying and using excellent raw materials and resources in the most optimal fashion possible, measuring quality performance indicators and timely delivering the services promised. SUKRAFT establishes an everlasting impact by relentlessly working to achieve global standards and honoring its commitment to the stakeholders. The freshly recycled papers by SUKRAFT are used in diverse applications like in the making of Paper Tubes, Honey Comb Packages, Paper Boxes and Laminates.
With the goal of achieving expertise in enterprise management, their actions are solely directed towards creating an image of reliability and professionalism in the paper industry. SUKRAFT’s clear goals act as an important principle while working in accordance with internationally applied demands trying to monitor the potential risks and impact on surroundings and enabling check systems to minimize and eliminate these risks by timely undertaking preventive measures.
While describing the story of SUKRAFT, Paul Meyer’s words ring a bell, “Productivity is never an accident, it is the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.”
By focusing on long term horizon, even though the profit ratios may not be high numbers, SUKRAFT ensures that their earnings are high by banking on reasonable rates in the dynamic competitive market. They rely not only on short term or one-time profits, but work towards the rapid growth of turnover over the years. With timely delivery of promised services of optimum quality, SUKRAFT has established healthy business relations that enables them to maintain a balance between sustainability and profit incentives.
For any business, effective trade relations are a mandate. Keeping this in mind, SUKRAFT is an expert in services to countries like Central America, China, Korea, Japan, Middle East, Singapore, and Bangladesh. With the invoices shining bright with FSC 100% labelling, SUKRAFT enjoys high credibility amongst its stakeholders and provides multiple benefits to all partners. Companies prefer to work with them because of FSC credits owing to the various benefits and relaxations that they then receive from the respective government agencies.
By recycling paper, SUKRAFT produces a large-scale environment and social benefit that largely focuses on the goals of responsible and sustainable consumption and clean energy by reducing the carbon footprint and managing waste effectively. SUKRAFT produces three main by-products namely:
1. Fly Ash, which they sell to brick manufacturers.
2. Sludge which they reuse as a fuel in boilers.
3. Plastic Scrap which they sell to authorized recyclers in the most safe and appropriate way possible.
Their paper manufacturing system is so efficient that with every 1 metric paper produced, they save 13 trees, amounting to saving 10400 trees every day. They are making concentrated efforts every day to increase this number because as Mr. Patel said, “There is a dire need of a symbiotic relationship in today’s decade when our society is confronted with the reality of scarce resources.” SUKRAFT’s energy power plant effectively reduces coal consumption and consequently, the company’s carbon footprint with exemplary compliance towards the environment. This is done by waste treatment and management of atmospheric emissions that assists in the creation of clean and green surroundings through awareness campaigns for citizens. SUKRAFT has deepened efforts to establish engagement and promote holistic development while keeping profit maximization and sustainability in mind.
Inspired by SUKRAFT’s inspirational success, in the words of Ernst Hemingway, “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.”
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Mr. Vijay Patel, Management Representative
