Unstoppable when it is about sport: this is BKT, the multinational group from India and a major global Off-Highway tire manufacturer. The company has placed its CSR initiatives, i.e. both social and environmental matters, into the core of its business – in a truly creative manner.
The latest brilliant idea? BKT has entered into a partnership with the Indian cricket league, Sankar Cement Tamil Nadu Twenty20 Premier League (TNPL), and created a giant inflatable tire positioned on the cricket ground. It works quite easily: every time a batsman hits the tire with the ball, BKT will plant 500 trees right in the Tamil Nadu region. In the playoffs, every time the giant tire will be hit, 10,000 trees will be planted, and they will be 20,000 during the final. The project is performed in cooperation with the Isha Foundation, a NPO that cooperates with Sadhguru, the illustrious Indian mystic and yogi.
Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director of BKT, is enthusiastic: “I am really proud of this project. BKT´s origins are in India, and we never forget to do some good to our Country and to give back as much as possible. We expect that we are going to plant around 50,000 trees in the Tamil Nadu region. We'll do it by cheering for the teams taking part in the league. Cricket is a national sport, and I am a keen fan of this sport. I think no idea could have been better to unite environment, business and sport. This is a great and exceptional moment. The public attention will enable the TNPL platform to grow – just like the young and fully engaged talents. Nothing has been left to chance!”
The most renowned sport celebrities around the Indian cricket world applaud the initiative. “The BKT project is simply awesome” Abhishek Nayar, former Indian player and present tv commentator of the TNPL, states. “Above all, because it is not an individual initiative. Yet, the project involves a competition and will be visible throughout India and in the world.” Another confirmation stems from Australian colleague and international cricket star Shane Watson: “I wish the batsmen will hit the tire very often, so that more trees can be planted. It is a great initiative and we have to continue planting trees, because many of them are being cut down around the world.”
BKT is an expert when it comes to sport. Numerous and of a certain outreach are the initiatives that the company supports on a global scale such as Serie BKT, the Italian second league soccer championship, and the French football competition Coupe de la Ligue BKT, in addition to Monster Jam, the motorsport show made in USA, and the Australian cricket championship of the KFC Big Bash League.
Moreover, BKT is also an expert in environmental matters: among the many acknowledgements and certifications the company has obtained, it has received for three years in a row the National Energy Conservation and Sustainability Award conferred by the Indian President to companies that distinguish by managing natural resources. “We are very conscious about our footprint and about the importance of reducing it as much as we can” Rajiv Poddar states. “50% of the electricity requirements of our two production plants in Northern India is met by wind energy. Since 2004.”
Recently, BKT has cooperated with Cesvi, an Italian humanitarian organization, by conceiving a challenge named “Play and stay green!”, which was organized on the occasion of the last edition of the Bauma trade show. The contest consisted in scoring into the center of a BKT tire, composing a jigsaw puzzle in two minutes, making goal with a soccer ball – a circuit made for sport enthusiasts as well as environment lovers. Indeed, for the 350 participants who successfully mastered the circuit, 350 trees have been planted and protected in the Amazonian rainforest region.
Sustainability at BKT is the result of its determination to play an active role when it comes to improve everybody's life conditions. A working philosophy that passes through all production processes with reduced environmental impact at the first place, and involves then the workforce and the social community up to providing tangible support to activities of humanitarian nature.
The initiative's video: https://www.instagram.com/p/B0sSbgUFnAf/?igshid=164x3pehi99vu
The Twitter and Instagram profiles of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL)
