21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

36 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue Based in India with offices worldwide, digital network integrator STL Technologies pride themselves on their all-in 5G solutions and their capabilities across optical networking, services, software and wireless connectivity. They have recently been grabbing headlines for their aggressive sustainability targets and while at FTTH in Vienna the SCTE’s Melissa Cogavin caught up with their VP and Business Head Rahul Puri, to hear more about their plans. Can you tell us more about your initiatives and how you plan to reach your goal of becoming carbon neutral? Sustainability is a very, very important thing for us. Today, most of the customers we see in Europe, even in the US markets, are looking at sustainable sourcing. So it’s not just their operations that needs to be sustainable. Their supplies need to be compliant as well. And these are things that cannot be done overnight. You can’t just flip a button and say, “Okay, we are now sustainable.” We as a company, have been working on this for the past few years; we started by getting a plant certified for zero waste landfill- which means that our manufacturing processes are diverting nearly 99% of the waste away from the landfills by following the principles of a ‘circular economy’. For the industry we are in, we were the first ones to do this. That’s really impressive. Secondly, our manufacturing processes produce gases and scrap. We are committed to recycling everything so that nothing goes in the garbage. All our new plants, whether it’s our upcoming plant in US today, or plants in Europe, are going to have sustainability ethos at the core. That is something that we have committed to as a company. Again, that’s impressive, but it won’t be easy. How have you found the buy-in from your other partners along the supply chain? Has that been difficult to persuade them? Rahul Puri: Yes and no. STL sources globally. We source from Europe, we source from America. Some of our suppliers from the industry Interview with Rahul Puri, VP Business Head, Europe, STL Technologies By Melissa Cogavin, Managing Editor, SCTE Rahul Puri, VP Business Head, Europe, STL Technologies Sustainability I N F O C U S