Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer of Mahindra & Mahindra, continues to drive the conglomerate’s ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 while ensuring 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and zero waste-to-landfill status across operations by the same decade.

Having integrated sustainability into core business segments such as automobiles, farm machinery, real estate, logistics, and renewable energy, Ghosh leads efforts to combine growth with environmental responsibility.

Under his leadership, Mahindra has reinforced its “Planet Positive” strategy, embedding sustainability in everything from vehicle electrification to supply-chain greening, while senior officials affirm these measures are both economically viable and ecologically essential.

From Ideas to Implementation

As the architect of Mahindra’s global sustainability strategy, Ghosh emphasises measurable transformation over lofty pledges.

The Group was among the first in India to set an internal carbon price of $10 per tonne, ensuring every business line factored in the true cost of emissions.

“We will win this climate game,” Ghosh insists, “because the things that you need to do for sustainability are great for business”.​

Under his leadership, Mahindra became the first Indian corporation to commit to doubling energy productivity and achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.

Over 150 group companies are now aligned with its four-pillar approach: energy efficiency, renewable energy, electric mobility, and carbon offsets.

The shift has produced real results between 2018 and 2025, Mahindra tripled its renewable power use, cut water consumption beyond its operational needs, and diverted nearly all industrial waste from landfills.​

When asked how this transformation began, Ghosh offered a characteristically pragmatic answer: “We embedded sustainability where it matters most in risk management, decision making, and total quality. It became not an initiative, but an integral process”.​

The Man Behind the Mission

Anirban Ghosh’s grounding in economics shaped how he viewed the intersection of business and sustainability.

“Sustainability is not a non-profit pursuit,” he has said, “it is the most profitable way to build long-term value”.

His decade-spanning efforts at Mahindra have reflected this belief, whether through improving energy efficiency across factories, transforming Mahindra World City into a zero-food-waste township, or developing urban housing models under the Sustainable Housing Leadership Coalition with the World Bank.​

Ghosh frequently attributes Mahindra’s success to teamwork rather than personal vision.

“No individual or business can be completely effective on its own,” he once noted. “Partnerships make sustainability real and scalable”.

His initiatives reflect this collaboration from green supply-chain partnerships to cross-sector dialogues under the United Nations Global Compact.​

Even amid global crises, Ghosh has voiced optimism about renewal through responsibility.

During the pandemic, he wrote, “We can choose to reboot the economy in a way that leads us towards a thriving, healthy future or one that locks us into unchecked climate change. Investing in carbon-neutral industries is surely the only way to go”.​

Leading the Change

Beyond policy, Ghosh’s impact lies in changing mindsets. Over 200,000 Mahindra employees have participated in sustainability awareness campaigns, from waste elimination projects to biodiversity drives.

He calls this the company’s quiet revolution: “The moment people take ownership, sustainability stops being a target and becomes culture.” Mahindra’s sustainability dashboard now tracks metrics across all its businesses, transforming data into action.​

The tangible outcomes are compelling. The Group’s manufacturing units recycle over 500 million litres of water annually.

Its electric vehicle arm, Mahindra Electric, symbolises how climate-conscious innovation can redefine mobility.

Mahindra Life-spaces, its real estate vertical, continues to receive global recognition for zero-waste buildings powered by green-certified materials and smart design.​

Still, Ghosh remains grounded. He acknowledges challenges in overhauling complex supply chains and shifting consumer mindset. “We are not chasing perfection,” he remarked once.

“We are committed to progress. Sustainability is a journey that advances with every informed choice”.​

Anirban Ghosh’s commitment has pushed the group to embed sustainability in every facet of its operations  from automotive to farm machinery, real estate, and logistics.

One of his landmark achievements is implementing an internal carbon price of $10 per tonne that forces every subsidiary to account for emissions in their economic decisions.

He believes, “We will win this climate game because the things that you need to do for sustainability are great for business” (Mahindra blog, 2021).

Under his leadership, Mahindra has pledged carbon neutrality by 2040 and 100% renewable energy sourcing by 2030, tripling renewable energy use from 2018 to 2025 and substantially reducing supply-chain emissions.​

His pragmatic approach is clear: “We embedded sustainability where it matters most in  risk management, decision making, and total quality.

It became not an initiative, but an integral process” (BusinessGreen interview, 2025). The company’s waste-diversion efforts have reached nearly 100%, water conservation exceeds operational consumption, and Mahindra World City runs a zero-food-waste township all pioneered under Ghosh’s guidance.

Legacy Beyond Mahindra

In 2025, after stepping into an additional role as Professor and Head of the Centre for Sustainability at Mahindra University, Ghosh began nurturing the next generation of sustainability thinkers.

His lectures hinge on action-oriented learning how economic decisions can regenerate ecosystems instead of depleting them. “It’s not about teaching sustainability,” he explains with characteristic humility, “it’s about cultivating the habit of thinking beyond oneself.”​

Ghosh has represented Mahindra on global stages including the UN Climate Summits, the World Circular Economy Forum, and India’s SDG Coalition dialogues.

Peers and policymakers cite him as one of the region’s most pragmatic voices for corporate activism a leader who merges compassion with accountability.

With an academic background in economics and marketing, Ghosh views sustainability through the lens of long-term value creation. “Sustainability is not a non-profit pursuit.

It is the most profitable way to build long-term value,” he stated in a 2020 company publication. His philosophy permeates Mahindra’s initiatives, including the Sustainable Housing Leadership Coalition with the World Bank and rural development projects that raised incomes for over 40,000 Indians.​

Ghosh consistently stresses collaboration, noting, “No individual or business can be completely effective on its own. Partnerships make sustainability real and scalable” (UN India, 2018).

His work extends from internal operations to shaping India’s sustainability policies and global climate dialogues. His commitment even deepened during the COVID-19 crisis when he said, “We can choose to reboot the economy in a way that leads us towards a thriving, healthy future or one that locks us into unchecked climate change” (Mahindra’s Echo Magazine, 2020).​

Employees across the Mahindra Group have embraced this mission; over 200,000 have participated in sustainability awareness programmes, transforming goals into a company culture. Ghosh remarked, “The moment people take ownership, sustainability stops being a target and becomes culture” (Facebook post, Mahindra University, 2025).

The Logical Indian’s Perspective

Anirban Ghosh’s story isn’t merely about corporate success it’s about redefining leadership for a world that must find its balance again.

Through deliberate, transparent, and replicable action, he shows that growth need not come at the planet’s expense. His ethos reflects what our country urgently needs: empathy in enterprise, foresight in policy, and courage in conversations.

The Logical Indian believes that individuals like Ghosh remind us that the road to sustainability begins not in policy rooms but in personal conviction. His journey invites every enterprise and citizen to rethink what progress means in the 21st century.