Rethinking Growth: Can Indian IT Companies Be Green and Profitable?

For many years, business leaders treated going green as a cost that reduced profit. That view is changing. This paper asks whether large Indian IT companies can be green and profitable at the same time. It uses secondary data only and covers three financial years, 2023-24 to 2025-26, for five large listed Indian IT services companies: Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra. Environmental data (energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and renewable share) come from Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reports (BRSR) and company ESG databooks. Financial data (revenue growth, profit margin and return on assets) come from annual reports. Intensity is calculated per ₹ crore of revenue on one common basis. All five companies cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity, by between about 6% and 61%, mostly by buying renewable power, while energy intensity changed much less. Profit margins and returns on assets showed no consistent link to the size of the emissions cut. The paper does not claim cause and effect, because the sample is small, the period is short and reporting boundaries differ. The findings are indicative, and the paper suggests questions for larger studies.