Last year, Diageo and Glass Futures announced an expansion of their partnership into key regions such as India to explore effective routes for decarbonising the global glass industry. Following this, Glass Futures was pleased to support the Executive Committee meeting of the All India Glass Manufacturers’ Federation (AIGMF) in Goa last November.
Glass Futures’ Brian Matuszewski (Commercial Project Manager) and Dave Fordham (Global Engagement Lead) had the opportunity to address and network with an influential audience of industry figureheads representing leading hollow, flat, solar and speciality glassmakers from the region.
Welcome speeches by Rajesh Khosla (AIGMF President and CEO / President AGI Glaspac) and Purvish Shah (Honorary AIGMF General Secretary and Director of Gopal Glass Works / Gobind Glass) set the scene for a presentation on ‘Powering decarbonisation in the glass industry’ by Brian Matuszewski that detailed challenges and solutions to be addressed at Glass Futures’ Global Centre of Excellence for glass R&D, innovation and training in St Helens, UK.
During an interactive session, industry experts discussed developments in fields such as electrification, biofuels, hydrogen, carbon capture, alternative raw materials and technologies around supporting and enabling circularity.
“Glass is fully recyclable, and with the support of global research organisations like Glass Futures, we have an ideal opportunity to discuss green policies that each of us can adopt for a better environment,” commented Rajesh Khosla.
Tours of Diageo’s state-of-the-art Craft and Innovation Hub in Goa were held with stakeholders across the entire supply chain, where Srinidhi Rao, Head of Sustainability at Diageo India, outlined the ongoing ESG action plan ‘Spirit of Progress’ and ambitious net zero and sustainability strategies that generated enthusiastic group discussions.
“Collaborating with key players in India will prove very beneficial to furthering our decarbonisation objectives with Diageo, complementing our initiatives with them in the UK and Europe. In addition to Diageo and AIGMF, we are grateful to the Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI), UKIBC (UK India Business Council) and AIGMF members including AGI, Gold Plus, Gopal Glass and others for facilitating discussions on decarbonising global glassmaking,” said Brian Matuszewski.
Dave Fordham added “Supporting Diageo’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets and the decarbonisation goals of Glass Futures’ wider international membership, sustainability talks with glass suppliers to global brands during the AIGMF meeting provided invaluable feedback ahead of experiments starting on our industrial scale pilot plant in the spring”.
Sponsored by Nirmal Glasstech Industries, the AIGMF meeting celebrated National Education Day with a keynote speech from Dr A S Rao (Department of Applied Physics, Delhi Technological University) and the launch of the ‘Glass Decorates’ 2025 calendar featuring entries from the Youth 2024 contest.
