Product Overview

Raj Singh, founder and CEO of HoldCo Pvt. Ltd was keen on entering the waste management market in India owing to its huge potential and growth in recent years. Already a major player in the renewable energy sector, Holdco was now looking to expand its portfolio through the WTE (Waste-to-Energy) segment. Singh formed a committee to finalise the operating and financing plan for the proposed business in India. The committee identified multiple alternatives for waste management such as anaerobic digestion, composting, revised derived fuels (RDFs), gasification and incineration. It was also evaluating alternatives to finance the project – investing equity, or taking normal debt, or raising funds via impact bonds. The team was running the calculations to identify the best alternative to maximise the economic returns (measured by IRR) and social returns.

Learning Objectives

To understand and evaluate the business case for environmental sustainability; To identify which method of waste processing is suitable for different types of waste; To analyse the advantages and disadvantages of different types of financing methods for the WM project; To discuss the role of municipal corporations and governments in any WM project; To debate on the social and environmental returns of the WM project, given the process in itself may not be carbon neutral.