REPORT PROFILE, MATERIAL ASPECTS AND BOUNDARIES

This is Ambuja Cement’s 9th Corporate Sustainability Report about the Company’s continual and structured efforts towards improved disclosure of triple bottom-line performance and enriching stakeholder relationships. The annual reporting cycle covered for this report is January to December 2015. The contents of the report are ‘In accordance’–Comprehensive as per the latest requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guideline. The Company has also made disclosures on the ‘Mining and Metals Sector Supplement’ as done in the previous years. Sustainability Performance Data, Independent Assurance Statement, and the contact point for questions regarding content are provided at the end of the Report.

The previous Sustainability Report 2014 was released in June 2015, in an off-site meeting with key executives of the Company. The report was based on GRI G4 ‘In accordance’–Comprehensive criteria and assured by a third party. The Sustainability Report is brought out in addition to the Annual Financial Report and Ambuja Cement Foundation’s Annual Report. The economic performance reported is in line with the Company’s audited annual results prepared in accordance with the Companies Act, 1956. The Company has not included subsidiaries and their performance indicators. ACL has a robust mechanism for reporting performance in all three areas of evaluation, i.e., economic, environmental and social. The Sustainability Report/preparation is being reviewed by Top Management through Corporate Sustainability Steering Committee (CSSC) meetings. The Company follows systems incorporated by LafargeHolcim and reports data yearly through online mechanisms or standard information carrier sheets. Holcim Accounting and Reporting Practices (HARP) is used for all financial information; Plant Environmental Profile (PEP) records performance on various environment aspects; and the CSR Questionnaire captures HR and CSR data. Other evaluation sheets are there for: (i) costing and variance from the budget; (ii) occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance; (iii) energy consumption; and (iv) CO2 emission. HR-related parameters are captured in SAP.

This Report is externally assured by M/S Emergent Ventures India as per AA 1000 Assurance Standard and the Assurance Statement is a part of the Report. There is no relationship between the organisation/employees and the assurance providers. MD & CEO and senior functional heads are involved in seeking assurance for the organisation’s Sustainability Report.

REPORT CONTENT AND BOUNDARY G4-18

Preparation of the Report has been an in-house effort lead by our Corporate Environment and Sustainability team, with responses from the various departments/ functions collected and considered for this purpose. The Report, including all its content, is an outcome of the combined efforts of all respondents. While we have taken due care in preparation of a comprehensive, transparent and accurate Sustainability Report, we acknowledge that we might have missed certain topics of relevance for our esteemed stakeholders. We welcome feedback and suggestions on such topics. This Sustainability Report includes all ACL operations and businesses that fall under the direct control of the Company. All operations of ACL (no other subsidiaries/entities) within India are covered, including manufacturing plants with mines, bulk cement terminals (offshore activities), Corporate Office and marketing offices. The Company has dry cement manufacturing processes with five integrated cement plants, eight grinding plants, ten mines and five ports. The aspect boundaries and content have been defined using reporting principles prescribed in the GRI G4 guidelines. The report excludes subsidiaries, JVs, associate companies and channel partners’/dealers’ network as the Company has no operational control over them. The detailed financial disclosures of the Company are given in the Annual Report 2015 available on the Company website. This report has been prepared as per GRI G4 guidelines and is aligned to ‘Comprehensive’ reporting. The Company followed the approach described in the GRI Implementation Manual for designing the Report content. The material aspects that have been covered in the Report are clearly brought out in the materiality matrix. In the Report, the DMA (Disclosure on Management Approach) describes the Company’s approach to the subjects relevant to it and the indicators provide details of performance on the specific subjects. The ACL value chain includes all cement plants, limestone mines, sales and marketing offices, channel partners, suppliers, and product design processes.

There are no significant changes from the previous reporting periods in the scope and aspect boundaries and supply chain. There were no changes in the Company ownership during the year. For all the aspects, a detailed perception study was conducted and all our key stakeholder groups have been included in the aspect boundary. G4-12, G-13

MATERIAL ASPECTS G4-19,

In 2015, ACL completed a comprehensive stakeholder engagement exercise to facilitate a good understanding of the Company’s obligations to its stakeholders; this was consistent with the business’s commitment towards corporate responsibility and also identified the material issues for the preparation of the GRI G4 Report. It generated transparent communication, providing an opportunity for the Company to identify and address the stakeholders’ interests with respect to the operational footprint of our business. Different stakeholders found an opportunity to comment and give inputs on material issues that would directly or indirectly affect them or the Company. GRI G4 guidelines on stakeholder engagement were followed and engagement was designed with the objective of issuebased, proactive, learning-oriented implementation to help achieve tangible outcomes in alignment with the Company’s targets. It was based on a well-defined closed loop approach inclusive of engagement strategy development, stakeholder mapping, prioritisation, preparation and implementation of an action plan that completed the feedback loop of the system. The principles of completeness, responsiveness, transparency, collaboration, inclusiveness and integrity were addressed in alignment with ACL values. The stakeholder engagement programme was deployed in phases, focusing on each identified external/ internal stakeholder group separately. Gap analysis was conducted to revise the engagement strategy and include the emerging materiality issues into its business sustainability agenda.

All material aspects are material within the organisation. Aspect boundary includes all ACL operations but not its subsidiaries for which aspects are not material. Aspects are not material outside of the organisation. However, we acknowledge that we need to focus our attention on identified material issues and their impacts across our value chain to influence positive changes towards sustainability in the whole value chain, irrespective of whether or not we have direct control over the issues. There are no restatements of information provided in previous reports or any effect thereon. There are no mergers or acquisitions or change of base years/periods, nature of business, or measurement methods. In terms of size of the Company, there were no significant changes.