Over 1,000 PVR Inox Ltd employees across 25 movie theatres and 20 cities have switched to wearing uniforms made with fabric recycled from 38,000 PET bottles over the last nine months. These uniforms are made of a fabric mix of 65 per cent recycled polyester and 35 per cent cotton.

This information was shared by Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director, PVR Inox Ltd. He was present at the launch of a sustainability campaign named #YoutTurnToAct which was headlined by actress Bhumi Pedneker who also appeared in a two-minute film for the campaign.

The film will be screened at all PVR Inox cinemas and aims to reach nearly three lakh people who, on average, visit a theatre run by the company across India and give them the message of easy-to-follow sustainable lifestyles. “Sustainable living is everyone’s responsibility,” said Bijli.

A series of actions have been put out by PVR Inox to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its cinemas over the next two or three years. A road map is in place for the company to switch over the uniforms of is 30,000 staff members to ones made out of recycled PET bottles.

Other sustainability initiatives from the company include those aimed at the conservation of water and energy. These measures include replacing Xenon lamp digital projectors with laser projectors that consume less power and installing flow restrictors in wash basin taps to conserve water. PVR Inox was able to cut down water use at its cinemas by 70 per cent due to its water conservation efforts, revealed Bijli.

The company has also replaced single-use plastic in its offerings served to customers with containers made out of bagasse, which is the waste generated after sugarcane is crushed, and coated paper straws made with biodegradable polymers. Other sustainable practices from the company include paperless ticketing and QR code entry into PVR Inox cinemas.

On being asked why PVR INOX is going so big on sustainability, Bijli underlined that this was the need of the hour and said, “There is no Planet B — so the turn to act is now before it is too late.”