Sunday Nov 24, 2024
Sunday Nov 24, 2024
Tuesday, 11 June 2019 00:30 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Quick Tea Limited achieved yet another regional accolade by becoming the first company in Asia to reach a net-zero carbon status through carbon insetting. One of Sri Lanka’s largest teabag production facilities with a capacity of over 3 billion teabags per year, Quick Tea was certified as a Carbon-Inset Company by leading sustainability validation, verification and certification firm The Sustainable Future Group (SFG).
Carbon insetting is a novel concept that is rapidly gaining popularity as an attractive alternative to the more commonly known method of neutralising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon offsetting. Unlike the traditional approach, Carbon insetting offers the opportunity to make use of emissions reduction/removal possibilities within a business entity’s own value chain. Global brands such as Chanel, Nespresso and L’Oréal are already using Carbon insetting in managing their environmental sustainability, and it is predicted that Insetting will surpass offsetting as one of the preferred methods of combating climate change in the next few years.
Quick Tea brought in Sri Lanka’s foremost environmental consulting firm, The Carbon Consulting Company (CCC), to conduct a GHG Assessment of all three scopes related to the company’s overall operations. The carbon reduction initiative that Quick Tea selected to meet the requirements of SFG’s proprietary Carbon-Inset® Guideline is the Puttalam Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Project. CCC further calculated the energy production from these three wind power plants, in order to calculate their annual emission reductions.
The project was then independently validated by SFG to establish conformance with the ISO 14064-2 Standard, and the quantification of carbon reduction estimates were verified to determine the amount of Carbon Insets that will be generated. SFG then verified the results of the Organisational GHG Assessment conducted for Quick Tea, following which a matching amount of insets from the above project that are listed on SFG’s Inset Registry were retired, prior to awarding the company Carbon-Inset Certification.
Quick Tea Director Shiraz Akbarally commented, “We would like to thank the CCC Team for being the guiding hand in helping us meet our sustainability goals. We pride ourselves on excellence and accomplishing the milestone of being the first certified Carbon-Inset® Tea Company is a fantastic achievement. We can no longer ignore the vital importance of being environmentally conscious in an ever-evolving market place. As leaders in our industry, we want to reinforce this message to all our stakeholders that we are committed to a more sustainable future.”
“We are proud to have Quick Tea as a corporate partner in our quest to promote sustainable business practices across Sri Lanka,” remarked CCC CEO Sanith De S Wijeyeratne. “It is commendable to see a company not only strive for excellent products for its clients but also understand the importance of fighting against climate change. We hope that more companies follow in their footsteps and take action in helping achieve a net-zero economy.”
