Sustainability Initiatives to produce carbon neutral Dilmah tea by the year 2017

Carbon Neutral Dilmah

Following the calculation of the carbon footprint of their factory operations at the Dilmah Headquarters in Peliyagoda, Dilmah successfully fulfilled its pledge to becoming Carbon Neutral by 2017 and is now a carbon neutral facility.

Dilmah achieved carbon neutrality for its complete range of products in November 2018.

For more details on the carbon neutral certification click here.

• Objectives

  The main objective is to continue to improve the environmental performance of Dilmah Tea by implementing environmentally-sound, innovative schemes geared towards improving energy efficiency and further developing positive contributions to the environment through Dilmah Conservation initiatives.

• Progress

  

  The following projects are being implemented to secure carbon credits for Dilmah:

  Hydropower

  

  

  

  Hydropower will be the largest power generation method, and is predicted to contribute over 90% to the carbon neutral programme.

  The process of setting up of two hydroelectricity plants at the Dilmah Queensberry and Craighead estates began in 2016. Hydroelectric power generation is scheduled to commence at Craighead in July 2018 and in Queensberry in August/September 2018.

  Dilmah expects to generate 1.5 million units of electricity annually through renewable sources of energy from 2018 onwards

  Solar power

  

  Two solar power plants (100KW and 150KW) have been installed at the Dilmah Headquarters in Peliyagoda.

  The combined average of the solar energy generated for 2017 was calculated at 353.805 MWh. The lifetime energy generated by the 100kW plant and 150kW plant to date is 715.28 MWh and 428.51 MWh, respectively.

  Biochar

  Biochar, which is generated from Dilmah tea waste by the process of pyrolysis, has the potential to offset a significant percentage of global green-house gas emissions, while also improving absorption and retention of nutrients and water in soil, decreasing the soil’s acidity and the uptake of toxins, and increasing the soil microbial diversity.

  Biochar produced by Dilmah Tea is currently being used and tested within the Kahawatte Tea Plantations.

  Greening Batticaloa

  Greening Batticaloa, an initiative to plant 1 million cashew trees was commenced in 2010 by Dilmah Conservation in an effort to improve green cover, mitigate the detrimental impacts of deforestation, resolve harsh climatic conditions and interlinked livelihood difficulties, as well as to economically empower local communities of Batticaloa. The project is estimated to reach completion in 2019.

  The carbon sequestration potential of a cashew plant over 10 years with a rotation of 60 years of an average quality site with optimal climatic conditions is 37.4tC/ha. 37.4 tonnes of carbon is equivalent to 136.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide, thus through this programme 136.9 tonnes of CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere by each cashew plant over a period of 10 years.