Elephant House strengthens environmentally friendly practices
Elephant House, a household brand synonymous with years of heritage and value, has embarked on yet another monumental initiative with increased concern for the environment, driven by the intention of reducing the carbon footprint and adapting more eco-friendly, feasible practices.
The organisation has been engaging in several initiatives to change its business practices and to be more conscious of the protection and preservation of the environment focusing on plastic neutrality, reduced carbon footprint, environmental awareness and emphasis on disposal rate and weightage of products.
The company has reduced the overall plastic usage by converting the long necks of the PET bottles to short necks and weight reductions of PET bottles upon successful completion of trials. This has led to an impressive 77,000kg reduction of plastic usage. The shrink wrapping used in bundle packaging has been reengineered with polythene gauge been reduced to 70 microns, which has led to a further reduction of 14.078 kg of plastic usage and the company is currently testing the feasibility of achieving an overall reduction of polythene per bottle usage by optimising on wrapping.
Further, the PET bottles smaller than one litre are being manufactured with low compressed air pressure, which leads to the reduced usage of electricity and overall reduction in wastage.
Striving to remain a conscientious organisation, Elephant House has also adopted practices that have brought about spectacular reductions in the use of corrugated products. The UHT packaging has seen a reduction of 43 percent in usage while the ice cream range has implemented a 24 percent reduction and the company has also actively implemented the removal of corrugated bottom in packaging boxes. Freezer room operations have been relooked at to ensure the usage of recycled crates, which will contribute a 50 percent reduction of virgin plastic material usage.
Supply Chain Management Head Sanjeewa Jayasundera commented, “At Elephant House, we are truly conscious that our duty extends beyond the production of consumer products. We know that as a responsible corporate citizen, we should contribute towards a greener country and world, which is for the benefit of all future generations.
He further stated, “As an organisation we strive to take the right steps towards engaging more sustainable and ecofriendly practices, which in the long run will be one of our biggest offerings to our consumers.”
The organisation has gone a step further with the installation of solar panels with a capacity of 120kw at the warehouse complex. This is just the first phase of the venture and another key component of the Green Initiative. Plans are underway to increase the capacity to 1500 + kw.
Adopting the 3Rs of Reduce Recycle and Reuse, Elephant House is on an admirable journey of contributing towards the wellness of the community and nation at large. The Plasticcycle initiative, backed by the Sri Lanka Recyclers Association is a wonderful CSR initiative through which specially designed bins are placed at strategic key locations with the sole intention of encouraging the proper disposal of recyclable plastic. Consumers and general public can simply wash, crush and drop off their plastic at a bin convenient to them. The initiative will be expanded by the further sponsoring of over a 100 bins, which will be made available at all supermarket chains along with the additional support of a third party enabler Zero Waste. The collection of recyclable plastics will be made more economically viable with the use of modern technology.