Dilmah wins accolades at Best Corporate Citizen Awards
Dilmah Tea was recently awarded the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2020 by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, with their independent panel of judges assessing the company’s commitment to quality, tradition, customer, employees, innovation, ethics, integrity, and sustainability.
As a family-owned tea company, the sustainable development of Dilmah’s plantations – its community and environment – is integral towards creating long- term value. Currently, residents of 16 estates in Kahawatte plantation, 16 estates in Talawakele plantation, 13 estates in Elpitiya plantations, and Dunkeld Estate have benefited from initiatives related to healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and education. The Dilmah Plantation action plan for 2021-2025 is a Rs. 200 million initiative embracing education, entrepreneurship, climate resilience, nutrition, childcare amongst other areas, the company said in a media release.
Winning the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award 2020 is considered a top honour in the Sri Lankan corporate field. The tea company further won category awards for Customer Re l a t i o n s , Environment Beyond the Business, and was chosen as one of the Top 10 Corporate Citizens of Sri Lanka. It was also a proud parent moment for Dilmah as Rainforest Eco Lodge, a venture initiated by the company, was awarded Certificate of Merit for Best Sustainability Projects.
To ensure that economic, social, and environmental sustainability exists at the heart of its operations, Dilmah established the Merrill J Fe r n a n d o C h a r i t a b l e Foundation (MJF Foundation) and Dilmah Conservation to drive life-impacting initiatives (‘ Purpose Beyond Profit’ is a free e- book, giving an overview of the overwhelming impact made through the two organisations),
The MJF Foundation works directly with estate workers and underprivileged communities to uplift lives and empowers them to pay- it- forward to their communities. The Foundation has improved the quality of life for plantation workers, residents, and the surrounding communities by establishing new housing, medical centres, and care for the entire resident population of the estates, pre-schools at 63 Child Development Centres, after-school programmes, and nutrition programmes.
The release said that the 2021- 2025 Dilmah Plantation Action plan will revive the plantation community in 16 estates that form a part of prim a r i l y D i l m a h - owned Kahawatte Plantations, Talawakelle, and Elpitiya Plantations. The action plan will bear a holistic framework aimed at elevating the community members’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being and socio- economic status. The areas of focus are gender and women, youth, education, health and well-being, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), climate- smart agriculture including agroforestry, adopting Nature- Based Solutions (NBS) as plantation best practices, water, climate change, livelihoods, and entrepreneurship. Over 138,415 people in the plantations are expected to benefit from the programmes.