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Akbar Brothers extends UoC Alumni Partnership for 2021

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The leading tea exporter and conglomerate Akbar Brothers Group recently signed an MoU with the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo (UoC), extending its engagement with the UoC Partnership Program for another year up to 2022.

The University of Colombo Alumni Partnership Program is an initiative of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo which today represents all alumni of the University of Colombo, to work closely with leading private and public sector organisations to provide opportunities for enhanced corporate sector involvement and support in the UoC’s activities.

The Alumni Association of the University of Colombo which was formed in 1982 as a brainchild of the Late Prof. Stanley Wijesundera who the Vice Chancellor at the time saw the need to get together Alumni of the University of Colombo as a strong stakeholder and support group for the University. The Vice Chancellor is the Ex-Officio Vice President of the Association.

It is expected that this Partnership Program will provide further support to the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo to carry out its student development and welfare activities including mentoring, communication, soft skills and leadership programs, career guidance, inspirational talks, member engagement and social activities, which will be restructured to suit the post COVID-19 environment.

UoC Alumni President Rajeev Amarasuriya said he was extremely happy that for the second year running, and especially post-COVID-19, Akbar Brothers which is today a leading corporate have decided to continue this partnership and he thanked the management of Akbar Brothers for the trust and confidence they have shown by continuing in this program.

Akbar Brothers Group Executive Director Imran Akbarally speaking at the signing ceremony said that they were proud to renew the partnership with the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo as a Corporate Partner. “This collaboration strengthens our strategic initiatives around quality in setting up the research and development process within our tea sector especially. Our Group has provided with training opportunities and internship experience for the graduates of the University of Colombo which in turn furthers our motive of being a responsible corporate citizen in the development of our nation.”

AKBAR BROTHERS EXTENDS UOC ALUMNI PARTNERSHIP FOR 2021

 

Quick Tea (Pvt) Ltd – the First Carbon Inset Company in Asia

Posted on by dilushi.d@akbar.com

Quick Tea (Pvt) Limited, is a subsidiary of Akbar Brothers Limited incorporated in 1972, the largest tea exporter and the flagship brand of finest Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka. Quick Tea is 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.

 

 

CCC Project Lead (LCA, Carbon & Waste Management) Hasini Siriwardana; CCC CEO Sanith de Silva Wijeyeratne; Sajeewa Ranasinghe, SFG, Quick Tea Director Shiraz Akbarally; Imran Akbarally, Quick Tea; Shayne Choksy, Quick Tea