Sri Lanka pioneers in world’s first carbon neutral certified Tea Company

The legendary V.T. V. Deivanayagam Pillai was born in 1919 in South India. Orphaned at the age of 12, he moved to then colonial Ceylon and began his working life as a shop boy. From such a beginning, through honesty, ethics, hard work and spirituality became the leader of one of the most respected trading houses established in 1943 in Sri Lanka.

From that year onwards the V. T. V. Deivanayagam Pillai had extensive business interests in the South Asian region.

Eswaran Brothers was founded in 1963 by his son D. Eassuwaren to export Ceylon teas and spices. From humble beginnings, the company has developed into one of the leading tea companies in the region, a conglomerate with many industry leading companies.

Eswaran Brothers achieved a major milestone in December 2010, as it became the first tea company globally and the first company in Sri Lanka to be certified carbon neutral. Following are the excerpts of an interview Eswaran Brothers Exports (Pvt.) Ltd. Vice Chairman Subramaniam Eassuwaren recently had with Asian Tribune .

Given below the excerpts of the interview with Vice Chairman Subramaniam Eassuwaren of the Eswaran Brothers Exports (Pvt.) Ltd., Colombo.

Question: Can you tell us more about V.T. V. Deivanayagam Pillai and his vision as a businessman?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren He was a man of high ambition. He became famous for his focus on customer service and humanistic values. Many modern management ideas of respect and empowerment have been practiced by him for decades. His business philosophy was simple: “Serve your customer to the best of your ability, work hard and have faith in your ability and in God.”

His life revolved around the relationships he built around him. Whether it was his customers, his suppliers, his co-workers or in his role as a philanthropist, his relationships were based on mutual respect and love. His growth and success came against the face of many obstacles, the greatness of the man lied in his ability to face up to setbacks and maintain his faith and self confidence. Many awards and titles were bestowed on him by international and national organizations. His inspirational story challenges the imagination of many young entrepreneurs. His five sons now run the group successfully.

Question: What is the core values found in your organization?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren During the past decades, we have grown to become one of the leading teabag companies in the Asian region. Our foundations are built upon the principles practiced by our beloved founder. Those principles form the basis of our quality and customer satisfaction. The seven core principles, which lay the foundation for our values are the determination, hard work, honesty, courage, love, patience, and spirituality. Now, with customers in over 43 countries, we are a company focused on providing a total tea solution worldwide.

We understand that each market has its own unique requirements and we are geared towards serving them.

Question: Recently your company was recognized as the first to obtain carbon neutral certification in the world. What made you to obtain such high standards?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren We have always being an environmentally committed company that always tried to follow the standards set by my grandfather. One of it was to look after the community. With the time these standards were changed to suite the issues that we are facing now. Especially in the tea industry we are concerned about the environmental effect and the change in weather patterns have started to impact our business. Based on this we thought of the importance of starting some program, which is tied up with our colleagues engaged in the tea industry and the buyers.

Although no buyer has asked us to do this or nobody else has done this before in the tea industry, we thought of taking the first step by becoming carbon neutral.

That is to say that we as a company will not be polluters. Whatever the minor pollutions takes place from our operations would be the use of petrol for vehicles and engines or take flights to travel abroad.

Question: So, what was the solution you adopted to reduce the carbon footprint?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren: We have invested in carbon credits from a tea plantation in the country. This tea estate is none other than the Pussellawa Plantation that has switched from diesel to renewable bio mass. Basically they are growing fuel wood. They grew these trees within the estate to replace the diesel which was used for the boilers.

Question: Who is the awarding body of this certification?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren: It is the Carbon Neutral Company of the United Kingdom, which is a company that pioneered in the respective industry. We chose them sine they follow stringent mechanism to award the certification. We also worked with Carbon Consulting Company in Sri Lanka and Ecometrica in the United Kingdom, to make sure that there are no gaps or shortfall from our side.

They even went to the extent of checking the carbon credits we bought. So we are the first certified carbon neutral company in the world.

Question: No doubt that becoming carbon neutral is an addition burden for a company. So, what is the advantage you have other than following the standards set by the founder?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren: There are three things that we get as the benefits. Our electricity bills have gone down by 18% despite the increase in electricity tariffs, water consumption has gone down by 9%, and we have a marketing advantage. All-in-all this is the right thing to do as a company by becoming trend setters for the others to follow. We should not be polluters. In case something that pollutes the environment is put out, we should also put out things that set off them. We are not a 100% eco friendly company. There is a long way for us to go and lot more to do. We are on a journey although we are unable to add in the extra investment at this moment to import the solar panels.

Since the war is over Sri Lanka is now at an important stage in the development process. We should not do the mistake countries like China and Vietnam did that polluted the environment. We have a chance if we set things right. During the war our environment was protected to a certain extent preventing heavy industries from coming in although it impacted the national development.

Question: Other than tea industry what are the areas your company is into?

Subramaniam Eassuwaren: We are engaged in recycling of paper and selected wastes. These rejects or wastes collected from all parts of the island and are then shipped to countries where they have technology to recycle them properly. We pioneered the plastic furniture in Sri Lanka.

- Asian Tribune -