A commitment to kindness to people and nature

SUSTAINABILITY AT DILMAH

Our Founder made a commitment to the purpose beyond profit.

A minimum 15% of our pretax profits directly benefit people and planet.
Until 2019 it was 10%, and in response to the social and environmental
challenges the world faces, our founder increased our commitment to
humanity, by 50%. These funds are generated by Dilmah Tea and our allied
business are used by our MJF Foundation and Dilmah Conservation to

We started our
850 kW
We established
of hydro & solar power, saving
directly, efficiently and effectively fulfill the philosophy of making business a
matter of human service.
sustainability journey in
2000, since then we have
eliminated 2300 100%
442,104 Kg
A
tonnes of Carbon Neutral Product since 2017,

of plastics. The biodegradability CO2 becoming Carbon Negative from our

Tea Gardens to destination port by

2030
of our tea bags varies from
the same as growing

98% 100 % to
45500 trees.
.

Inspiring sustainability through advocacy

Our installation of bipolar to scale up our commitment to Nature, we established and fund Biodiversity Sri Lanka, a
units results in a collaboration amongst Dilmah Conservation, International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in forming Biodiversity Sri Lanka.

At BSL we share best practices, to encourage

and support businesses in protecting
biodiversity and acting sustainably.
Ink reduction of

45-50
Our beach
cleanups have removed %

9800 kg
of waste from sensitive ecosystems.
germ-free
environment
in our packaging contribute
towards increasingly
sustainable packaging.
Participant Member
for both products and people
Read more on page 10
OUR PURPOSE
fulfilling a philosophy of kindness to people and nature

Planted 1 Mn
Supporting 3500+ Uprooted tea Empowering
cashew trees,
differently abled plants in degraded 2000 women
annually
children through tea plantation to through the
contributing over
the Rainbow initiate a Women’s
LKR 2 Mn to the
Centre 3 km-long nature Development
eastern economy
corridor Programme

Educating &
First open-air empowering Safeguarding 50 Scholarships for
butterfly garden in 3900+ youth Kms of Sri Lankan 500+ individuals
Sri Lanka, home to through the coastline through through the MJF
50 species of Empower Culinary the Beach Scholarship
butterflies School and Caretaker Programme
vocational training Programme

Donated Provision for 517 Supported the

First urban plantation, Department of
equipment worth
arboretum non-worker and Wildlife to gazette
LKR 64 MN,
established with staff families Kayernkerni coral
strengthening the
more than 500 affected by reef as a marine
healthcare sector
plant species COVID-19 sanctuary
during COVID

Providing care and

Established welfare for over
Initiated Bee a
Empowering over Sri Lanka’s first 2,000 children of
Keeper project to
2000 small dedicated research Dilmah tea garden
protect, research
entrepreneurs for station for climate workers daily
and educate about
better livelihoods change (led by a through Child
precious wild bees.
corporate) Development
Centres.
OUR SUSTAINABILITY CULTURE, SINCE 2000
Over the last 21 years we have reached significant milestones in our packaging and business
sustainability journey, trailblazing packaging innovations within our industry

Packaging Breakthrough: Continuous material Eliminated the plastic

Pyramid tea bags changed reduction measures in tea overwrap in 80% of
2000 to PLA - a plant-based
material.
2010 tags, bags and packs. 2015 tea packs using tear
strip design

Began the process of Packaging that contains Environmental impact of

eliminating the plastic in our 10 tea envelopes (10E) was end-product included in the
tea packs by introducing a
tear strip design
2007 changed to include a window
to reduce material usage
2011 selection criteria when
investing in new machinery.
2018

Eliminated 421,052 Kgs of Switched from tin tea caddies to paper canisters in 3 SKUs -
plastic from packaging launched in Australia as part of a wider process of migration
2019 Production lines were
2021 to compostable materials (see page 9)
converted to use 100% PLA Reduced ink usage in our outer cartons (corrugated) by
based filter paper in 2020
45% to 50% per year (see page 10)

Enhanced customer communications on material

identification and disposability
All inner cartons were While celebrating the
delivered by suppliers, achievements in packaging Introduced a thread knot fitting unit to one of the existing
wrapped in kraft paper,
which has now been
2020 sustainability during the
past two decades, this
machine lines (C23), eliminating the staple used to attach tea
discarded. And 75% of inner year we have bags to the tag
cartons have switched to
reusable corrugated inner Invested in staple-free, 100% compostable tea bag machines
cartons and a system is in
place to return them to
suppliers.
Café range (see page 9)
OUR COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING
Investment in research, development and adoption of the most environmentally friendly
packaging technology for our products since 2000

ALL ALL ALL ALL

TEA INNER OUTER TIN PRODUCTS
BAGS
ARE
CARTONS CARTONS CADDIES ARE
ARE ARE ARE ETHICAL AND
98% recyclable recyclable recyclable carbon neutral
biodegradable & compostable & compostable

Product Range Format Tea Bag Overwrap

DILMAH Paper 98% Compostable Recyclable

PREMIUM TEA Envelopes

Foil 98% Compostable

Envelopes

String & Tag Reaching from 98% Recyclable

to 100% Compostable

Tagless Reaching from 98% to

100% Compostable

GOURMET TEA Envelopes 98% Compostable

(English Breakfast & Earl Grey)

HERBAL INFUSIONS String & Tag 98% Compostable Recyclable

Exotic /Fun Tea Envelopes 99% to 100%

CEYLON GREEN TEA Compostable

String & Tag Recyclable

EXCEPTIONAL TEA Envelopes 100% Compostable

String & Tag 100% Compostable Recyclable

t-SERIES

VIVID TEA SELECTION 100% Compostable Recyclable 100% compostable tea bags

100% Compostable Recyclable

SILVER JUBILEE
CARBON NEUTRAL DILMAH
Carbon Neutral in 2018 - Carbon Negative by 2030
PRODUCT

2017 2019 2020

Peliyagoda factory and head
office certified as carbon
neutral
ISO 14064-1: 2006
Dilmah achieves Dilmah achieves carbon neutrality
carbon neutrality for the for the facility and all products up to
facility and all products the destination ports of all overseas
up to Australia shelf markets
ISO 14067:2018 ISO 14067:2018
ISO 14064-1:2018

CARBON
NEGATIVE
DILMAH’S JOURNEY TO CARBON NEUTRALITY
BY 2030
Investing in renewable energy,
sustainable materials and
optimising our plant and processes

2018 2020 2020 to be Carbon Negative by 2030

Dilmah achieves carbon Dilmah achieves carbon Carbon Footprint Calculation

neutrality for all products and neutrality for the event School mode digitalised
factories of Tea

ISO 14064-1: 2006

CARBON NEGATIVE BY 2030
Investing in continuous improvements to be carbon negative by 2030

6000 kW
41 % 68 % 136 %
5529 kW

2750 kW
2779 kW

1660 kW
1000 kW 1090 kW

809 kW

2022 2025 2030

% Reliance on Renewable Energy Cumulative capacity Capacity of Solar panels to be installed

KINDNESS TO PEOPLE AND NATURE
Our efforts towards benefiting people and the planet have contributed to
Dilmah becoming a 100% carbon neutral product since 2018

WASTE RESTORING DILMAH

TO CRAFT ECOSYSTEMS UPCYCLING
• Expanding towards a circular • Organised beach and wetland cleanups Last financial year Dilmah
economy around the country upcycled over 8x more of its
• Converting factory generated • Over 10 tonnes of plastic and packaging into other useful items
waste into creative objects by non-biodegradable waste collected
applying the principle of
designing out waste and pollution.
• Three cleanups led by Dilmah Tea staff
3 %
2018/2019
25
2019/2020
%

THE BEACH BENEFITING BENEFITING THE

CARETAKER PEOPLE... PLANET
PROGRAMME Over

Creating public-private
1500
women entrepreneurs

50 partnerships supported through the Small

Entrepreneurship Programme (SEP) and
Over Women’s Development Programme (WDP)
beach caretakers
appointed

Keeping
We established Sri Lanka’s first

50
At our One Earth Centers
kms
1965
corporate owned Climate Change
we have educated
of the island’s coast clean Research & Adaptation Centre in

25,000+
Empowered

2017,
Strengthening local
small entrepreneurs to date

1506 5307
coastal communities
individuals have received powering

14
vocational training people
national & international
beneficiaries were trained research initiatives at
in FY 2019/20 present

ALL OUR INITIATIVES COLLECTIVELY CONTRIBUTE TOWARDS

ACHIEVING 11 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)
STATE OF THE ART THE ASSURANCE OF
RISK MANAGEMENT QUALITY
SYSTEMS a commitment to achieving the highest standards for
manufacturing, materials and process excellence
Our commitment to Taste, Goodness and Purpose
extends to our people and their families
THE COMPANY IS CERTIFIED IN COMPLIANCE WITH

ISO 9001:2015 ISO 14001:2015 FSSC 22000 BRC Global Standard

Quality Management Environmental Food Safety Food Safety
System Management System Management system

To safeguard our premises from bacteria We abide by the pillars of labour, health
and viruses we have Implemented an and safety, environment and business Rainforest Alliance Organic product Organic product Organic product
ionisation system, resulting in ethics guidelines laid out in SMETA. Chain of Custody certifications – EU certifications certifications – JAS
enhanced safety of our people, workplace
USDA NOP
and products. This provides additional
safety from COVID-19 as well.

While complying with other global standards and certifications we abide by the
guidelines laid out by SMETA under the pillar of labour; and have the following in place:

• Human rights policy addressing supply chain, community and stakeholder engagement,
valuing diversity, freedom of association and collective bargaining, safety and health at the
workplace, workplace security, child labour, work hours, wages and benefit and guidance
and reporting for employees
• Anti-bribery and corruption policy
• Employee contract/agreements complying with local laws
• Compensation and benefits policy
• Communicating policies and procedures of the facility to all employees
• Training sessions including induction and refresher courses
• Internal audits to monitor level of compliance with social compliance standards
• A compliance officer has been appointed
• Free personal protective equipment for workers
• Formal grievance handling procedures in place

Our health and safety committee Includes We have a comprehensive and updated
25% of worker representation package in place that includes SMETA Along with other global standards and certifications
(Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit)
2021 HIGHLIGHTS…
We are designing products that are more sustainable, reduce waste and eliminate plastic

CAFÉ RANGE NUMBER OF IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

In 2021, we launched a café range which is fully biodegradable. BEING STUDIED IN FY 2020/2021
(Paper envelopes and biodegradable teabags)

The café line can be experienced in 8 variants:

5 10
projects projects
Wastage Production
reduction efficiency process
improvement

Approx.

40 projects
which linked up with

25 projects
Material Source reduction

Replaced tin caddies in our Dilmah

Inspirations range with paper-based
canisters in 3 stock keeping units (SKUs).
Launched in Australia this range is available
for loose leaf tea
2021 HIGHLIGHTS…
IMPROVING ENVIRONMENTALLY IMPLEMENTED AN IONISATION SYSTEM
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING FOR IMPROVED HEALTH AND SAFETY
In our efforts to introduce environmentally sustainable packaging, continuous research DURING COVID
is carried out on biodegradability and compostability of packaging in both home and
industrial composting environments which aid us in sourcing suitable materials
Bipolar Ionisation system
Our installed Bipolar Ionization units produce Bio–Climate Negative Ions (The Air Vitamin) to
proactively destroy any unhealthy microorganism by damaging the cells of the viruses and reacting
with protein of the virus, and then deactivate the virus.

Home Composting Industrial Composting

Plasma Air’s ionisers use proactive air

purification technologies to safely
deactivate airborne viruses.

Recent tests by the Spanish government

Bipolar ionisation creates millions of negative
show that Plasma Air products have been
ions, a proven method of virus destruction.
proven to reduce Covid-19 surrogate by
99% airborne and 80% on surfaces.

ENHANCING
CUSTOMER
On our Sustainable journey in material source reduction, Dilmah had conducted
an in-depth evaluation in DPI values and successfully reduced ink consumed for
COMMUNICATIONS
corrugated outer in-house printing by 45% to 50% per annum. on material identification and disposability
VOTED SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPIONS
By independent, expert committees including the International Chamber of Commerce,
and Trusted Brands in New Zealand, Australia & Asia

Voted Trusted Brand (Tea category) - Reader’s Digest survey

New Zealanders have

voted Dilmah their Most
Trusted Tea Brand 7
years in a row, in the
Reader’s Digest survey

• Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability • Emerged as one of the Top 10 Corporate

Awards 2020 Winner - Category B Citizens under both categories A & B

• Category Awards Environment Beyond • Category Awards Customer Relations

the Business

In Australia
Voted “Product of the Year 2020” for
Dilmah brand Natural Infusions
Top 10 - Most Admired Companies of Sri Lanka
announced by The International Chamber In Australia
of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ICCSL), the Voted “Product of the Year 2021” for
Chartered Institute of Management Dilmah brand Inspirations tea selection
Accountants (CIMA) and the Daily FT.
 More than anything, at Dilmah, we believe in being kind.
Kindness is at the heart of everything we do.
We spread kindness by doing everything with care and respect.
This means respecting nature - growing only the finest ingredients
and protecting the environment. Respecting our workers -
providing them with good working conditions and fair wages for their efforts.
Respecting our customers - we do not mix our teas.
We uphold the highest standards and do not compromise quality to enhance profit.
We make the best tea in the world and use our earnings to
support those that need that little bit of kindness the most.

Merrill J. Fernando,
Founder of Dilmah

to learn more about Dilmah Tea, our philosophy and purpose, please visit us at www.dilmahtea.com.