Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC (TTEL), a leading member of the Hayleys Plantations Sector, obtained the Gold status for all three steps of Measure, Reduce and Contribute under the Climate Neutral Now (CNN) initiative of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), setting another regional benchmark in the plantations industry.

One of several initiatives launched by the UNFCCC secretariat to increase climate action under the Paris Agreement, the Climate Neutral Now initiative guides, supports, and encourages non-party stakeholders such as organisations and individuals to work towards a Climate Neutral world by 2050. “Hayleys Plantations has always championed sustainable innovation in Sri Lanka, and the Gold status is a recognition of our commitment to the stringent guidelines issued for the CNN initiative.

With this achievement, we have surpassed one of the key milestones in our journey to be NetZero by 2050. “Our pledge to the CNN initiative in 2019 provided us with the opportunity to leverage on the clear framework, tools, best practices and sectorspecific resources devised under this powerful global initiative to reduce our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions significantly.

We hope that our achievement today contributes positively to the urgent global mobilisation against climate change,” Hayleys Plantations Managing Director, Dr. Roshan Rajadurai said. The Gold status is issued to organisations fulfilling three major criteria for “Climate Neutrality”, including the contribution of registered carbon credits under the Verified Carbon Standards (VCS) to offset the current unavoidable emissions.

Thirdparty verification of the comprehensive GHG measured inventory and completing the targets set out for the Sciencebased Targets initiative to reduce emissions complete the trio.

“To achieve the Gold status for the CNN initiative, a company has to complete all the requirements provided under the three steps: measure, reduce and contribute. Since our pledge to the initiative, we have worked to achieve the Gold status in these steps individually, setting yet another benchmark in the sector as one of the first companies to be Climate Neutral,” Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC Director/CEO, Senaka Alawattegama said.