Cargills has put into practice a process of evaluation and actions across its eco system to minimize the impact to the environment from its businesses.

Energy Conservation

The initiatives to conserve energy across the ecosystem include efforts to monitor energy usage, utilize renewable energy, and install energy-efficient lighting. Energy consumption is measured, consolidated, and reported through technology and combination of logs maintained at each business, and ledger entries.

In 2018/19, Cargills has taken significant steps towards the introduction of renewable solar energy in its operations. At the end of the year (March 2019), two retail outlets (Nawala and Pethiyagoda), were generating around 9,500 KW/H of solar energy per month. In addition, our factories are now equipped with 2,551 KW of solar capacity, having utilized 18,533 square meters of roof area to install solar panels. This is roughly equivalent to a reduction in the release of 2,703,174 Kg of carbon dioxide every year.

Water Management

In 2018/19, Cargills recycled 55,318,000 litres of water, and the discharge of water has reduced in line with a greater focus on efficient water management.

Reduction in the Use of Plastic

Our initiatives to turn KFC restaurants to plastic-free operations is unprecedented to Sri Lankan QSRs. During the year 2018/19, 39 restaurants gradually phased out the use of plastic in the packaging of its rice meals and replaced plastic take-away bags with cloth and paper-based bags. This is equivalent to a reduction of around 5.7 MT of plastic per month. KFC has also been educating and encouraging customers to reduce the usage of plastic straws.

Cargills Food City continues to engage with its customers to reduce the use of plastic bags and now provides a range of reusable bags to complement existing options.

In manufacturing, efforts are underway to reevaluate packaging towards reducing the plastic usage in material.

Recycling and Reusable Initiatives

Across the eco system wherever possible steps are being taken to ensure any plastic material used is either recyclable or reusable if unavoidable.