SriLankan Catering: approach to environmental excellence
SriLankan Catering's success in protecting the environment stands out
as a role model among corporate houses around the world as to what an
organisation can achieve in conservation and corporate social
responsibility.
The national carrier's airline catering subsidiary has through a
concerted effort blazed a pioneering trail in energy conservation,
recycling, disposal of waste products, and environmental awareness among
its employees.
Its efforts have won global and national recognition.
Winner of two Mercury Awards from the International Travel Catering
Association in February for its innovations in disposing food waste,
SriLankan Catering was also given a National Energy Efficiency Gold
Award in 2010 in the large scale state sector category by the Sri Lanka
Sustainable Energy Authority.
It also holds the ISO 14001:2004 certification for Best Environmental
Practices, as well as ISO 9001:2008 for Quality Management Systems, ISO
22000:2005 for Food Safety Management Systems, and HACCP-Codex
Alimentarius for Food Safety and Hygiene.
CEO SriLankan Catering Sarath Fernando said, "Our conservation
efforts are no flash in the pan.
This organisation has consistently maintained the highest standards
in safety, hygiene and efficiency. Two years ago we began a
comprehensive program to bring all our operations to the forefront of
global conservation standards as well."
The company's efforts to reduce its energy consumption resulted in an
extraordinary 40 percent reduction in fuel usage and a 10 percent
reduction in electricity consumption between 2009 and 2010.
The company also has a highly successful program for recycling all
waste - plastic, polythene, tin, aluminum, food production waste, paper,
and glass.
Among its most impressive programs have been the successful
conversion of food waste into food for farm animals.
It was SriLankan Catering's pioneering project to become the first
airline caterer to use an 'Auto Clave' food sterilisation machine for
this purpose that won it two Mercury Awards.
The Auto Clave, which was installed with an investment of Rs. 3.5
million, destroys possible contaminants in the more than one ton of food
waste from the used food trays of passengers, a process which saves the
company over Rs. 12 million annually on incineration costs.
"Solutions don't need to cost you an arm and a leg. Through this
simple machine, we have reduced our food waste disposal cost from Rs. 31
per kilogramme to under Rs. 2 per kilogramme.
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