Kannan Devan Hill Plantation (KDHP) Company, an associate company of Tata Consumer Products and the largest tea plantation firm in South India said Monday that it has received carbon neutral certification and net negative emission status. This is a testament to the sustainability credentials of KDHP and makes it one of the first among large tea plantation companies to achieve this milestone, the company said in a statement.

Nansen Environmental Research Centre (India), a member of Nansen Group of Norway, conducted a survey of KDHP plantations at Munnar over the past nine months and reported that the total amount of carbon sequestered from KDHP’s landscape was almost four times more than what it emitted.

KDHP plantations are spread over 59,000 acres and has over 10,000 employees.

KDHP’s carbon pool was assessed by adopting PAS 2060 standard, a global standard released by British Standard Institution (BSI), under ‘other party validation’. Direct emissions from the company’s operations (scope 1), indirect emission (scope 2) and third-party emission related to the activities of the company (scope 3) were computed as per ISO 14064-1

Multi-pronged approach

A multi-pronged approach was adopted to estimate the sequestration of carbon from all facets of its landscape. Nansen Centre has adopted remote sensing data, GIS tool for analysis and ground truthing for verification and quantification of carbon sequestration. The study determined that as a result of its environment friendly initiatives KDHP releases about 3.90 lakh tonnes of oxygen per annum from its landscape.

“KDHP has consistently demonstrated its commitment to environmental conservation, green house gas emission reduction and sustainable growth while meeting our commitment to all our stakeholders. The plantation industry plays a key role in supporting the rural economy and continues to render significant social and environmental returns. Through this endeavour, we wanted to scientifically quantify the environmental contribution rendered from our plantation landscape,” said KDHP managing director and CEO, K Mathew Abraham.

KDHP was able to achieve these major milestones because of its conscious efforts in bolstering conservation of natural vegetation while also following sustainable agricultural practices that have boosted the carbon sink functions of the company’s landscape in Munnar. Achieving 100% Rainforest Alliance and Trustea certifications of its plantations, bears testimony to its relentless focus on sustainability in all its operations.

As part of its emission reduction initiatives, KDHP has increased its production of hydel power, improved fuel efficiency of its fleet by adoption of better technology, improved its energy efficiencies by reducing transmission losses by upgrading its electrical distribution network across Munnar and by modernising its 17 factories, which have secured either FSSC 22000 or ISO 22000 certifications.

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