Project 100% Re-Aqua
Creating a circular economy for water
Introducing Project 100% Re-Aqua
Our Ceytea factory in Agarapathana, also known as Premium Exports Ceylon Pvt Ltd., is the sole sourcing unit for black instant tea powder for our global “Lipton Ready to Drink” and “Brisk” iced tea businesses, supplying 80% of Unilever’s global iced tea. Our award winning ‘100% Re-Aqua’ project has changed Ceytea’s dependency of fresh water from its deep ground well, reducing our water footprint and making a positive effect on the way we approach manufacturing, climate change and the wellbeing of surrounding communities.
Conserving water, our precious resource
- Rainwater harvesting: We collect 13,000 m3 of rainwater from 90% of our factory roof areas and store it in harvesting tanks for our factory operations. This has reduced our water use equal to what 100 households would consume in a year.
- Recovering condensate: Our instant tea manufacturing process involves multiple stages of evaporation, that generates condensate (which are water droplets formed from steam when cooled down). With Project 100% Re-Aqua, we installed a condensate recovery system and advanced piping network to recover 100% of this condensate. The entire water requirement of our extraction plant is now supplied by recovered condensate.
- Reusing utilities: The water that we treat on-site is reused for utilities, gardening and toilet flushing, replacing our need for groundwater.
Our Milestones
Following the success of Project 100% Re-Aqua, we have:
- Reduced our water consumption by 73% over the past 10 years (2011-2021) reducing 135,400 m3 of water drawn from our ground well per annum. This is what 1,100 households use in a given year.
- Saved 102 mega-watt hours of electricity per annum, equal to the electricity used by 100 households a year, by recovering condensate and reusing it in our manufacturing process.
Benefitting our Communities
With a significant reduction in our dependency of water from our ground well, we have secured access to clean water for 20,000 people across the neighbourhood for their daily needs.
