LEAF (Lalan Environmental Action Fund) is the non-profit charitable arm of the Lalan Group dedicated entirely to wildlife and environmental conservation efforts. LEAF follows in the Lalan Group’s intrinsic belief that true success and progress is built on two key guiding principles – nurturing the lives of the people that work with us, and protecting the environment around us. It is a belief that runs deep – not just as part of the ethos of our company, but also built into the decisions that are taken at every level. With the Lalith Hapangama Foundation focusing on social responsibility and sustainability, LEAF tackles the need to make more holistic, measurable, and sustainable changes in the symbiotic relationship we share with our environment.
LEAF was established with the aim of driving these changes through a structured, three-pronged approach: reduce, restore, and revitalize.
- Reducing the impact, direct and indirect, of all Lalan production facilities on the environment.
- Restoring the balance of affected and endangered environments, through comprehensive and long-term programs driven by experts and professionals.
- Revitalizing the biosphere of formerly affected areas, introducing sustainable systems to prevent any future negligence and damage.
To this effect, LEAF has actioned several key sustainability projects undertaken by the Group recently:
- Rainwater Harvesting – By introducing rainwater harvesting systems at their facilities, Lalan Rubbers – the glove production arm of Lalan Group – has been able to reduce their water footprint by 25%.
- Biomass Energy Generation – Most facilities use 100% sustainably farmed and sourced biomass for their heating energy requirements. By switching from fossil fuels to biomass, we have not only reduced our cost of production, but have also significantly reduced our carbon footprint.
- Replanting Initiatives – In the plantation industry, annual replanting is a necessity to ensure the continued health of both the land and the trees on the plantations. In addition to replanting, we carry out interplanting with compatible crops that ease the strain on the land. Through this initiative, over 100,000 trees are added to ecosystem annually.
- Land Conservation – We also maintain non-commercial land holdings which are being replanted with endemic species of flora in order to conserve and protect the native eco-system.
- Carbon Neutrality Programs – Through a combination of our plantations, replanting initiatives, and land conservation efforts we are sequestering up to 109,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years.