Sri Lankan Navy General Hospital Colombo FIRST in Asia to be Certified Carbon Neutral

The Sri Lankan Navy, which operates the Sri Lankan Navy General Hospital in the Western Naval Command, engaged with the region’s top provider of integrated sustainability solutions, The Carbon Consulting Company (CCC), to quantify the direct and indirect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of its hospital’s operations. Following the assessment, CCC invested in an internationally registered Renewable Energy Project to obtain a matching amount of Carbon Credits. The credits were acquired from the UK-based sustainability services firm, Natural Capital Partners, and in return the hospital was awarded their proprietary, global-leading CarbonNeutral® Certification, making it Asia’s first to receive this accolade.

The Hospital is already doing noteworthy work in sustainability, with several commendable initiatives such as a Plastic Recycling Project, providing soft copies for medical reports, on-site composting using garden waste, using over 3000 litres of AC condensate water for vehicle washing daily, and using Street Solar Lamps on the premises. The Navy General Hospital won Bronze place in both the Presidential Environmental Awards and the National Productivity Awards in 2018.

Since its inception in 2010, CCC has worked with hundreds of local and international corporates to develop solutions for overarching sustainability issues. With expertise in carbon, water, waste, energy, forestry and biodiversity, CCC also provides management/technical consultancy and advisory services on Integrated Corporate Sustainability Strategy Development and Change Management. CCC’s mission is to spread sustainability and all its values throughout the community, by promoting sustainable development and supporting the drive towards a greener economy.

Sanith de Silva Wijeyeratne, CEO of CCC remarked “This synergy between The Sri Lankan Navy and The Carbon Consulting Company is a great stepping stone for future sustainability initiatives, and the level of interest in environmental management and resourcefulness that we have seen with the Navy team is truly encouraging. Sri Lanka ranks second in the Global Climate Risk Index and has experienced devastating floods and severe droughts in many parts of the country over the last few years, and this has been increasing. This is only going to get worse if there are no suitable measures taken to curtail these issues, which serve as dire warnings of the real dangers of Climate Change and Global Warming. CCC is honoured to have extended its services to the Sri Lankan Navy as a part of its CSR initiatives, and we look forward to engaging with them towards long-term measurable and verifiable action to mitigate their adverse environmental impacts and come up with viable and practical solutions to any issues at hand.”

The certification was awarded by Natural Capital Partners’ regional representative, The Sustainable Future Group (SFG) – Sri Lanka’s only GHG ISO 14064 accredited verification and certification body. CarbonNeutral® is used by hundreds of clients in over 30 countries, and is granted to businesses or organisations that have reduced their carbon emissions to net zero in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol. The Carbon Neutral Protocol is the global standard for carbon neutral certification, providing the pragmatic guidance businesses need to build credible reduction solutions and offset GHG emissions to net zero. The Protocol is revised and updated to reflect the changing requirements of both science and business.

This international certification was awarded by The Sustainable Future Group to the Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva at the Navy Headquarters, Colombo, on Tuesday October 15^th 2019.

Director Naval Health Services (Diagnosis and Prevention), Surgeon Commodore Janaka Marambe, Deputy Director Naval Operations Captain Aruna Weerasinghe, Commanding Officer SL Navy General Hospital (Colombo) Commander Pubudu Gunasekara as well as CEO – Sanith de Silva Wijeyeratne, Assistant Manager - Client Relationship Management, Ruwanthi Halwala, Analyst-Carbon Management & Mitigation, Erandathi Dissanayake of the CCC and Head of Sustainability Assurance and Advisory Services, Lakmini Senadheera from the SFG were also present on this occasion.