Our commitment to sustainability, community engagement and rethinking the concept of growing and auctioning tea has benefited our planet and our community. Since introducing CSV activities into our business, societal issues in our local communities have improved twofold.
What does CSV mean?
CSV means ‘creating shared value’. This refers to a competitive strategy that simultaneously creates value for a business and for society. There are 3 ways to create shared value: by reconceiving products and markets, by redefining productivity in the value chain, and by enabling local cluster development.
How can businesses engage with society?
There are various ways businesses can engage and work with local communities, though the impacts differ.
Corporate Philanthropy: Giving back, by fulfilling community obligations.
Corporate Responsibility: Businesses should be responsible and mitigate the harm they may produce in their production chain – minimising harm to society, the company and the planet.
Shared Value: Different from the other two, it’s about finding a business opportunity in social issues, to benefit both the business and society that can develop and improve over time.
Why creating shared value benefits everyone involved
The long-term competitiveness of companies depends on social conditions. An educated and skilled workforce, safe working conditions, sustainable use of natural resources and a flourishing local economy, affordable are all social issues that depend on the success of local business. By working together, these issues can be addressed.
Companies generate the wages of local people, which helps to raise the standard of living and in turn funds government and civil society. Companies can also create solutions to social problems in ways that government and NGOs cannot. They have the incentive to take risk and competition with other businesses fuels innovation, efficiency and adoption.
It’s worth noting that not every social issue can be solved by business through creating shared value. But where a problem can solved by a market driven approached, it can scale and be sustained without having to rely on state resources.
How have we created shared value with our farmers?
“When we created English Tea Shop, we knew exactly what we wanted to do; we wanted to set up a joyful organic tea revolution in Sri Lanka with love for our people, the organic approach and our land, while bringing prosperity to our farmers, the entire value chain and our planet at large.”
– Suranga Herath, CEO
Part of our mission has always been to improve conditions for tea growers, find ways of improving quality and yield and to give farmers the education they need to take care of their land. With training and support for farmers, we encourage a switch to organic farming which will nurture the soil for many generations to come.
By involving employees in strategic business decisions and giving them a significant share of the business, we have developed a sustainable organisation where everyone can grow and develop. We strive to build sustainable communities at every step as well as ensuring all packaging is planet friendly. In bringing prosperity to our people and the planet, we are working towards a better future for us all.
We have also created an agripreneurship development programme for women in farming, alongside extra revenue streams for farmers (through beekeeping, vegetable projects, planting material grants). By investing in machinery, equipment and training programmes we’re giving back to the land and our people, ensuring our farms can be looked after for generations to come.
If you’d like to find out more about how we’re creating shared value at English Tea Shop, please DM us on social media.