Goodricke Group Limited, a leading provider of Assam and Darjeeling premium teas, has won in the Bronze category in the Tea Sustainability Awards 2017. The award was presented to Goodricke by the Tea Association of USA & Canada, for its WASH (Water, Air, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiative under the category of ‘Best Social Sustainability initiative of the year’. This award recognizes all the hard work and operational execution being put forth globally throughout the tea industry and embed sustainability in the entire tea supply chain.
Goodricke has continually demarcated itself by the quality of its Social responsibility towards its workers other than being ‘The Tea People’. “The best social initiative” segment incorporates around the overall wellbeing of those who are in the tea sector, and how the initiatives help the broader community.
Goodricke has proved its excellence by adopting the best social initiative through its innovative WASH program. This program accounts for the water, air (therefore ventilation), sanitation & hygiene for the well being of around 1, 69,945 resident population, across the 27 tea estates in Assam Valley and West Bengal. WASH is aimed at ensuring the availability of good quality water, improved ventilation in residential houses, good sanitation facilities and high standards of hygiene among the garden workers to eventually ensure good health of the resident populace.
The WASH program was unfurled in each tea estate by a team of qualified medical and welfare officers, health assistants and management representatives. Basically, this programme is implemented after a disease tracking chart is prepared to record the incidence of different diseases across hospitals located in the tea gardens. After tracking the problematic areas in the specific cluster of residential areas, effective preventive and corrective measures are deployed to improve the overall quality of lives. Goodricke provided better water availability in each of the houses, and improved the ventilation quality by installing chimneys in the kitchens. Focusing on good health and hygiene, Goodricke had built clean toilets for the workers and held regular medical camps for the desired outcome of good health with less illness.
Goodricke feels responsible enough to ensure the quality of lives of its tea workers. The well being of their large resident population is their responsibility and ensure their welfare primarily through the ‘WASH’ Program among several other health care delivery initiatives.