Second phase of ‘Flygreen’, SriLankan Airlines’ voluntary carbon offset mechanism

SriLankan Airlines as a responsible airline launched ‘flygreen’ programme, its own carbon offset programme back in 2015. This programme set to offset 3000 tonnes of carbon in its first phase, which is a delight to note that the programme achieved by the first quarter of 2018.

As this marked a new beginning for the ‘flygreen’ programme, with the help of International Air Transport Association (IATA) and ‘ClimateCare’, UK SriLankan obtain the carbon credits requirement for the next phase of this programme recently. Adavikanda Mini Hydro Power Project which provides the credit for the next phase of ‘flygreen’ has been highly recommended by the experts from ClimateCare and IATA through their analysis for compliances. 

As a brief, The Adavikanda Mini Hydro Power project is a small scale, run-of-river hydropower plant producing renewable energy in Sri Lanka. It is located in Kuruvita, Ratnapura District, on the ‘Kuru Ganga’ river, the 6.5MW hydropower plant avoids approximately 13,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases and generates just under 20 GWh of clean electricity every year for the Sri Lankan National Grid. In addition to the renewable energy generation, this project has developed community infrastructure in and around the Adavikanda village. Paladeniya road, is the main access route for the school and the village, which this project developed and by doing so managed to restore the local transportation. Also a small foot bridge over the River Kuru Ganga to connect two local villages has also been constructed, as well as a community hall in Adavikanda village, which is being used for health clinics. These community work and developments not only has manage to ease the worries of locals but also manage to improve their livelihoods.

This new phase and the fresh set of credits, will serve the purpose of offsetting their respective travel footprints for the responsible travellers who fly with SriLankan and that action would help to safeguard nature and improve communities.