SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

LIPTON TEA GARDENS

Lipton owns and manages its own tea plantations in East Africa, the Lipton Tea Gardens, located in Kenya and Tanzania. Our principal estate is located in Kericho, Kenya, on the Western Edge of the Great Rift Valley. Here the combination of temperature, sunlight and rainfall at high altitude close to the equator is ideal for producing high quality tea throughout the year for use in Lipton brands. We run our estates according to the principles of our Sustainable Agriculture programme.
The plantations cover more than 11.000 hectares of tea and produce approx. 200000 tonnes of fresh green tea leaf annually. 11 factories located on the estates ensure that freshly plucked leaf can begin processing within two hours after plucking.
At our estates, we employ around 25.000 people. They, as well as more than 100.000 dependants (families of our workers) are provided with free housing, company primary schools, nursery schools and employee welfare services such as clean water supplies, 2 hospitals and 4 health centres.

Our HIV/Aids programme, which includes education, prevention and care, was recognized with an Award of Business Excellence by the Global Business Coalition in 2006.

We also protect 13,500 hectares of natural forest, wetlands and grasslands and continue to plant more indigenous trees (260,000 forest trees in 6 years, with a further 320,000 forest trees donated to local communities). Specifically in Kericho, 98% of our energy needs are from renewable sources through 4 hydro electric power stations and renewable fuelwood for our factory boilers. We are deeply committed to community involvement and as an example we currently sponsor over 50 local students through university.