At Richard Pieris & Co, social responsibility has become an integral part of our wealth creation process and the several initiatives undertaken by us during the past year hold ample testimony to our continued commitment to economic development, ethical behavior and concern for improving the quality of life of our employees, their families and the community at large.

Richard Pieris Group of Companies is committed to excellence and leadership in protecting the environment. Our policies require compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations. In keeping with this policy, we will seek opportunities, utilizing cost-effective technologies and creative approaches to eliminate or reduce waste and emissions.

We strive to minimize adverse impact on the air, water, and land through pollution prevention and energy conservation. By successfully preventing pollution at its source, we aim to achieve cost savings, increase operational efficiencies, enhance the quality of our products and services, maintain a safe and healthy workplace for our employees and thereby exceed all industry norms and demonstrate our commitment to environmental stewardship.

Towards this goal, “Arp-Eco” made a positive contribution with its operation of collecting plastic waste generated by the Group and recycling same into useable palletized forms. This operation has now been expanded with waste also collected from sources outside the Group hence further extending our efforts for preserving our environment.

Protection of the Biosphere - We will actively seek to prevent pollution by minimizing our emissions to the environment and will pay particular attention to the protection of the surrounding environment at our existing and future facilities at company-owned sites. The relocation of the Arp-Eco factory and the Rigifoam factory both from Nawinna premises to more industrialized locations in Mettegoda (during Sept 2003) were some of the steps taken in preserving our neighbourhood environment. In addition, several initiatives were taken to reduce the impact of Carbon Black (dust) emissions at the Nawinna premises, such as planting of trees and foliage. An investment of Rs.14.0 million was made by the Richard Pieris Tyre Sector towards the control of noise & sound emissions.

Sustainable Use of Natural Resources - We strive to eliminate any unnecessary use of water and to improve the quality of all our water discharges. Our plantation companies employ practical land-management and conservation techniques to conserve the soils and forests at our facilities.

Reduction and Disposal of Wastes - We continue to reduce/ eliminate waste, using source reduction, recycle /reuse, and treatment techniques. The handling and disposal of all waste are conducted in a safe and responsible manner in accordance with regulatory requirements. To this end, an investment of Rs. 14 million was incurred out of a total project cost of Rs. 24.5 million by the Biyagama Factory of Richard Pieris Natural Foams towards upgrading its systems and technology. The upgrade is expected to minimize their process waste by approximately 5%.

Energy Conservation and Efficiency - We continue to pursue energy conservation and efficiency improvements in our operations and promote conservation practices and investments in energy-efficient technologies. The investment by the Richard Pieris Plastics sector on a Rotational Moulding Oven machine at a cost of Rs. 30.0 million for its Plastishells factory in Mattegoda is expected to bring-in superior technology with cost/energy savings whilst minimising the emissions and ensure an eco-friendly process.

Risk Reduction - We take the utmost care to minimize the safety, health and environmental risks to our employees and the communities in which we operate, using safe technologies, facilities and operating procedures and by being prepared for emergencies.

Safe Products and Services - Through research, planning, analysis and engineering, we will minimize the health and safety hazards associated with all products and services marketed by us.

Environmental Restoration - We continue to act in a prompt and responsible manner to correct any aspects of our operations that are known to result in a significant health, safety, or environmental risk.

Informing the Public - We inform appropriate officials, employees, customers and the public in a timely manner about significant environmental and safety hazards known by us to be related to our facilities. We recognize and reward employees for their ideas to improve the environment and for sound environmental awareness.

Management Commitment - The Board of Directors and the senior management is kept fully informed of the pertinent environmental issues.

Audits and Reports - We audit our performance regularly to ensure compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations and monitor our programs and practices to ensure that they continue to be effective. As part of this, we carry out periodic energy audits in our Business Units and during the year under review the recommendations of the Energy Audits carried out at our Supercentres were successfully implemented and we have been able to achieve considerable cost savings from same.

The “Arpico” brand has earned the Richard Pieris Group the trust and reputation of consumers islandwide. Quality is considered important in every aspect and this is being given utmost priority with the Group striving to achieve excellence on par with international standards.

Companies in our Exports sector have achieved significant recognition in terms of quality. These include products such as our fire-retardant mat which was recognized as complying with the requirements of DIN 4102, B1, whilst the playground mat also produced by Richard Pieris Exports was a recipient of the BS EN 1177 standard certification. In addition, our Electrical Insulation Mat was recognized with BS 921 certification, whilst the Anti-Static Mat was a proud recipient of the ISO-1853 quality certification. Shoe soles produced by Arpitalian Compact Soles were awarded with the SATRA Certification and our Expansion Joint Filler Sponge was recognized as conforming to the requirements of ASTM D1752 certification.

The consistent improvements in product quality and process excellence adopted by our domestic manufacturing sector has been recognized with many of our business units being awarded Standard Quality Certifications. During the year Arpico Flexifoam an ISO 9002 certified Company was also awarded the SLS 893 certification. Our tyre sector also had a successful year with Richard Pieris Tyre Co. maintaining its ISO 9002 certification whilst Arpidag and Richard Pieris Rubber Compounds achieved the prestigious ISO 9001, 2000 series.

In addition the Group also focuses on many quality and productivity improvement techniques such as SLS, Japanese 5S, Quality Assurance Schemes, Kaizen, suggestion schemes and many other special work shops.