Finlays commits to a stretching sustainable development strategy

“The future we don’t yet know”
Finlays commits to a stretching sustainable development strategy
the challenge
In 2008 the global tea
producer, Finlays, had
just acquired Flamingo
Holdings, a business
importing vegetables
and flowers for the UK
market.
With its expanded
portfolio, Finlays found
itself vulnerable to
more uncertainty and
potential challenges
than ever before, from
natural resource decline
to Kenya’s volatile
governance, and from
the structure of the
global retail sector to the
technological innovations
which could affect the
company’s supply chains.
Finlays commissioned
Forum for the Future
(Forum) to help map
options to ensure a
sustainable future for the
business.
what we did
impact
feedback
Forum helped Finlays to
explore future business
risks and opportunities by
creating four compelling
scenarios for 2023 from
desk research and more
than 70 interviews with
staff and experts from
several sectors.
installations to its existing
biomass and hydro sources;
“As a result of our
work with Forum for
the Future, there was
a fundamental shift in
our approach. We [...]
acknowledged that
developing sustainably
had to be central to the
brand - [it’s the] single
thing that would hold the
business together.”
Focusing on these four
different futures helped the
organisation create a new
vision, and Forum worked
with senior management
to develop a challenging
39-goal sustainable
development strategy for
the next 15 years to
2023.
Our futures work with
Finlays helped the
company understand
that strong social
and environmental
objectives, rather than
just economic ones,
are key to its long-term
viability. And as Finlays’
ambitious Sustainability
Strategy approaches the
halfway point, Forum has
catalysed many changes:
• Finlays has increased
the range of renewable
energy generation used
on its sites since 2008,
adding biogas and solar
• Finlays’ Community
Catalyst Programme is
empowering its workforces
and their families in Sri
Lanka and Kenya to be
more independent, take
ownership of their homes
and increase their economic
resilience;
• The company has
shifted its focus to working
with smaller farms and
spreading the economic
benefits it brings widely
within communities. In
Kenya alone, the number
of small farms working with
Finlays has grown from just
1,000 in 2008 to 15,000
today;
• Zero waste went to
landfill from its European
operations in 2014, and Sri
Lanka and Kenya are not far
behind;
• Rainwater harvesting
systems have been installed
at seven of its sites,
compared with none in
2008;
• Finlays is a project partner
of Tea2030, Forum’s multistakeholder project trying to
mainstream sustainable tea
by 2030;
• Since 2008 all of Finlays’
Simon Large
Commercial Director
Finlays
“The scenarios
workshops were
fantastic in terms of
bringing everyone
together, but also
at promoting a very
constructive and
objective dialogue.”
Michael Pennant-Jones
Group Head of
Sustainability
Finlays
tea estates have been
certified Rainforest
Alliance, and recentlyacquired estates will be
certified in 2016;
• Every business division
within Finlays now has
its own sustainability
plan and defined set of
priorities.