At the beginning of 2010 Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) carried out a pilot study with First Climate India aimed at helping tea producers to lower their impact on climate change. The study benchmarked energy usage, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and assessed energy effciency measures on two tea estates in Assam.
What was measured?
As part of the project First Climate carried out comprehensive energy audits to measure each estate’s total energy consumption and GHG emissions including tea processing, other operational activities and worker’s domestic use. Based on local infrastructure and available energy sources they also calculated potential savings for a number of scenarios:
- Implementing energy efficiency measures, e.g. improved withering technology
- Switching to cleaner fuels (from coal and grid power to natural gas)
- Utilising renewable energies (e.g. solar lighting)
- Introducing heat, pressure and energy utilisation
Lowering the bottom line
First Climate also looked at implementation costs, payback times, finance schemes and potential incomes from carbon credits and feed in tariffs. This data could then be used to provide producers with a financial incentive as well as an environmental one.
The outcome of the project
Results from the pilot were promising with considerable reductions being possible and payback periods for some options under a year. During the next phase of the project ETP and First Climate will develop focused support to help producers improve energy management and reduce their emissions.
