Berendina

Environment Protection Initiatives

BMIC’s Environmental approach

BMIC follows the triple bottom line approach of microfinance – people, planet and profit. BMIC has a dedicated approach under E type products of enterprise development services to ensure minimising possible environmental damages caused by the business activities of its clients. This is done by:

    • Identification of enterprises which create adverse impact to natural environment and extending supports to implement protection measures
    • Identification of improving greener aspects of existing enterprise by using its waste as resources and create economic value in it
    • Identification of potential greener businesses and facilitate for the implementation of the same.
    • Creates awareness among clients and general public to conserve environment
    • Implements occupational health and safety program to mitigate adverse health impacts of business with the support of government, private institutes and Non-Government Organizations to secure the long term sustainability of enterprises.
    • To increase the marketing opportunities
    • Promoting Eco friendly office practices

BMIC contributes to the “Roadmap for sustainable finance in Sri Lanka” which is being implemented by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka to minimize the risks of environment, health and safety in enterprises by achieving the objectives of the “Triple bottle line” microfinance. The environmental and safety protection measures to reduce negative impact of enterprises are:

Empowering Agri Sector by establishing 31 High Quality Compost Production Enterprises

BMIC has been strongly supporting rural farmers in various ways since its inception in 2007. As Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector moved towards increased use of organic manure in 2022, there was a huge demand for good quality organic manure produced in the country. Berendina initiated a new project to promote the production of high-quality compost at the rural level. Under this project, 31 new compost production businesses were established by providing much-needed machinery such as shredder machines and compost bag closer machines to 31 entrepreneurs selected from Ampara, Anuradhapura, Badulla, Batticaloa, Kandy, Kegalle, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee, and Vavuniya districts. Stromme Micro Credit (Gte) Limited (SMCGL) provided 50% of the project cost, while BMIC contributed 25% and the rest of the amount was borne by the entrepreneur. The main objectives of this initiative are:
  • To promote the commercial level compost production as a viable business venture
  • To provide good quality compost to the farmers in order to ensure undisturbed crop production
  • To motivate the clients to adopt the organic cultivation practices to provide safety food to consumers and protect soil and environment
Biogas Digesters to Transform Renewable Technology in Dairy Sector

37 biogas units were built by BMIC worth of LKR 5.79 million including finance and technical changes.Project objectives were adaptation of Renewable Energy (RE) technology to combat global warming and increase profitability for families by reducing fuel and electricity cost in household. In addition, slurry generated through biogas digester is a good organic fertilizer which can be used for not only on home gardening but for the commercial agriculture activities as well.

 
Wastewater Treatment System for Eco-friendly Vehicle Service Stations

Most micro enterprises in this trade are lacking the technical knowledge and financial strength to construct wastewater treatment unit for their service stations. BMIC provided support in the form of financial contribution and technical knowhow to construct 13 wastewater treatment units worth of LKR 2.1 million.

Health & Safety Program
BMIC identifies enterprises which may harm to the people due to non-adherence of proper occupational health and safety measures. BMIC supports to provide comprehensive solutions to such issues by providing safety gears as well as conducting awareness sessions.
  • Provision of safety gears & awareness training for blacksmiths at Anuradapura –
  • Educating poultry famers on health & safety measures to be taken.
  • Waste Paper Recycling Program to reduce Ecological Foot Print on Paper Usage
Recycling Programme

Understanding this fact, BMIC promotes “paper to paper” concept instead of “tree to paper” concept by launching a wastepaper recycling program to reduce the ecological foot print of paper usage at the working environment.