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Beyond Hospitality
At Uga, we bring luxury and sustainability together without compromise. Our hotels are defined by their rich heritage, natural environment and thriving local communities, and we’re committed to preserve them for generations to come. As such, we consider sustainability on every level; constantly evaluating how we can surpass our environmental goals.
Priyanjith Weerasooriya, Deputy Chairman, FINCO Holdings.
Our Sustainability Goals
Several measures help us to improve energy efficiency at all our properties:
Continuing to increase the share of renewable energy generation, we currently maintain an average of 10% renewable solar energy usage. We hope to achieve 30% renewable energy share by 2030.
Water is precious in the areas where many of our properties are, and drinking water is a luxury to the local communities around us. As such, managing available water resources as best as possible is vital, and we do so by the following means:
Several key policies and practices help us to manage our resources with maximum efficiency at all our properties.
Procurement: as per our sustainable procurement policy, we adhere to the following:
Productivity: the 5S concept is implemented to enhance productivity and efficiency in the use of our resources.
Resource management: Paper consumption, linen usage, and chemical usage is continually monitored with annual targets set for each area.
Waste management: At present, our target is 20% landfill waste for all our properties. We aim to improve the amount of waste we reuse and recycle by reducing food waste and separating waste at source.
Committed to empowering the communities around us and sharing our success with them, we allocate USD 1.5 per room night towards our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund. This supports our CSR projects which cover three vital aspects directly entwined with our operations – the 3Ws: Water, Wildlife, Women.
Water: In 2021, we established our first Reverse Osmosis plant in the village of Athungama in Anuradhapura, (near Uga Ulagalla). In a region where poor water quality contributed to a high incidence of kidney disease, this life-saving plant provided a crucial source of safe drinking water for over 250 families. Over the past few years. 7 more plants were constructed with a capacity of 27,400 Liters, supplying drinking water to 1,060 families and 6,400 individuals.
Wildlife: In 2020, we partnered with Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando and Dr. Jennifer Pastorini – Sri Lanka’s foremost elephant conservationists at the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR) to find ways to protect the dwindling elephant population and help reduce human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the locality of Uga Ullagalla. In September 2022 the Elephant Research Centre (ERC) was set up to conduct research, provide education for staff, guests, local communities and other stakeholders, and promote the concept of “living together in harmony”. In the nearby villages of Pittala Konderama and Karambe an electric fence covering 3.74km was built at a cost of LKR 3 million – protecting over 70 families.
Women: We recognise how critically important female participation is to the hospitality industry in Sri Lanka where women amount to less than 10% of the workforce at present – well below the global average of 54%. Committed to making meaningful progress towards advancing gender equality, we have increased our number of female employees from 11% to 16% over the past four years, and aim to achieve 20% across all our properties by 2027. We also prioritise CSR projects which support the development of women entrepreneurs, enhance educational opportunities for women, and address specific needs of differently-abled women, including institutions dedicated to their wellbeing. Our efforts also align with broader national movements aimed at empowering women towards achieving a more inclusive economic growth and sustainable community development.
As awareness of sustainability practices is vital for successful implementation, we conduct training sessions for our staff covering 8 related topics. We maintain an average 70% participation ratio at all our properties per topic. Staff are actively encouraged to join sustainability events, CSR projects and other programmes to understand the importance of sustainability practices at both work and life.
As a responsible entity we comply with all legal and other requirements related to our business operations – monitoring compliance levels on a monthly basis.
Energy Consumption Management
Water Consumption Management
Resource Efficiency
Corporate Social Responsibility
Knowledge Sharing
Compliance & Acknowledgement
Sustainability Reports & Policies
UGA CSR FUND
The following is a list of the community projects we have sponsored in the recent past:
The following is a list of the community projects we have sponsored in the recent past:
The following is a list of the community projects we have sponsored in the recent past:
The following is a list of the community projects we have sponsored in the recent past:
Awards and Certifications
