South Asia Gateway Terminals (Pvt) Ltd (SAGT), Sri Lanka’s first Public Private Partnership Container Terminal was awarded the “Container Terminal with Best Safety Practices” and the “Best Container Terminal for Environment Protection Initiatives” at the Global Ports Forum Awards 2023.
SAGTs sustainability strategy is focused on addressing topics that are material to the organization’s business operations. Health and safety are a priority at SAGT and are embedded into the company’s core value system.
SAGT strives for zero accidents in the workplace fostering a culture of safety taking every precaution to maintain a safe working environment for its employees. The company continuously strives to improve its safety conditions and achieved an 87.5% reduction in the number of recordable injuries in the FY 2021/2022 in comparison to FY 2020/2021.
Training and development of employees is a major facet of fostering and maintaining SAGTs safety centric culture. SAGT develops an annual training plan which identifies and caters to the training needs of each individual employee. SAGT to date remains the only container terminal within the Port of Colombo to implement safety cages for safe lashing operations. SAGT also has in place a waste management policy that ensures the responsible disposal of waste with no adverse impacts to the environment. The Company also has in place a stringent water management policy to reduce and optimize water usage within the terminal.
Receiving the award on behalf of SAGT, Udara Cumaratunga, Senior Manager Commercial and Marketing stated “SAGT is committed to its sustainability strategy that encompasses its safety and environmental protection initiatives and will continue to invest in and develop its sustainability initiatives We are grateful to the Global Ports Forum for recognizing our commitment in the areas of Best Safety Practices and Environment Protection initiatives.
The awards are a testament to SAGT’s commitment to its four pillared sustainability strategy inclusive of environmental stewardship and enabling a work environment focused on health and safety, wellbeing and security.
Moving beyond the confines of the terminal, SAGT’s efforts in the reforestation and thereby restoration of degraded land area contributes to offsetting the Company’s carbon footprint.