Masafi to unveil Carbon Action Plan

The Carbon Action Plan - a key initiative to measure the carbon footprint and aimed at assessing and reducing the environmental impact of its products.

As part of the Carbon Action Plan, Masafi aims to increase the percentage of recycled material used in the packaging of its products, reduce the amount of carbon emissions from its manufacturing unit and thereby become a complete environmentally-friendly organisation.

Within the scope of the plan, Masafi will launch the Brown Carton Box - a revolutionary new packaging concept.

The 100% recycled box significantly reduces the amount of corrugated carton used in terms of grammage and coverage - 2cm has been reduced off the top and bottom flaps.

The company also announced a partnership with Horizon Technologies - the Fujairah-based provider of recycling applications - to cater to its pre-processed plastics for recycling purposes within the UAE.

Previously, the company used to sell the processed plastic to municipality approved ISO certified dealers which was later exported to Chinese manufacturers for non-food applications.

Masafi also announced that energy-efficient non-CFC chillers have been installed at its bottling plant in RAK as a major step towards safeguarding the environment.

In his comments, Mr Ashraf Abushady, Chief Executive Officer of Masafi, said:

'Masafi cares for the environment and is ready to go the extra mile towards a better tomorrow for the people and society. As a responsible company, Masafi has adopted the Carbon Action Plan to measure and reduce the carbon emissions and move towards a carbon negative environment. The plan epitomizes Masafi's commitment to innovation and excellence in our line of business and showcases our responsibility towards environment protection and production of natural premium products. We are confident that our Carbon Action Plan will deliver results.'

He added: 'As a socially committed company, our initiatives and our specially designed cartons will help our consumers see the results of our efforts in the context of wider environmental measurements. Without doubt, this will have a cascading effect on the attitudes and shopping behaviour of our consumers and stakeholders. Masafi's decision to process our plastic in the UAE has further reduced our carbon footprint.'

The company also announced that its four-gallon one-way bottles use less resin (18g/L)then the regular 1.5L bottle (vs.32g/L) to package the same amount of water.

Moreover, the 4G bottles do not utilize water, electricity, chemicals for cleaning purposes compared to the returnable bottles. Once empty, the one-time-use bottles are sent for recycling purposes.

Commenting on the significance of the plan, Mohammed Ussman, Plant Manager of Masafi, said: 'Masafi recognizes its commitment to reduce the carbon emissions and become as environmentally friendly organisation. Our Carbon Action Plan is aimed at creating an effective environmental reporting scheme to demonstrate our responsibility to the environment.'

He added: 'Thanks to our initiative, our consumers will actually be helping the environment by taking carbon out of the atmosphere with every purchase. In fact, the redemption rate for the 4G bottles has gone up by 30%, which reflects how our consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and are disposing of the 4G responsibly i.e. giving it back to our Masafi Sales Team so that they can send it back to the factory for recycling purposes.'

As a firm, the company aspires to be a complete food and beverage company and intends on being present across all categories in this sector.

Masafi aims to strengthen its market leadership through a process of continuous reinvestment and innovative manufacturing and distribution strategies.