TEA PLANTATION COMPANIES CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: QUALITATIVE INQUIRY IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not specific to one industry; they help every industry to achieve a sustainable future. This study investigates Sri Lankan tea plantation companies' contributions towards the SDGs and examines how tea plantation companies enhance a sustainable future for their organizations. The qualitative research approach is employed under an exploratory research design. A purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from ten factory managers in tea plantation companies using a semi-structured interview protocol. The content analysis is utilized to identify the main approaches that are used to comply with the SDGs and examine the long-term strategic objectives of the tea plantation companies to achieve a sustainable future via SDGs. The results revealed that SDGs provide a universal and visionary framework contributing to economic, social, and environmental factors and lead to achieving a sustainable future for tea plantation companies. Further, the majority of the SDGs contribute to enhancing societal and environmental factors. Intriguingly, it was revealed that the willingness of the shareholders to implement socially-oriented projects is a major problem in the tea plantation sector. The findings of this study provide valuable knowledge for tea plantation companies to enhance their contribution to the SDGs. There is a scarcity of literature grades in SDGs in tea plantation companies in the agriculture sector. As a result, this research has delved deeper into tea plantation companies in the agricultural industry.