Petal Paint: Petal Paint

Buddhism is the main religion in Sri Lanka with over 16,000 registered Buddhist temples scattered all over the island. Worshipping the statue of Buddha to show reverence is performed regularly by the millions of devotees at these temples. Once a month, the full moon day is a declared national holiday for followers to perform temple worship. Fresh flowers play a vital role in these practices as the main method of offering at temple altars.
Agency: Leo Burnett, Sri Lanka/Toronto
Therefore, hundreds of fresh flower shops can be found around the main temples while rural temples get a constant supply of freshy plucked flowers from the neighbourhoods. Since Sri Lanka is a tropical country, flowers bloom throughout the year making it convenient for devotees and flower merchants to make their pick. But none of the temples have facilities for systematic disposal of flowers, resulting in large quantity flower dumps creating environment problems.

Target audience:
Visiting the temple is a regular practice among the country’s majority Buddhist population. However, every month, on the day of the full moon, thousands of devotees of all age groups pay homage at shrines across the nation. These people come from all walks of life and represent every socio-economic segment. The campaign began by focusing on this group, representing the majority of the nation’s population. But the message of Petal Paint had far reaching impact onto a larger populace.

Release date: 28th April 2018

Distribution method: A limited stock is available at the JAT showroom in Colombo 3. Petal Paint can also be made to order by the manufacturer JAT Paints, upon request by any Buddhist Temple.

Cost per unit: It costs approximately Rs. 1,000 to manufacture 500 ml of Petal Paint

Retail price: Rs. 1,000 for a 500 ml tin because the product is sold at cost price

Location of distribution: The JAT Paint Showroom at Colombo 3
The temple art restoration was undertaken at the Sri Sudarmarama Poorana Maha Viharaya, Ganegama - Akuressa.


Displayed: On retail shelf space at the showroom

Size of production run: 5 litres of Petal Paint can be produced per day

48 litres of Petal Paint was required to restore the temple art at the Ganegama temple.


The Result
Using the latest technology in paint manufacturing, JAT was able to produce 50 litres of paint from every 2114 kilograms of dried flower petals. Leading local News media channels featured the launch of Petal Paint long with international media. With the launch of Petal Paints, the manufacturer JAT Paints plans to restore multiple temple murals across the country including the restoration already undertaken at the shrine in Sri Sudarmarama Poorana Maha Viharaya, Ganegama - Akuressa.

In addition to finding a meaningful way to use the discards, the initiative also helped to reduce the daily waste from temple sites across the country, keeping it out of landfills and easing the burden on garbage collectors. All in all, the entire process fused art and creativity with sustainability – whilst most importantly, preserving the reverence of the flowers.