Vidhura’s Story

“A lot of stuff we did was very experimental, but we needed to try things out”.

Vidhura is a social entrepreneur from Sri Lanka. He masterminded the conception of the Thurulie eco-factory, a factory that produces underwear for a range of high street outlets including Marks and Spencer. He was voted for by readers of the Guardian to become a Dream factory Cultural Engineer.

It is not often that a factory is described, fervently, as “beautiful”. But that is the word that Vidhura Ralapanawe uses, with no hesitation, to describe the Thurulie eco-factory in Sri Lanka that he oversaw from conception to operation.

His work in leading these projects, influencing his company and the wider environment, holding both to the needs of business and the challenges of climate change, have been exemplary and should be more widely publicised.