In its 11th Sustainability & Responsibility Report, this year Diageo outlines a set of refreshed priorities which it developed following interviews with stakeholders from around the world. The global review was taken in part to reflect significant changes to the business, particularly investment in emerging markets, and comes as the company welcomes its new Chief Executive Ivan Menezes.
Commenting on the report, Ivan said, “I am proud to lead a company with such strong values. Our priorities, and accordingly this year’s report, reflect feedback from our stakeholders. Earning the trust of our stakeholders is not only important to me personally, but it is essential as we continue to expand in high growth markets around the world – many of which have evolving, and more demanding, expectations of the private sector.”
Findings from the external stakeholder engagement process can be found in the report together with details of progress across the company’s key sustainability impacts including alcohol in society, water and the environment, socio-economic development, people, and governance and ethics.
The report covers activity within the company’s operations as well as across its value chain.
Highlights from Diageo’s work in sustainability & responsibility in the past year include:
- Launched, together with 12 other leading global producers of beer, wine and spirits, a set of commitments to reduce the harmful use of alcohol over five years. In addition, supported over 300 responsible drinking programmes in over 40 countries to combat alcohol misuse.
- Improved water efficiency in its operations in Africa by 32% since 2007, achieving its target two years ahead of plan. This was coupled with its longstanding commitment in Africa to provide access to clean drinking water to one million people every year until 2015.
- Ranked the best performing beverage company for climate change strategy, emissions disclosure and performance by Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Diageo also achieved the highest score in the beverage sector for environmental operational efficiency in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices.
- Trained over 25,000 people through its Learning for Life programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, to support people in getting employment. The programme aims to help participants gain a real chance of finding employment and become active contributors to their community.
- Signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles, a joint initiative between UN Women and the UN Global Compact, and launched a £6.4 million programme to empower 2 million women across 17 countries in Asia Pacific by 2017.
- Sourced 52% of raw materials used in Diageo’s operations in Africa and successfully launched Ruut Extra Premium beer in Ghana, Diageo’s first cassava-based beer, providing local farmers with a commercial market for one of Ghana’s most popular crops.
Once again Diageo has aligned its Sustainability & Responsibility Report with the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) principles at a B+ application level.
Check the following link for the interactive report available online:
http://srreport2013.diageoreports.com/
Source: Diageo.
About Diageo
Diageo is the world’s leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, beer and wine. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JεB, Windsor, Buchanan’s and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray and Guinness.
Diageo is a global company, with its products sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE). For more information about Diageo, its people, brands, and performance, visit www.diageo.com.
