Championing Change Making Big Impact

At Diageo India, the mission is to become the best-performing, most trusted and respected consumer products company in India. Building on the legacy, it wants to create a positive impact within the communities and for the society. As such, the company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy has been structured with objectives that will eventually bear fruit in phases till the year 2030.

These, as informed by Navdeep Singh Mehram, VP – CSR and Sustainability, Diageo India, include reducing the company’s carbon footprint through changes in product manufacturing and packaging, replenishing water bodies at its production sites, creating inclusivity packages for local communities, educating people about the ill-effects of binge drinking or drunk driving, and fostering a spirit of oneness when it comes to re-building the planet.

When it comes to sustainability, the best strategies are those at are long-term. That's because any positive change, if it has to happen, is never an overnight process. This is something that Diageo India has understood and ingrained too well, as showcased by their 10-year environmental, social and governance(ESG) strategy title ‘Society 2030: Spirit of Progress’. It is an action plan to help create a with strategic priorities that focus on three pillars: promoting positive drinking, championing inclusion and diversity, and pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability; all underpinned by doing business the right way.

Promoting Positive Drinking

Championing positive drinking is a core pillar of the Society 2030 ESG action plan. By encouraging moderation and addressing the harmful use of alcohol through focused interventions, Diageo India aims to curb underage drinking, drunk driving and binge drinking. “Since 2021, our ACT Smart India programme has engaged over 3 lakh young people through impactful storytelling to highlight the risks of underage drinking. Additionally, more than 6 lakh consumers have taken part in an anti-drunk driving educational initiative called Wrong Side of The Road (WSOTR) shares Navdeep.

The company has also formed partnerships with 31 regional transport offices (RTOs) across India, launched WSOTR tab labs to promote awareness about the hazards of drunk driving via the ‘Wrong Side of the Road’ campaign and supported Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Telangana police by providing advanced breath analysers.

Celebrating Inclusion and Diversity

To build a better business and world, Diageo India actively promotes inclusion and diversity across the business, with partners and within local communities. “We have made significant improvements in gender representation with 50 percent of Diageo India’s Executive Committee comprising women. As part of our Society 2030 targets, we are working to increase the representation of women in the company from 26.4 per cent to 33 percent by 2025,” informs Navdeep.

There are over 60 people with disabilities working across functions in the company’s various manufacturing units.

Our ‘Learning for Life’ initiative is aimed at providing skills and resources to drive inclusion by improving employability and livelihood in hospitality sector and so far, we have trained more than 3000 people with 50 percent female candidates” discloses.

Preserving Water Resources

Diageo India’s continued long-term success depends on the people and planet around us. Therefore, its efforts cover three key areas: preserve water for life, accelerate to a low-carbon world, and become sustainable by design. For instance, its Alwar distillery is the first in Asia to receive the prestigious Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) certification which is a sustainability framework that helps farms, factories and other water-using facilities to take credible, verifiable action to protect water resources. Within its operations, the company has improved water use efficiency in its distilleries and in packaging.

“Within the water catchments around our manufacturing sites, we have replenished more water than we use in our direct operations through rainwater harvesting structures, check dam construction and pond desilting”, Navdeep asserts.

Accelerating to a Low Carbon World

Further, it has made good progress in lowering carbon emissions and has undertaken afforestation initiatives while cutting down greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy use status.

“We are well on our way to achieving net-zero emissions by 2030. In addition, we are promoting sustainable practices with suppliers, increasing the use of recycled content and recyclable content in packaging, removing mono-cartons from our portfolio, and collecting post-consumer plastic through our extended producer responsibility (EPR) initiative,” Navdeep Singh adds.

Diageo India is aware of the need for a science-based action plan to create a sustainable future. As such, its bold target is to reach net-zero carbon across all its operations by 2030 and work with its suppliers to halve theirs. To this effect, it has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 89 percent and removed coal from its system by switching to bio-fuels such as agriculture waste, rice husk, etc. An impressive 98.5 percent of renewable energy is used in its operations, well-poised to achieve a target of 100 per cent. Additionally, more than 70 per cent of the electricity requirements of Diageo India are being met through in-house renewable electricity.

When it comes to packaging, Diageo India has removed mono- cartons from 90 percent of its portfolio. In addition, it has introduced biodegradable packs as well as recyclable PETs in some of the brands and continues to expand it to others.

“This is aligned with our global mission to ensure that 100 per cent of our packaging is widely recyclable or reusable and compostable by 2030. Over 99 percent of the packaging materials used are recyclable and 57 per cent of our purchased packaging materials contain recycled content. We are using lightweight glass and have a good mix of used market bottles. Our aim is to achieve 60 percent recycled content (cullet) by 2030,” Navdeep Singh elaborates.

The company has also committed to responsible collection and recycling of post-consumer waste. It has so far collected more than 22,000 MT of post-consumer plastic packaging as part of its EPR initiative. Brands like ‘Signature’ are associated with a mangrove regeneration project where 30,000 mangroves seedlings are being planted in five coastal villages at Puri, Odisha. These mangroves can sequester carbon up to 2-4 times faster than a mature tropical forest.

In Rajasthan, the company has been working towards preserving ecology with a specific focus on water, safe habitat and biodiversity conservation of the Godawan (Great Indian Bustard),- a near-extinct bird. In partnership with Rajasthan Forest Department, as part of the conservation effort, it has completed restoration of water bodies and Sewan grassland development by creating safe habitats for nesting.

Supporting Small-holder Women Farmers

Diageo India has launched a micro- enterprise initiative to support 100 small-holder women farmers in Nashik. The initiative will provide them with the skills, financial support and equipment needed to reduce crop loss and ensure sustainable livelihoods, tackling food waste and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. In addition, the initiative will enable last mile connectivity to the consumers like hotels, restaurants and ingredient manufacturers through the food supply chain. Therefore, this will be a step towards driving farm to fork sustainability.

Fostering Sustainability

A prime example of the company’s approach to ESG is its water stewardship initiative. Two collective actions on water have been flagged off across the Ruparail river basin in Alwar, Rajasthan and Godavari River basin in Nanded, Maharashtra through a stakeholder inclusive process that involves site and catchment-based actions. Additionally, it has implemented various water replenishment and WASH projects across water-stressed sites, replenishing more than 1 million cubic metres of water. Significant progress, by working with local communities through building rainwater harvesting structures, pond desilting, recharge pits, building check dams and tree plantation.

Several WASH projects for local communities have been set up to provide safe drinking water, toilet facilities and grey water management in more than 30 villages. Diageo India has also collaborated with The Nature Conservancy India to introduce regenerative agricultural practices among small-holder farmers in Punjab and Haryana. By providing training on sustainable farming techniques, it has helped improve the livelihoods of thousands of farmers while also reducing reliance on synthetic fertilisers, improving soil health, and enhancing biodiversity and water quality.

Interestingly, the company’s ‘Learning for Life’ programme, in collaboration with the Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPwD), is an industry-first initiative which focuses on empowering individuals with disabilities by equipping them with skills for the business and hospitality sector, reflecting its commitment to inclusion and diversity.

In Alwar, Diageo India Whas collaborated with Gramodaya Samajika Sansthan (GSS) that works in partnership with the district forest department to create mini- forests under the ‘Trees Outside Forest’ initiative in Rajasthan. Such sustained efforts, engagements and transparent disclosures have led to industry-recognised organisationslike Sustainalytics recognising the company as a ‘top-rated ESG performer for 2022'.

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