Diageo has improved water efficiency by 7.2% in 2012, according to company's latest Sustainability & Responsibility Report

Nevin Barich

LONDON , September 5, 2012 (press release) – Diageo, the world's leading premium drinks business, publishes its 2012 Sustainability & Responsibility Report, its 10th report since 2003. The report highlights progress and aspirations across the company's key sustainability impacts including alcohol in society, water and the environment, socio-economic development, people, and governance and ethics. To cover Diageo's full value chain, the report has sections covering work with and impact on suppliers, customers and consumers.

At each stage of our value chain, we seek to maximise our positive impacts, creating value for our stakeholders while improving our own performance. For Diageo, the two are inextricably linked - our company's future success depends on our ability today to contribute positively to society and the environment. We call this 'Celebrating life, today and tomorrow.'

Commenting on this year's report and Diageo's future-looking approach, Paul Walsh, CEO, said: 'Driving strong performance in sustainability and responsibility is in the long-term interests of our company. It helps ensure that we can both deliver returns to shareholders and benefit the communities whose lives we touch. It is my firm belief that the most genuinely strategic and forward looking businesses treat sustainability as a core component of business delivery.'

Highlights from this year's report include:

- Supported over 300 programmes to tackle alcohol misuse in 49 countries around the world

- Refreshed Diageo's digital marketing code and trained all relevant marketers to ensure the highest standards for responsible marketing on-line

- Reduced carbon emissions from our operations by 9.4% despite increasing production

- Improved water efficiency by 7.2%, and reduced the amount of water used at water-stressed by 8.6%

- Trained over 63,000 people in our Learning for Life programme since 2008 with 70-80% of students securing employment upon graduation

- Supported 200 projects since 2006 that provide access to safe drinking water for people in Africa with a goal of reaching eight million people by 2015

- Invested £2.6 million in social entrepreneurs across the world this year through the Arthur Guinness Fund and our Champions for Change programme in Asia

- Initiated a pilot project to develop a scalable sorghum value chain in partnership with the government of Tanzania.

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