Pernod Ricard India launched the OneForOurPlanet initiative as a part of its continued efforts towards the removal of permanent mono-cartons from its packaging completely by June 2023, in a phased manner. With this initiative, the company is aiming at reducing cumulative packaging emissions by over 75,000 Tonnes by 2030.
In an exclusive interview with TheCSRUniverse, Ms Yashika Singh, Executive Vice President – Corporate Affairs, Communications And S&R, Pernod Ricard India, shares her company's vision to not only aim for sustainable packaging but also inspiring consumers to make eco-conscious purchase decisions. She also discusses at length the various water stewardship and waste management initiatives Pernod Ricard India is taking to work towards creating a circular future, with the people, planet, and the community at the core of its business. She also shares insights on how other F&B brands can make a transformational change towards green practices, and invest CSR funds into the R&D of sustainable packaging.
To know more on how F&B businesses should innovate to mitigate impact on environment, read the full interview below.
Q: What are your sustainability goals and mission?
A: The concept of sustainability is not a new one for Pernod Ricard. As a responsible corporate citizen present in India for over 25 years, sustainability is the key to Pernod Ricard India’s operations. So much so that sustainability is one of four essentials of Pernod Ricard’s growth model and embedded in our 3Y strategic business plan – ‘Transform & Accelerate’.
We have continuously strived towards a circular future, with people, the planet, and the community at the core of our business. As an organization of purpose, we work towards an enriched value chain that is committed to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring our business is aligned with the ‘World’s to-do list’ to help reach prosperity for the planet and its people. We are constantly working towards gauging our impact on the environment and introducing innovations, which will help us achieve our goals.
Q: How do you plan to achieve them? Please elaborate.
A: With a commitment to minimize waste at every step, we plan to produce and distribute our products in ways that optimize and help preserve natural resources, reduce carbon footprint, and minimise waste contribution to landfills. 100% of the company’s packaging will be recyclable, compostable, or reusable by 2025. Pernod Ricard India is also investing in technology to maximize the reuse of glass bottles while ensuring quality, with an ambition of using 40% recycled- glass content by 2025. Apart from this, we have also engaged in water stewardship initiatives through a Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recharge approach.
By 2030, we aim to be water balanced in production sites in all high-risk regions. Our latest initiative, #OneForOurPlanet further bolsters our pledge towards sustainability and aims to build a better tomorrow. With this industry-first initiative, we will remove 100% permanent mono-cartons from our entire brand portfolio by June 2023.
Q: What are the various sustainability initiatives that you have undertaken to make your products eco-friendly?
A: It is our constant endeavor to integrate sustainable practices in each step of our value chain – from grain to glass. All our efforts and initiatives are deeply aligned with the group’s Sustainability & Responsibility roadmap with four pillars including Nurturing Terroir, Valuing People, Circular Making, and Responsible Hosting - address all aspects of our business:
Nurturing Terroir: Every Pernod Ricard product takes its character from the land where it is grown. This area of commitment focuses on nurturing every terroir and its biodiversity, responding to the challenges of climate change to ensure quality ingredients now and for generations to come. With +4000 biodiversity plots, we are working on sustainable, regenerative, water efficient practices and have impacted +21,000 farmers till date. We aim to double this number in the next 2 years.
Circular Making -- Pernod Ricard India is committed to minimizing waste at every step by producing and distributing its products in ways that optimize and help preserve natural resources.
- Our efforts are concentrated on 4Rs i.e. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recharge. We are a Water Positive organisation (2.6 times) mitigating replenishment at all Extremely high- and High-water risk sites.
- We are leveraging renewable energy as a climate-positive business asset. We are progressing rapidly, towards operating on 100% renewable electricity by 2025.
- With the vision to embed circularity at the centre of every product's lifecycle, we take a Life Cycle assessment approach, or the ‘Cradle to Grave’ assessment of all our products and all Units. the First-of-its-kind in Indian Alcobev industry considering the scale and boundary.
With people, planet and community at the core of our business, we will continue to strive towards a better tomorrow.
Q: What factors and research have led you to remove mono cartons from your packaging? How and why do you think they are detrimental to the environment?
A: Businesses in India have been working towards evaluating their impact on the environment and integrating sustainable processes at every step of their value chain, right from sustainable sourcing, allocation, and utilization of resources, to reducing carbon emissions in production and waste management. Monocartons lead to deforestation and add to the waste in the landfills which ultimately is harmful for our environment. According to a report by ASSOCHAM and PwC, landfills are brimming with so much urban waste that by 2050, India is reportedly going to need a landfill that is the size of its capital, New Delhi. As per published reports, 43% of mono-cartons end up in landfills.
We believed this to be the right time to take a step forward and initiate #OneForOurPlanet – a step towards ensuring minimal contribution to landfills. Hence, since 2020, Pernod Ricard India has been working on pilot projects to test consumer acceptance of the removal of permanent mono-cartons from its packaging, taking a step and evaluating its contribution to the overflowing landfills. We believe that together we can make a significant difference and trust that our partners and customers will follow suit and pave way for a better tomorrow!
Q: What are your thoughts on the changing consumer mindsets? How has the growing eco consciousness of consumers encouraged you to make changes in packaging?
Consumer centricity is at the heart of our business and no campaigns or initiatives are successful without their support. Consumers today are increasingly espousing social causes. They seek products and brands that are purpose-driven and environmentally responsible. At Pernod Ricard India, we take pride in being a consumer-centric organization with sustainability at the heart of our business. The #OneForOurPlanet initiative aims to inspire consumers to not just make eco-conscious purchase decisions but champion this cause and help us evangelize this into a larger movement.
Q: In turn, what efforts are you making to sensitize and build awareness among consumers?
A: We hope to encourage consumers to make better decisions that will not only increase trust among them but benefit the planet as a whole. For that, we have introduced innovative ways to offer convenience to consumers as well as build awareness through recycled and recyclable neck tags with QR codes in several markets, that will redirect consumers to a micro-site solely created around the initiative, #OneForOurPlanet. Using new-age communication channels and with an integrated approach, we aim to raise awareness around the positive impact of this initiative.
Q: Could you please elaborate on the need for the beverage industry and manufacturers to opt for eco-friendly packaging?
A: The last decade has witnessed the Food and Beverage industry in India evaluate its Impact on the environment and integrate sustainable practices into their businesses. While brands across the sphere have taken steps to manage their waste, as leaders in the wine and spirits industry, we wish to lead by example.
Through our initiative #OneForOurPlanet, we aim to champion the cause of sustainable packaging and inspire our consumers to make eco-conscious purchase decisions. We believe that together, the entire beverage industry can make a significant difference and trust that our partners and customers will whole-heartedly join us in bringing ‘responsible retailing’ together with ‘responsible consumption’ practices, by cascading this environment-first initiative.
Q: What are the other alternatives of packaging that can replace plastic and mono cartons?
A: For alternate packaging options, circular making should be taken into consideration. Any materials that can be reused, recycled or reinvented should be used for packaging so that it doesn’t contribute to the landfills. It is integral that the industry adopts sustainable materials for packaging solutions in order to ensure minimal waste generation.
Q: What are the main challenges that dissuade many other beverage brands (like bottled water brands) to opt for sustainable packaging?
A: We live in a world that is constantly evolving, from climate change to brimming sea levels to overflowing waste pits/landfills, the need to take a step is fervent now more than ever. What remains the biggest challenge is consumer acceptance. Even though consumers these days are making eco-conscious purchase decisions – accepting a change is not easy. That hesitation poses a risk to several brands, irrespective of the change they are thinking to bring in for a better tomorrow. Along with that, green initiatives require higher investments for their execution which becomes a barrier for some businesses.
Q: In the few recent years, Indian businesses have been consciously working towards reducing their carbon footprints. In which all areas do you think the beverage industry can play an important role to help further the cause?
A: There are several ways through which the beverage industry can contribute towards reducing their carbon footprint. We initiated the switch from fossil fuel to biofuel in 2021 with a modest beginning at 30% and have an ambitious plan to switch to 100% biofuel by 2025. Not only that, but we also aim to use 100% renewable electricity by 2025. 50% of our current sourcing is from distilleries which use biofuel, and we are actively engaging with our vendors to switch from fossil fuel to biofuel in near future.
Q: Should corporates invest their CSR funds more into the technology and research & development of sustainable packaging? What are your thoughts?
A: Yes, absolutely. We are mobilized to adapt to climate change and assess our carbon footprint across our whole supply chain, from packaging and raw material procurement to consumer-generated waste. This helps us understand and anticipate our impact on the environment and on climate.
As already mentioned, the last decade has witnessed the Food and Beverage industry in India evaluates its impact on the environment and integrate sustainable practices in their businesses. While brands across the sphere have taken steps to manage their waste, as leaders in the wine and spirits industry, we wish to lead by example. Hence, investing CSR funds towards research and development of sustainable packaging will bring in a better tomorrow for our environment, at large. Through our initiative #OneForOurPlanet, we aim to champion the cause of sustainable packaging and inspire our consumers to make eco-conscious purchase decisions.
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