New Delhi, Nov 8, 2024: Diageo India (United Spirits Ltd) has surpassed water replenishment targets by 25%, three years ahead of schedule, and expanded its in-house solar capacity to 2.6 MW in FY2024, according to the.company’s annual ESG Reporting Index released recently.
Diageo India launched its third annual ESG Reporting Index 2024 on Thursday, highlighting continued progress in the company’s ‘Spirit of Progress’ ESG action plan. The Reporting Index shares impacts across three key objectives outlined in Diageo’s Spirit of Progress plan, this includes pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability, promoting positive drinking, and championing inclusion and diversity, all underpinned by doing business the right way.
As per the report, Diageo India has created water replenishment capacity of over 9,000 Cu M in the 2024 and has replenished more than 1 million cubic metres of water over the past three years across its water-stressed sites. As a result of sustained efforts, the company has exceeded its total water replenishment target by 25% and three years ahead of its 2026 goal.
The company has worked with government, NGOs, and local stakeholders on projects to improve water quality and availability in priority catchments, de-silted dams to increase water infiltration and provided access to water for many smallholder farming communities. Through its water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programme, the company has improved lives by constructing 264 sanitation facilities and providing more than 13,000 litres/hour of clean drinking water capacity in villages across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan.
Hina Nagarajan, Managing Director & CEO, of Diageo India, said, “As we release our 2024 ESG Reporting Index, I’m proud of the remarkable progress we’ve made under our ‘Spirit of Progress’ action plan. We are committed to leading the way in grain-to-glass sustainability, fostering positive drinking, and championing inclusion and diversity throughout our operations and communities, with an unwavering allegiance to doing business with integrity. We will continue to lead with purpose, leveraging our scale and working collaboratively with partners to drive meaningful impact and sustainable growth.”
The report said, the company is accelerating action towards a low-carbon future, and its climate action plan is in line with the UN SDG goals. It has eliminated the use of coal fossil fuel by using biomass renewable-fueled boilers at its own distilleries since 2022. It has also reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 87% since 2020 through concerted efforts to reduce energy demand, and enhancing the use of low-carbon fuel alternatives and renewable electricity to achieve its target of net-zero carbon emissions (Scope 1 & 2) across direct operations by 2030. Diageo India has also increased its in-house solar energy capacity to 2.6 MW and achieved 98.6% renewable energy use status in direct operations since 2020, enabling the company to accomplish 100% renewable energy status ahead of its 2030 target.
As part of efforts to drive climate resilience the company’s brand ‘Signature Packaged Drinking Water’ is associated with a mangrove regeneration project in Puri, Odisha, where 31,500 mangrove seedlings are being planted.
Additionally, over 1 lakh trees were planted to offset residual greenhouse gas emissions. The company has also planted more than 2 lakh trees as part of its afforestation drive in Alwar, under the ‛Trees Outside Forest in Rajasthan’ (TOFR) programme.
Diageo India works closely with suppliers (Scope 3 emissions) encouraging switching to low-carbon alternatives, while adopting newer technologies and best practices in the supply chain. The company is focused on eliminating waste from its value chain, collaborating with farmers to regenerate landscapes, and creating innovative solutions to grow sustainably.
The company is collaborating with its suppliers and agronomic partners to improve farm management practices across its raw material supply chains and to promote the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices. This includes the company’s partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to implement a regenerative agriculture programme across 60 villages in Ambala (Haryana) and Ludhiana (Punjab) and a micro-enterprise initiative to empower 100 smallholder women farmers in Nashik. In addition, the company has launched a three-year pilot project with rice farmers in Nizamabad, Telangana. The project will cover 500 hectares and support 63 farmers across 15 villages in the first year while leveraging regenerative agriculture practices. The company is a member of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) to help engage with existing farmers’ institutions such as Village Committees and Farmer Producer Companies while bringing convergence with government schemes.
The company continued to make progress with light-weighting packaging to reduce carbon footprint, increase the use of recycled content and recyclability across formats. During the year, over 99% of materials used were widely recyclable, and the company is well poised to achieve its target of 100% by 2030. Notably, 55% of the packaging material purchased was made of recycled content, in line with the company’s focus on minimising downstream waste through circular economy initiatives. The company has removed mono-carton from 95% of its portfolio, introduced recyclable PET containers and collected 100% of the plastic waste generated as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) initiative.
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