Spirit of Progress 2030: Diageo's action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world

Diageo
This commitment has been validated by the European commission
Commitment timeline
Start/End date
to
Ongoing
Yes
Description

Diageo's continued long-term success as a beverage alcohol producer depends on the people and planet around. They recognise that poverty, inequality, climate change, water stress, biodiversity loss and other challenges threaten the environment and the prosperity of communities. This is why, in alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, Diageo has launched the Spirit of Progress 2030: a 10-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world.

Diageo has a responsibility to ensure that their people, their suppliers, the communities around their operations, their customers and consumers and society at large all thrive as a result of their business. That means working with their whole value chain – the people, resources and environment that contribute to their success, from grain to glass:

  • working towards a low-carbon future, harnessing 100% renewable energy to achieve net zero carbon emissions across direct operations and working with suppliers to reduce indirect carbon emissions by 50%
  • ensuring that every drink they produce will take 30% less water to make than it does today and will achieve a net positive water impact in their key water stressed basins and communities
  • supporting over 150,000 smallholder farmers with farming techniques to regenerate the land and build biodiversity
  • ensuring that they use 100% recycled content in plastic packaging and that 100% of Diageo’s packaging will be widely recyclable.
Commitment Targets
Other (Sustainable management of water)
To be achieved by:

Reduce water use in Diageo's operations with a 40% improvement in water use efficiency in water stressed areas and 30% improvement across the company.

Other (Sustainable management of water)
To be achieved by:

Replenish more water than Diageo uses for their operations for all their sites in water-stressed areas by 2026.

Other (Sustainable management of water)
To be achieved by:

Invest in 150 projects to improve access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in communities near Diageo sites and local sourcing areas in all of Diageo's water-stressed markets.

Other (Sustainable management of water)
Start Date:

Engage in collective action in all of their Priority Water Basins to improve water accessibility, availability and quality and contribute to a net positive water impact.

Recycling (also including specific waste streams)
To be achieved by:

Achieve zero waste in Diageo's direct operations and zero waste to landfill in Diageo's supply chain.

Recycled materials as part of raw materials demand (recycled content)
To be achieved by:

Ensure 100% of Diageo's packaging is widely recyclable (or reusable/compostable).

Recycled materials as part of raw materials demand (recycled content)
To be achieved by:

Continue to reduce packaging and increase recycled content in Diageo's packaging (delivering a 10% reduction in packaging weight + increasing the % recycled content of the packaging to 60%).

Recycled materials as part of raw materials demand (recycled content)
To be achieved by:

Ensure 100% of Diageo's plastics are designed to be widely recyclable (or reusable/compostable) by 2025 and achieve 40% recycled content in Diageo's plastic bottles by 2025, and 100% by 2030.

Other (Sustainable agriculture management)
To be achieved by:

Provide all of Diageo's local sourcing communities with agricultural skills and resources, building economic and environmental resilience (supporting 150,000 smallholder farmers).

Other (Sustainable agriculture management)
To be achieved by:

Develop regenerative agriculture pilot programmes in 5 key sourcing landscapes.

Other (Accelerate to a low carbon world)
To be achieved by:

Become Net Zero carbon in Diageo's direct operations.

Other (Accelerate to a low carbon world)
To be achieved by:

Reduce Diageo's value chain carbon emissions by 50%.

Other (Accelerate to a low carbon world)
To be achieved by:

Use 100% renewable electricity across all of Diageo's direct operations.

Legal requirements and expected outperformance

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with a collection of over 200 brands across spirits and beer sold in more than 180 countries. Hence, they recognise their responsibility to ensure that their people, their suppliers, the communities around their operations, their customers, consumers and society thrive as a result of their business. That means working with their whole value chain – the people, resources and environment that contribute to their success. This is why Diageo, in alignment with the UN 2030 SDGs, has committed to a 10-year plan to help create a more sustainable world.

Reporting system

Diageo will provide progress reports in their annual reports each year until 2030.

Monitoring Report publication date
10/2021