The actions will be implemented over five years and include:
- Reducing underage drinking, via enforcement of current laws and encouraging governments to introduce and enforce minimum purchase ages
- Continuing to strengthen and expand marketing codes of practice that are rooted in our resolve not to engage in marketing that could encourage excessive and irresponsible consumption, with a particular focus on digital marketing
- Making responsible product innovations and developing easily understood symbols or equivalent words to discourage drinking and driving and consumption by pregnant women and underage youth
- Reducing drinking and driving by collaborating with governments and non-governmental organisations to educate and enforce existing laws
- Enlisting the support of retailers to reduce harmful drinking and create 'guiding principles of responsible beverage alcohol retailing'
Commenting on the announcement today, Paul Walsh, CEO said: 'Diageo and the industry have a long track record of taking action to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. These commitments are an important milestone to continue that work.'
The collective pledge was announced at Global Actions: Initiatives to Reduce Harmful Drinking, an international conference hosted by the International Centre for Alcohol Policy (ICAP). In addition to featuring these future commitments, the event comprehensively reported on the industry actions in support of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol.
The commitments will be implemented over a five-year time period beginning in 2013 and all participating companies will report progress annually based on third party audits of their compliance. In addition to Diageo, 12 other companies have agreed the commitments.
Diageo is an industry leader in promoting a more positive role for alcohol in society; demonstrated by the groundbreaking drink driving prevention work with Formula 1 launched over five years ago, DRINKiQ.com - a global resource created by Diageo that promotes responsible drinking through the sharing of best practice tools, information and initiatives, as well as supporting over 300 responsible drinking programmes around the world. We will continue to play a strong role in this work, collaborating with others in the alcohol industry, communities, governments, international organisations, individuals and families to help tackle the harmful use of alcohol.
