Become sustainable by design

We all have a responsibility to restore the natural world on which life depends.

As part of our 'Society 2030: Spirit of Progress plan', we are committed to pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability. An important part of this goal is to become sustainable by design, eliminating waste from our value chain, developing solutions to reuse materials and creating innovative solutions to grow sustainably.

Through our products and processes, we will design the change we know our industry needs and the world wants.

We have made important strides in reducing our environmental impact over decades of focus on waste, recycling and packaging. We will continue until we have reduced our impact everywhere: cutting down packaging, increasing recycled content and eliminating waste.

Our innovations are supported by investment in new technology and partnerships that help us grow our brands sustainably and help create a more circular economy.

We are working with innovators through our Diageo Sustainable Solutions initiative to reinvent packaging.

As with most products, making alcoholic drinks has the potential to generate waste at many stages of the product lifecycle.

In 2020, we achieved zero waste to landfill at all our supply and office sites. But we want to go further. We are committed to reducing the volume of materials used, and reusing or recycling waste from our operations in ways that benefit the environment and local communities.

We have a shared responsibility to restore the natural resources on which we all depend and we are committed to making our agricultural supply chains economically, socially and environmentally sustainable and ensuring human rights and working conditions.

We will provide farmers from all our local sourcing communities with the support and resources they need, including training in more regenerative agriculture techniques and designing programmes that help restore degraded landscapes.

Our brands rely on water and other limited natural resources and we are committed to using those resources responsibly to preserve them for generations to come.

As part of our ambition to minimising our environmental impact, we are constantly working to improve and extend environmental standards throughout our supply chain and our operations. Part of this is our series of assessments to help us and our consumers better understand the environmental footprint of some of our most popular brands.

As with most products, making alcoholic drinks has the potential to generate waste at many stages of the product lifecycle. As part of our 'Society 2030: Spirit of Progress' action plan, we aim to reduce the volume of materials used, and reuse or recycle waste from our operations in ways that benefit our business, the environment and local communities.

Minimising the waste from our production sites and offices is not only directly linked to cost savings, it also has a positive effect on our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, water use and other environmental impacts of our business.

By the end of 2020, we achieved zero waste to landfill at all our supply and office sites, an important milestone in our ambition to be a zero-waste business. For the minimal waste we do produce we will ensure it does not go to landfill and will drive the same approach in our supply chain.

• Achieve zero waste in our direct operations and zero waste to landfill in our supply chain

Our consumers want the brands they love to be in perfect condition when they buy them and our retailers expect them to look good and stand out on the shelf. We want to use packaging with the lowest environmental impact while delivering what our consumers want.

We have been focusing on sustainable packaging since 2010, and as part of our 'Society 2030: Spirit of Progress' action plan, we are accelerating our efforts to meet our bold 2030 targets.

Reinventing packaging is part of our commitment to be Sustainable by Design. We have 3 focus areas - to reduce, recycle and reuse. We're tackling the ambitious goals we have set ourselves across our entire business, from R&D, marketing and innovation and in partnership with our supply chain.

We’ve set four sustainable packaging targets for 2030:

As part of our 'Society 2030: Spirit of Progress' plan, we are committed to making our agricultural supply chains economically, socially and environmentally sustainable and ensuring human rights and working conditions.

At the heart of our approach is our recognition that partnerships with farmers are the most effective way to promote sustainable farming practices and secure local supply networks. We will provide farmers from all our local sourcing communities with the support and resources they need, including training in regenerative agriculture and designing programmes that help restore degraded landscapes. We are taking action globally, rolling these programmes out across Africa, Latin America, North America, Asia and Europe.

We have already seen how these partnerships can change lives and transform communities, and we will ensure these collaborations remain inclusive, welcoming both small and large-scale farmers, women and youth farmers and entrepreneurs.

Find out more about our sustainable supply chains and how we're doing against our targets in our Annual Report and ESG Reporting Index.

Action in Africa

Our commitment to local sourcing provides a sustainable source of income for more than 80,000 smallholder farmers across Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Local sourcing also provides much needed investment in agricultural economies and local supply chains. In 2021, we sourced 79% of agricultural raw materials locally within Africa for use by our African markets.

• Provide all of our local sourcing communities with agricultural skills and resources, building economic and environmental resilience (supporting 150,000 smallholder farmers)
• Develop regenerative agriculture pilot programmes in 5 key sourcing landscapes

We are building and nurturing some of the world’s most well-loved brands, including Guinness, Baileys and Johnnie Walker. Measuring and managing their environmental impact is not only important for the planet and the communities in which we work, it is essential for the financial sustainability of our supply chain and our business.

As part of our 'Society 2030: Spirit of Progress' plan, we are committed to minimising the environmental impact of our brands across our operations, and are working to extend environmental standards throughout our supply chain.

We know that today’s consumers are increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of the brands they choose, and are looking for information to help them make informed decisions. That’s why we’ve been working on a series of Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to help people better understand the environmental footprint of some of our most popular brands.

These Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) provide a summary of the carbon and water impact for each brand and how it compares to drinks such as water, milk and coffee. They also use everyday references to help people easily understand each brand’s impact as well as providing details on how we are working to address these impacts.