Bacardi Limited Meets Environmental Targets

There is so much to like about Bacardi Limited's latest CSR report. Titled, "Our Spirit is Clear," the report contains some major environmental achievements, including reducing water use by almost 50 percent, and reducing both energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG emissions) by almost 33 percent over the last six years. The water reduction is equivalent to providing a glass of water to every person on earth, and saved 1,620 million liters last year. This is important for a company that relies heavily on water to produce its products.

Bacardi's Corporate Responsibility program is made up of five pillars which include marketplace, environment, health and safety, responsible sourcing, people, and philanthropy and community development. Here's an overview of its achievements within the five pillars:

• Marketplace: Managed to get 240,000 fans on its "Champions Drink Responsibly" Facebook page in the first year of the campaign, and didn't receive consumer complaints about its advertising in 2012


• Environment, health and safety: Achieved a 75 percent improvement in its accident rate since 2006


• Responsible sourcing: The company is targeting 100 percent of high and very high risk direct suppliers and global point-of-sale suppliers to be compliant with its responsible sourcing standards


• People: Its first-ever Global Employee Engagement Survey achieved a best-in-class response rate of 92 percent. Its overall employee engagement score was 3.76 out of 5.


• Philanthropy and community involvement: Joined the LBG (formerly London Benchmarking Group) in 2011, and the total value of support in 2012 given by Bacardi Limited companies and brands was $3.23M

Bacardi makes major environmental achievements

As mentioned in the beginning of the article, Bacardi made some major achievements when it comes to meeting its environmental targets, including in the areas of water use, energy use, GHG reduction, and waste and packaging.

Water

• Improved water efficiency by 44.4 percent since 2006 through better operating discipline, water conservation measures, new water-efficient equipment and advanced water recycled systems.


• The company's Beaucaire, France plant, which bottles a wide range of brands, including Eristoff Vodka and Noilly Prat Vermouth, made major strides when it comes to water efficiency. Since 2006, the plant reduced its water use per unit of production by half, and last year achieved a year-on-year improvement of almost eight percent.

Energy

• Achieved a 29 percent reduction in non-renewable energy use since 2006


• 18 percent of the company's primary energy comes from renewable sources, which consists of six percent renewable electricity, and 12 percent renewable fuel (biogas)


• Although its total energy use increased by seven percent last year from 2011, mainly due to production increases, it achieved a 24 percent reduction in its total primary energy use

 Greenhouse gases

• Achieved a 32 percent reduction in GHG intensity since 2006, equivalent to taking 11,923 cars off the road

Waste and packing

• Non-hazardous waste increased by 15 percent in 2012 from 2011 due to increased production


• Hazardous waste decreased by five percent from 2011


• Recycled, reused or recovered 98.4 percent of its waste in 2012


• Reduced packaging weight by 7.1 percent

Ed Shirley, President and CEO of Bacardi Limited, said in a statement that the company is committed to "chart a new path in sustainable business practices." It will be interesting to see what Bacardi achieves in the future.

Image credit: Flickr user, _gee_