Diageo Targets Water Conservation in its Operations

World Water Week is an annual event that brings together experts, policymakers and advocates from around the globe to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time – water management and sustainability. 

Happening this year between the 25 and 29 August, the event is held each year in Stockholm and serves as a platform for discussing innovative solutions to global water challenges, from ensuring clean drinking water and sanitation for all to addressing the impacts of climate change on water resources. 

As water scarcity and pollution become increasingly critical concerns, World Water Week highlights the importance of collaborative efforts and innovative approaches to safeguard our planet’s most vital resource.

Everyone in the world relies on water, but for beverage companies it is a very direct relationship. 

Despite more than 200 brands sold in nearly 180 countries, you might not know the name Diageo — but you almost definitely know its drinks, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff, Ciroc, Don Julio and Tanqueray.

Michael Alexander is Global Head of Environment at Diageo, where he is responsible for driving the company’s environmental strategy and associated stakeholder and partner engagement. In his role, he applies his understanding of the sustainability agenda and industry best practice across Diageo’s full value chain, with a particular focus on the issues of water, climate, nature and people. 

A graduate of the universities of Edinburgh and London, Michael joined Diageo from Ericsson in 2007. He is a Board Member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship and a member of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability and Institute of Economic Development.

Why is World Water Week important?

World Water Week is an annual conference on global water issues, which provides the opportunity for subject matter experts and companies to come together and recognise the important part we can all play to preserve water. 

We’re proud to be attending World Water Week in Stockholm this year, as Diageo has been for nearly a decade. We’ll be participating in discussions around the need for collective action, the business value in investing in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and the gender inequalities in the access to clean water. 

This year, we will continue our mission to build recognition that the climate crisis is a water crisis, and the urgent need for action. 

Why is water important for Diageo? 

At Diageo we’re passionate about water – it’s in every product we make. It’s our most important ingredient and a crucial resource for our communities, in our production and supply chain and for our business. 

Water availability and quality are one of the most significant risks we face as a company. We operate in highly water-stressed areas such as Kenya, India and Mexico to produce our local products. 

We have a strong track record as progressive water stewards and managing our impact on water. Part of my role is ensuring we continue to drive progress, particularly across collective action and water replenishment in water stressed basins.  

How does water play into Diageo’s ‘Spirit of Progress' ESG action plan?

In our ‘Spirit of Progress' ESG action plan, which sets out our goals and priorities, we're committed to preserving water for life. We’ve set ambitious targets to improve our water efficiency in our operations in water-stressed areas by 40% by 2030. We’ve already seen a 21.3% improvement in progress to date against  the fiscal 2020 baseline. 

We also have a target to improve our water use efficiency in our operations across the company by 30% and we’ve seen 15.6% in progress to date. We’re now four years into the plan and have made significant progress - currently ahead of both targets. 

We have also committed to providing access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in water-stressed communities near our sites and in areas that supply our raw materials. 

By taking collective action we’ve already achieved our WASH goal for 2030, meaning all nine of the markets included in our target have invested in WASH projects since 2020.

How does collaboration positively impact water use?

Partnerships, collective action and collaboration are at the very heart of our strategy on water and something I care passionately about.

To give an example, at our Kenya Tusker Brewery & Maltings in Nairobi, with the Upper Tana Nairobi Water Trust we’re working collectively with companies, NGOs, local government and farming communities to improve the Upper Tana watershed’s water quality and quantity. The Upper Tana provides 70% of Nairobi’s water supply and a huge proportion of the country’s hydropower. Action taken includes strategically sited tree planting and land terracing, introducing natural water holding features, and on-farm soil and water management practices. 

These projects will support the long-term conservation of the watershed to improve Nairobi’s water security – and the security of the water going into our Tusker and White Cap brewery in Nairobi. We appreciate the power of collective action, so we’re going above our current 2030 goal of action in 12 basins, expanding to 20. We’re also basin champions in three of these, which means we serve as convening agents and ambassadors for collective action to happen.

How does Diageo undertake water replenishment?

Water replenishment means restoring the water we’ve extracted locally for our operations. We focus on the communities around our sites and in our raw material sourcing areas because they are impacted by our water ‘footprint’. This includes investing in WASH projects which help reduce risk of illness, increase job opportunities for women and builds community resilience to climate change as they have clean water available in their communities.

We have a long tradition of investing in local communities with more than two decades of providing access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Central to our delivery of WASH projects is our partnerships with experts in this field. We’ve partnered with WaterAid for more than 10 years now to build WASH facilities in our communities. WaterAid are invaluable in the community part of our work, making sure that we’re building the taps that are most beneficial to those who live there. 

We have a target in our ‘Spirit of Progress’ plan to replenish more water than we use for operations in water-stressed areas and our water replenishment programme continues to deliver positive results. We are on track to reach our 2026 target and cumulatively – fiscal 16 to fiscal 24 – we have replenished 70% of our estimated fiscal 26 volume.

During the last financial year – ended 30 June 2024 – we implemented projects that have the annual volumetric replenishment capacity of 1,232,000 m³ of water. 

We’re very proud that since 2021 we have implemented more than 120 community water projects across 12 markets with 26 partners – resulting in the replenishment of more than 36 billion litres of water – nearly 1,500 Olympic swimming pools.

What water sustainability advice do you have for others?

My advice would be start now, act now. It is critical to preserve this precious resource and build a resilient and sustainable future for all. Reach out to peers, learn from others and be prepared to compromise. Advocacy, collaboration and collective action are essential to ambitions for any water strategy.

What's the future for Diageo's water-related sustainability strategy?

We’ve been addressing our water use across Diageo for more than two decades. We set new goals in 2020 and now four years in, we’ve developed a refreshed water strategy to progress our work in water, but to also push ourselves further. 

We plan to maintain our steadfast focus on water by improving water efficiency at our own sites, invest in water replenishment and collective action in our own operations, continue investment in WASH to empower women and create a positive impact in our communities and sites around the world. 

Our action will hopefully help ensure our sites, supply chains and communities build resilience in a fast-changing and unpredictable climate.
******
Food & Drink Digital is a BizClik brand