NEW YORK—When it comes to being environmentally friendly, alcoholic beverages manufacturers have fewer public sustainability goals than many global companies in other industries, according to new market data from Green Research.
The “Benchmarking Sustainability Goals: Alcoholic Beverages" reviewed goals set by Anheuser-Bush, Asahi, Brown-Forman, Carlsberg, Diageo, Fosters, Heineken, Kirin, MillerCoors, Molson Coors and SABMiller and found all have between two and five public sustainability goals.
Of 44 specific goals set by the beverage makers in the study, 30% were dedicated to water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Data also revealed the company’s goals illustrate very different approaches. For example, every one of Kirin’s goals deals with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, however, take a “portfolio approach" where each of their goals addresses a different environmental sustainability issue.
“Just because a company has not announced a specific goal for a particular sustainability issue, doesn’t mean that it’s not working on, talking about and making progress on that issue," said Green Research founder and principal analyst David Schatsky. “But since goals signal intent, companies should consider the message their goals are sending."
