Diageo - Environmental Improvement

Diageo aims to be respected within the industry for environmental improvements and respected for leading innovative solutions that ensure it operates in a sustainable way with no long-term degradation of natural resources.

What they did

For new products an environmental compliance checklist is used to ensure it is moving towards sustainable packaging. This checklist ensures the product’s packaging is minimal, recoverable and free from hazardous substances.

Diageo’s procedures ensure that waste is stored and disposed of in a way that complies with legislation and also goes beyond that to minimise environmental impacts with an emphasis on always recovering and/or recycling waste, therefore not sending it to landfill.

Waste is measured and managed, with all solid waste streams identified. The hierarchy of waste management is applied to reduce, reuse and recycle waste and reduction targets are set in alignment with Diageo’s environmental targets.

The site’s capital expenditure procedures ensure that an environmental impact assessment identifies landfill alternatives and are included in the design and planning stage of any new projects.

There is a resource of dedicated individuals in place that are driving continuous improvements in the 3 key areas of waste, water usage and energy reduction. The site has invested £250k this year on various projects and a further £250k will be made available for a ph balance initiative that is underway.

Over the last two years the site has held a unique event where all employees are engaged in a day of activities based around certain core elements of the company’s business strategy. Two of the main areas of focus at the event were Waste Management and Energy Reduction.

The site also publishes a weekly newsletter where environmental news is featured, aimed at helping raise employee awareness of environmental issues and empower them to take action at work and at home.

Impact

Since 2004 the site has reduced its waste to landfill by 47%, and reduced its waste recycled by 5% in the last year.
At the same time manufacturing packaged volumes increased by 9.3% while our absolute waste to landfill tonnage figures have reduced by 23% on site.
The site has successfully minimised packaging waste without compromising functionality, quality and consumer requirements.
The site has recently turned hazardous label waste into re-usable mulch that is now used as commercial compost. This will save 70 tonnes of waste from landfill, reduce costs by 60% and reduce site waste by a further 15%.
Diageo is currently sustaining a reduction for this year of 9.14% in energy over last year. That equates to a cost saving of £150k on energy alone.
Diageo’s Environmental improvements are enabling it to be more robust in cost reduction and ultimately lowering cost per case, thus driving up market share.

Finalists of the NI Environmental Improvement Award 2008