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How sustainable is Guinness ?

Guinness & sustainability


Guinness
First milestones, should be better Click here for score rapport: 6 out of 23

Sustainability summary

Guinness has achieved the D-label. Brand owner Diageo started to take sustainability into account, such as implementing energy efficiency or waste minimisation measures. Still, a lot more can be done.

Brand owner: Diageo plc
Head office: Dublin, Ireland
Sector: Beer brands
Categories : 
Free Tags: Dunkel, Lager

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What's your sustainability news about Guinness?

Guinness sustainability score report

Last edited: 20 October 2016 by Tara
Last reviewed: 20 October 2016 by Mario

Questions about Climate Change/ Carbon Emissions

2 out of 10
1. Is there a policy for the brand (company) to minimize, reduce or compensate carbon emissions? Diageo (brand owner of Guinness) implements several measures to reduce climate emissions, such as increasing energy efficiency or favouring electricity from low carbon and renewable sources (see link, page 29). Source
2. Has the brand (company) disclosed the annual absolute carbon footprint of its 'own operations' (Scope 1 & 2) and has the brand already reduced or compensated 10% of these emissions in the last 5 years? Diageo decreased its climate footprint (Scope 1 & 2) from 903,000 tonnes of CO2e in FY15, to 845,000 tonnes of CO2e in FY16, which represents a decrease of around 6,5% (see link, page 47). Source
3. Has the brand (company) set a target to reduce the carbon footprint of its 'own operations' by at least 20% within the next 5 years? Diageo aims to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions from direct operations by 50% by 2020 (base year 2015) (see link, page 47). Source
4. Has the brand (company) achieved a carbon emissions efficiency level below 10 kg CO2 per hectolitre of production? Diageo reports a gross intensity ratio of 203g CO2e per litre of packaged product in FY16. This is 20.3 kg CO2e per hectolitre of production (see link, page 47). Source
5. Has the brand (company) achieved a carbon emissions efficiency level below 8,5 kg CO2 per hectolitre of production? See remark for carbon emissions policy question 4. Source
6. Has the brand (company) achieved a carbon emissions efficiency level below 7 kg CO2 per hectolitre of production? See remark for carbon emissions policy question 4. Source
7. Has the brand (company) achieved a carbon emissions efficiency level below 5,5 kg CO2 per hectolitre of production? See remark for carbon emissions policy question 4. Source
8. Is at least 10% of the brand (company) consumption of energy derived from renewable sources? Diageo reports a renewable energy use for its direct energy consumption of around 30.5%. However, no renewable energy use for its indirect energy consumption is reported (see link, page 29). Source
9. Is at least 25% of the brand (company) consumption of energy derived from renewable sources? See remark for carbon emissions policy question 8. However, Diageo states being committed to procure 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Its intermediate status is not specified however (see link, page 46). Source
10. Has the brand published its carbon footprint specifically for the transport of ingredients? Diageo gives information about transport greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. road and rail transport uses approximately 5.6 million gigajoules per year), but is not specific about the origin and transport of ingredients and its respective climate footprint (see link, page 29). Source

Questions about Environmental Policy

4 out of 13
1. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 5% of its volume? Diageo does not communicate any information about the use of environmentally or organic certified raw materials in its Guinness beer products. Source
2. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 10% of its volume? See remark for environmental policy question 1. Source
3. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 25% of its volume? See remark for environmental policy question 1. Source
4. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 50% of its volume? See remark for environmental policy question 1. Source
5. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 75% of its volume? See remark for environmental policy question 1. Source
6. Does the brand use organic or otherwise environmentally certified raw materials for at least 90% of its volume? See remark for environmental policy question 1. Source
7. Does the brand (company) publish the water footprint of its 'own operations'? Diageo publishes the water footprint of its own operations. Total water use in FY16 was 21.277.804 m³ (see link, page 31). Source
8. Has the brand achieved an average level of water use below 5 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer produced? In FY16, Diageo has achieved 5,11 hl water consumption per hectolitre of production (see link, page 47). Source
9. Has the brand achieved an average level of water use below 4 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer produced? See remark for environmental policy question 8. Source
10. Does the brand have clear objectives to minimize the environmental impact of packaging or does the brand already show clear 'best practices' regarding more sustainable packaging? Diageo reports the goals to reduce the total packaging by 15%, while increasing recycled content to 45% and making 100% of packaging recyclable by 2020 (base year 2015) (see link, page 48). Source
11. Does the brand have clear objectives to minimize the environmental impact of packaging, by reducing, re-using and recycling, and does the brand annually report on these results? Diageo reports on clear Key Performance Indexes (KPI's) that relate to totals of packaging materials/weight per unit (see link, page 45-48). Source
12. Does the brand (company) have clear objectives to minimize waste, by reducing, re-using and recycling, and does the brand annually report the results? Diageo reports an objective of achieving zero waste to landfills by 2020. Diageo reports that it sent 10,954 tonnes of waste to landfill in FY16, out of 889,993 tons in total (see link, page 40). Source
13. Has the brand achieved 99,5% global recycling and reusing rate for its solid waste? Diageo reports that 878,824 tonnes of its total waste is used or recycled, out of 889,993 tonnes of total waste. This makes in total 98,75% waste used or recycled (see link, page 40). Source

Questions about Labour Conditions/ Fair Trade

0 out of 0