The latest edition of Drinks Guide has turned its focus to sustainability and the environment, highlighting the inspiring actions drinks companies are taking to raise the bar in improving environmental performance. Among the executives who've contributed is Coca-Cola Amatil Alcohol & Coffee MD Shane Richardson. Here's what he had to say about the company's environmental sustainability initiatives, plus its continuing focus on consumer wellbeing, community engagement, diversity and inclusion.
It's been another exciting year for Coca-Cola Amatil, as the Alcohol & Coffee business achieved double-digit growth for a fourth successive year, invested heavily in future growth initiatives, and made strong progress against each of our sustainability goals.
The way we do business is fundamental to our success. We believe every one of our team should be proud to work for Amatil, come to work passionate about what they do and inspired by the chance to make a positive difference for Amatil and their team, and for the communities and causes that matter most to us.
As we continue to challenge ourselves to look after our people and the environment, and make a positive difference in our communities, I’m proud to share some of our recent progress.
Protecting the environment has been one of the areas of greatest concern for our people and the community. Increasingly, our work on sustainable packaging and protecting marine environments are of significant interest to our stakeholders, who are looking for us to harness the power of our system and scale of our supply chain to lead positive change. In 2018 we made significant progress in our focus areas of packaging neutrality, energy and water management, and responsible sourcing.
Among the highlights:
>> Led industry’s involvement and support for Australia’s National Packaging Targets to ensure 100% of our packaging is recyclable by 2025, as well as The Coca-Cola Company’s industry-first ‘World Without Waste’ global strategy to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can sold globally by 2030.
>> Achieved over 56% of our energy use from renewable or low-carbon energy, against a 2020 target of at least 60%.
>> Achieved a 15% reduction in water intensity in our alcoholic beverage operations, against a target of 25% by 2020 (against our 2013 baseline).
>> Completed responsible sourcing assessments on 76 per cent of suppliers, against a target of 80% by 2020.
>> Taken a leadership role in working with governments and stakeholders across Australia on container deposit and refund schemes, building on the expertiseof running the South Australian container deposit scheme for over 40 years, through our wholly-owned subsidiary Statewide Recycling.
OUR PEOPLE
We aspire to empower our people to be their best and to keep them safe to go home to what the love.
We strive for a zero-harm workplace. Since 2012 we’ve achieved a 74% reduction in total injuries, including a five per cent decrease in 2018 compared to 2017.
We also continue to focus on programs that support employee health and wellbeing, including mental wellbeing, and to nurture a diverse culture that values inclusion.
In 2018, 83% of our people felt our workplace was accepting of diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking. One area where this is particularly evident is our leadership in achieving gender balance. Going into 2019, 34% of our management are female, compared to the 23.5% national average for the manufacturing industry.
Within Alcohol & Coffee, women account for 41% of all positions, including 41% of sales positions, 31% of management positions and 33% of senior exec roles. Encouragingly, this is replicated at the highest level too - we are the only ASX100 company to have a female Chair and Group Managing Director, and 44% of our Board members are female too.
Programs to support female leaders continue to play an important role in future progress, enabling talented women to step up and building a talent pipeline for the future.
We also know that flexibility is hugely important to our employees. Programs like our Kids@Work initiative (above), which encourages employees to bring their children to work in selected weeks during the school holidays, are highly valued by our team. I’m proud that the initiative originated from within the Alcohol & Coffee team. For me this is a great example of how our people take the initiative and owns the outcome, which is one of our Amatil values.
Here are some of the other areas we shown significant progress:
>> 41% of all positions are now held by women
>> 41% of all sales positions are held by women
>> 31% of all management positions are held by women
>> 33% of all senior executive positions are held by women
Pictured above is our team celebrating International Women's Day at the Drinks Association's annual Women in Drinks event.
CONSUMER WELLBEING
As leaders, it’s on us all to build a culture and industry that our people can be proud to say they’re part of. We should all be able to celebrate the positive role our brands play in building meaningful social connections and memorable experiences. None of us want to see our brands or our industry associated with harm.
In 2018, we continued our commitment to Alcohol Beverages Australia and DrinkWise to help bring about a healthier and safer drinking culture, including supporting a new DrinkWise educational campaign aimed to highlight the importance of abstaining from alcohol if planning a pregnancy, pregnant or breastfeeding in order to prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). We remain signatories to the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code and, through our Group Alcohol Advertising and Marketing Standards, hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards in responsible marketing of our beverages, including in regions where local requirements do not require it.
OUR COMMUNITY
We know that the ability to make a positive difference within the community is very important to our people. In 2018, Amatil invested over $6.1 million in community programs and facilitated an additional leverage amount of $1.6 million. Within this figure, the Alcohol & Coffee business was directly responsible for over $1 million, equivalent to 16% of the Group’s total contribution, and 1.85% of the business’ EBIT.
As well as making a difference for some 140 communities, the program improved team engagement and satisfaction. Almost 90% of Alcohol & Coffee employees see us as socially and environmentally responsible organisation and engagement among our North Sydney-based marketing, sales and finance teams is up an average of 20 percentage points on last year.
Drinks Guide is Australia’s largest comprehensive drinks database with more than 18,000 products, searchable by category, region and supplier. Latest issue out now.
Share the content
