Australasia’s first large-scale carbon neutral brewer, Lion has been awarded the Corporate Social Responsibility Award for 2021 at the Drinks Association’s International Women’s Day lunch hosted at Doltone House on Tuesday, 8 March.
The award was to have been presented in 2021 but attempts to announce the Contribution to Industry Awards were thwarted twice last year due to COVID-19.
Instead, the Drinks Association presented them at its International Women’s Day presentation which returned to its usual in-person format on Tuesday with keynote speaker Catherine McGregor followed by an industry panel discussion presented by Emma Baldwin of Pernod Ricard with panellists hotelier Craig Laundy of the Laundy Hotel Group, Pernod Ricard CEO, Bryan Fry and Two Birds Brewing founder, Jayne Lewis.
Lion’s sustainability strategy is founded upon one single, simple and all-encompassing mantra: “For the long term”. Company Secretary and General Counsel, Libby Davidson accepted the award.
“This is a real shot in the arm for the team,” she said.
“As Australia's first large-scale carbon neutral brewer it's always an honour to be recognised for our sustainability efforts. Making a positive impact is built on more than one-off initiatives. We integrate sustainability into the heart of our business and it’s a collaborative effort across all of Lion.”
The beers produced across Australasia have been crafted in carbon-neutral breweries since 2020.
Lion models its commitment to sustainability from the top down: CEO Stuart Irvine is a founding member of the Australian Climate Leaders Coalition which was established in October 2020 and its commitment to environmental sustainability is in action in Australia, New Zealand and now in the US at New Belgium Brewery.
The Corporate Social Responsibility Award was sponsored by the Endeavour Group and presented by Chief Marketing Officer, Joanne Rose who said, “We need to think about the social impact we have. We really need to think about the imprint we leave on the communities we serve.”
Lion’s corporate social responsibility is modelled at all levels of employment, embraced and endorsed by the workforce at Lion.
The business:
- Is committed to net zero value chain by 2050
- Has 100 per cent power purchase agreements in place across New South Wales, reducing emissions by more than 15K tonnes
- Generates solar energy onsite at XXXX and has installed solar on the rooftop of Little Creatures Geelong
- Converts brewery wastewater into biogas
- Has made significant investments to improve energy efficient equipment
Campari Australia received a highly commended award for its Shaken Not Broken campaign, established in the early days of the pandemic in 2020 to support the recovery and revival of venues using Campari’s platform, products and scale to support venues and their bartenders right around Australia.
This is not usual practice, but Drinks Association CEO Georgia Lennon said that there was such a wide variance in submissions for the award, with some traditionally focused on Corporate Social Responsibility and others steeped solely within the COVID moment, judges came to the consensus that an overall winner and a highly commended entrant should be recognised this year.
Simon Durrant, Managing Director said, “As we all know, COVID-19 has had such an impact on-premise and Shaken Not Broken was designed to give our support to this amazing industry of ours and help venues create a sustainable income source through these incredibly trying times. The campaign was not for the credits, nor for the plaudits but to help the on-premise industry to stay alive.”
Campari helped bars to create a new revenue stream as delivery and takeaway businesses, supplied the assets for them to be able to sell cocktails online, and free product to help create the cocktails mixed on-premise and hand signed by the bartender who mixed it.
The campaign proved highly successful with more than 13,000 cocktails delivered across Australia.