Spirit of Progress Goals - Preserving Water for Life

23 Mar 2021 Spirit of Progress
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Our goal is to achieve net water positive impact in India by 2026

Water Stewardship
Water stewardship is a longstanding strategic priority for Diageo India. We have dedicated a decade of action to become a water-positive company by 2026. We are focused on preserving this critical resource, particularly in water-stressed areas. In India, our water stewardship programmes are designed to replenish water along with a focus on communities’ access to clean water and sanitation. Women remain one of the most important target stakeholder groups when it comes to our water stewardship programmes. Through innovation and intervention, we are committed to recycle, replenish, and increase water efficiency across our value chain with every passing year.

Progressing towards water-positivity
In F20, we successfully achieved our water target in India two years ahead of time through continuous improvement in water-use efficiency in our operations, conserving and reusing water wherever possible. Our plants saw an improvement in water efficiency by 54% and there was 60% reduction in water consumption. We have transformed lives in communities through water interventions and empowered women through our WASH (Water, Sanitation and Health) initiative. 100% water equivalent used in our products is replenished through community projects. By 2020, our water interventions in 7 states in India have positively impacted 1,23,708 beneficiaries across 73 villages. The WASH initiative has 50% women as beneficiaries and has also led to providing entrepreneurial opportunities to hundreds of women in communities along with providing them with proper sanitation facilities. We will continue to work towards developing synergies within and outside the industry to address the broader issue of water and turn water-positive by 2026.