NORWALK, Conn., April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Diageo North
America this week continued the company's long standing tradition
of community service by enabling nearly 100 employees from its
North American headquarters to perform a full day of volunteer
service at Mill River Park in Stamford, Connecticut. Employee
volunteers were from Diageo North America's finance team, which has
held a large-scale annual community service event in the area for
the past eleven years.
"Earth Day reminds us of the
inextricable link we have with our environment. It's terrific to
see Diageo volunteers come out in such strength to Mill River Park
and demonstrate strong support by Diageo North America for what we
are achieving here in restoring the environment at the Park," said
Arthur Selkowitz, Mill River Park
Collaborative Board Chair.
Employees undertook a range of impactful projects at the park,
including river clean up, restoration of a walking path, and
revitalization of the meadow area. An additional group
initiative was the creation of a "rain garden" to enable rain water
to flow through the park's grounds for filtration prior to flowing
into the river. Members of Diageo's volunteer team also took
on gardening duties across the park, as well as the task of
refreshing the playground with fresh paint and mulch. In
addition to people power, the company has committed funds to cover
costs of materials and supplies, as well as an additional
initiative to install solar panels for the park's greenhouse.
"We look forward to this event all year long, as it gives us a
chance to step away from our desks and work as a group to make a
visible improvement in part of our community," said Namita Subramanian, Vice President, Finance,
Diageo-Guinness USA. "This year we
chose to help beautify Mill River Park because its mission to
connect people with nature aligns with one of Diageo's core focus
areas – reducing our environmental impact and preserving the world
around us."
In line with Diageo's ongoing commitment to environmental
sustainability, Diageo employees celebrate Earth Month with a range
of events and activities across North America. Events are
focused on conservation and community, and include: local park and
river cleanups in Plainfield,
Illinois and Relay,
Maryland; beach clean-ups in Miami; a day of spring clean-up at
Short Beach in Stratford, Connecticut, which is known for
providing critical habitat for wildlife; installation of insectary
plants and owl and bat boxes as alternatives to pesticide use at
Provenance Vineyard in Napa;
biodiversity awareness efforts in California; tree planting across Canada; sustainability scavenger hunts;
carpooling incentives; a vehicle emission reduction competition; as
well as numerous education and engagement sessions, recycling
drives for e-waste, and other volunteer activities across Diageo's
North American facilities and offices.
Diageo's commitment to community service extends across
North America with hundreds of
Diageo employees volunteering thousands of hours each year and
contributing to numerous fundraising activities. Local Diageo
employees have provided support for Norwalk Land Trust's Farm Creek
Nature Preserve, Norwalk's Open
Door Shelter, New York City's
Church of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, and Norwalk's Stepping Stones Museum for Children,
among others. Nationally, Diageo is known for responding
swiftly in times of need and, through its Spirit of the Americas
program, has completed massive relief missions to areas impacted by
natural disasters including Afghanistan, Haiti, Southeast
Asia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, New
Orleans, Oklahoma,
Texas, New York, New
Jersey, Colorado and, most
recently, the Philippines. Diageo
proudly offers a volunteering policy that provides full time and
reduced hour employees of Diageo North America one week leave each
year to volunteer.
More broadly, with regard to its impact on the global community,
Diageo has recently announced its commitment to new sustainability
and responsibility targets for 2020, which are aligned with the
emerging United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The
2020 goals reflect ambitions to best manage water stewardship and
carbon emissions across the entire supply chain. For more
details about Diageo's 2020 targets, visit
http://www.diageo.com/en-row/csr/sustainability/Pages/2020-Sustainability-Responsibility-targets.aspx
. To learn more about Diageo's overall global sustainability
efforts to-date, view the company's 2014 Sustainability &
Responsibility Report at
http://www.diageo.com/en-row/NewsMedia/Pages/resource.aspx?resourceid=2317
.
One particular area of focus for Diageo is water stewardship and
last week the company unveiled its global Water Blueprint.
While much of the focus is on water-stressed areas in emerging
markets, the company has also made strides in North America.
Diageo has improved water efficiency across its North American
sites by 21% since 2007. Of particular note, Diageo's
Valleyfield, Quebec, site has
improved its water use efficiency by over 32%, and at the George
Dickel distillery in Tennessee,
all water is processed so that it is either reused or returned to
the local water source without impact, resulting in zero water
waste leaving the site. In California, last year's redesign
of the sprawling front lawn of Provenance Vineyards to include a
multi-level hardscape with drought-tolerant plants has reduced
water usage there by approximately 900,000 gallons a year.
This winter, Diageo's Blossom Hill Winery completed a pilot project
with the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) to assess water use at the
winery, improve understanding of the local watershed and create a
water balance for the site that the company will use as a template
for its other production locations. And in Shelbyville, Kentucky, Diageo is building a
new distillery that was designed to minimize impacts to the on-site
creeks and the adjacent lake through design elements like
installing sediment ponds to capture and treat stormwater runoff
and preserving a large buffer area around the lake; once the
distillery opens in 2016, Diageo will monitor water sources,
destinations and flows to properly manage the distillery's water
balance which will be subject to the company's 2020 targets, one of
which is to improve water efficiency by 50% by 2020. More
details about Diageo North America's sustainable water initiatives
can be found here.
About Diageo
Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an
outstanding collection of brands across spirits, beer and wine
categories. These brands include Johnnie
Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel
One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don
Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.
Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more
than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both
the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange
(DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands,
and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global
responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information,
initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter
for news and information about Diageo North America:
@Diageo_NA.
Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.
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SOURCE Diageo North America