Integrating CSR into our operations will help us reduce costs, manage risks, minimise our impacts, attract and retain employees, and strengthen our brand and business overall. CSR is the compass that will ensure we grow in a responsible way.
Our strategy is to integrate CSR, in a systematic way, into all parts of our operation: working with the employees in our breweries and operations to minimise our energy use; with our marketing managers to promote responsible drinking and advertising; or our procurement department to ensure that we work with suppliers that adhere to the same standards as we do. We involve our business functions in each step of the development of our CSR strategy and they take responsibility for achieving our CSR goals. By doing this, we aim to identify and manage our impact throughout the whole of our organisation and across the whole lifecycle of our products.
A GloCal Strategy
We are a diverse company, operating in more than 150 countries. We understand that each company is confronted with different challenges based on the countries and societies in which they operate. Across the Carlsberg Group we take a GloCal approach: we work together on a global level to develop our strategic approach but acknowledge the local diversity within our operations. Our local CSR champions ensure that our strategy is suited to local circumstances. Within our global CSR framework, our local companies operate their own initiatives, for example Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) days in the UK, energy saving initiatives in Russia or community investment in Nepal along many others.
Carlsberg has always supported the communities where we operate but the scale and rapid growth of our business today brings a greater responsibility. Through our CSR strategy, we strive to ensure that our growth happens in a responsible way and that we contribute to our communities. We realise that we cannot do this alone and therefore work together with our stakeholders and partners to better understand our impact on society and how to reduce it.
We have made a good start but we recognise that we have some way to go and that we continually need to reassess our approach and find ways to improve.
We welcome this challenge as part of our overall aim of growing responsibly.
Anne-Marie Skov, Vice President Group Communications and Chair of the CSR Steering Committee