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Executive summary

We aim to contribute to sustainable development through our operations, community investment and collaboration with our stakeholders. We are proud of our role in enabling the development of local economies, and improving life for many people around the world.

Performance against targets

Our results are summarised in the table below. Please see the relevant sections for the commentary on each result.

Target
by 2011		 This year’s performance
2010 - 2011		 Achievement
Contribute 1% of operating profit1 to charitable causes every year Contributed 1.1%. For more information click here.


 Achieved
by 2011 2010 - 2011 2009 – 2011
Train 50,000 people through the Learning for Life programme worldwide, against a 2009 baseline. 25,544 people trained. For more information click here.
 50,999 people trained


 Achieved

1After exceptional items

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Our approach

Our approach to community development isn’t limited to our investment programmes, but is driven by the way we do business – from our local hiring practices and procurement relationships, to our environmental programmes, to how we approach the use and misuse of alcohol in society. This is because we recognise that our impact on sustainable development is greatest when we engage our entire value chain.

The key investment projects we take on aim to engage those in our value chain from suppliers to customers. For example, while we work to build local talent in our own company, and partner with local suppliers in our supply chain, our Learning for Life employment training programme separately helps contribute to job creation in our local communities. This combination of our operations and community investment helps us create the conditions necessary for our business, and our communities, to thrive.

At the heart of this work is our commitment to engage and involve our stakeholders to identify how best we can contribute. Certainly one important stakeholder group is our own employees, and we aim to involve them – whether helping them to organise volunteer events in their own communities or facilitating their charitable donations via our Giving for Good website.

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Community investment

Our range of programmes has been established over many years, in response to pressing needs identified by our communities. They aim to continue to build on the legacy of the founders of our brands such as Guinness and Johnnie Walker who believed in building healthy local communities through active philanthropy that addressed local needs and sustained their businesses.

This year we invested about £28 million, which amounts to 1.1% of our operating profit excluding exceptional items. The key areas our investment focused on included:

  • Responsible drinking: our programmes and practices in place to address alcohol misuse. Read more.
  • Skills for life: our programme in Latin America and the Caribbean that provides job preparation and skills training. Read more.
  • Water of Life: our programme primarily in Africa that aims to enable local communities to gain access to water. Read more.
  • Brand-led initiatives: cause-related activities which link a brand to a charity or cause.
  • Local citizens: the contributions of our local businesses towards community projects in their area.

Of this investment, the Diageo Foundation contributed £1.1 million through 15 grants. The Foundation is a registered charity funded by, though independent of, Diageo. It focuses on areas of humanitarian need primarily in developing countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Since its inception in 1992, the Foundation has worked in partnership with our local businesses, employees and third parties to launch numerous community programmes.

Community Investment by Focus Area1

Community Investment by Region2

Diageo_SRR_chart_comm_invest_focus
Diageo_SRR_chart_comm_invest_region

 

  1. Local Citizens - 13,470,915
  2. Responsible drinking - 6,360,297
  3. Skills for life - 3,370,732
  4. Brand led initiatives - 1,828,127
  5. Water for life - 1,289,871
  6. Other - 1,107,305
  7. Management costs - 563,200
  1. Europe - 13,676,602
  2. Asia Pacific - 5,200,564
  3. North America - 3,300,864
  4. Latin America - 3,059,752
  5. Africa - 2,559,275
  6. Global Travel and Middle East - 193,390

 

Footnote

1Note that investment shown for Local Citizens includes £7.7m (2010: £7.4m) to the Thalidomide Trust and £3.0m (2010: nil) to the Thalidomide Foundation ltd in Australia in support of a legacy commitment. Thalidomide is a drug which was distributed in the UK, Australia, New Zealand by the pharmaceutical subsidiary of the Distillers Company Limited (DCL). It was withdrawn after side-effects of the drug on unborn children were discovered. In 1986, Guinness acquired DCL and in 1997 merged with Grand Metropolitan to become Diageo. We are working voluntarily with thalidomide organisations, including making contributions to The Thalidomide Trust in the UK and to The Thalidomide Australia Fixed Trust in Australia.

2Investment shown for Europe includes 7.7m (2010: £7.4m) to the Thalidomide Trust in the UK and investment shown for Asia Pacific includes £3.0m (2010: nil) to the Thalidomide Foundation ltd in Australia.

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Highlights of the year

  • Tanzania partnership: Diageo was one of a small number of leading companies to join the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania initiative launched at the World Economic Forum in 2010. This partnership between the Tanzanian government and leading development organisations and businesses aims to catalyse private investment to support agricultural growth along an infrastructural ‘backbone’ between Malawi, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the port of Dar Es Salaam.
  • Arthur Guinness Fund: the Arthur Guinness Fund signed a three-year partnership with Ashoka, a leading association of social entrepreneurs, to help them deliver a €3 (£2.6) million project to identify, fund and support 30 innovative social entrepreneurs from around the world. Additionally, in Ireland, it awarded €650,000 (£568,000) to social entrepreneurs.
  • One Million Trees: Diageo and the Diageo Foundation invested £450,000 in this two year project to plant one million trees in Lebanon. Read more.
  • Learning for Life won the Corporate Citizen of the Americas award, in the Education category, presented by the Organization of American States.
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Outlook

To further our aim of taking a more holistic approach to community development, we aim to measure more accurately the impact we have, not only through our community investments but also through our local talent development, sourcing, tax contributions, public policy and other local activities.

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