EUROPEAN BEER PLEDGE a Package of Responsibility Initiatives from Europe’S Brewers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Second year report - November 2014 EUROPEAN BEER PLEDGE A package of responsibility initiatives from Europe’s Brewers The Brewers of Europe Second year report - November 2014 EUROPEAN BEER PLEDGE A package of responsibility initiatives from Europe’s Brewers ISBN 978-2-9601382-4-5 EAN 9782960138245 The Brewers of Europe About this report 1 About this report Launched in 2012, the European Beer Pledge should be reported on annually, to allow for a regular monitoring of progress but also further opportunities to identify, evaluate and expand best practice activities. This report constitutes the second interim report on the European Beer Pledge’s implementation. Focusing on activities supported by members of The Brewers of Europe between March 2013 and May 2014, this interim report represents a snapshot of initiatives carried out by brewers, through associations, companies and broad coalitions, in line with and contributing to, the implementation of the three pillars of the European Beer Pledge. As such, this report is not an exhaustive catalogue of all those activities supported by brewers since the launch of the Beer Pledge in 2012, but focuses on some of the new activities in which the brewers have been engaged over the latest fifteen month period. The report is also built solely on the basis of the information and supporting evidence at the disposal of The Brewers of Europe in the drafting period from June to October 2014. Some activities thus may not be included either as they are a continuation of existing initiatives that were already ongoing, or due to insufficient supporting information. Readers have the opportunity to see, pillar by pillar, country by country, the reported activities, through short descriptions and key outcomes where available and verified through the external, independent assurance process. Whilst some activities may cross borders and many others may be applicable to more than one of the three pillars, effort has been made in the main report text to categorise the initiatives clearly and thus also avoid any duplication of reporting. New to this year’s report, when compared to the 2013 report, is the addition of an overview table in the Executive Summary that seeks to capture, country by country, (sub-)pillar by (sub-)pillar, the new activities undertaken, classifying them according to whether they are activities supported by the national brewers association or by individual brewing companies, either as single entities, or together with other companies. In this table activities may be marked in more than one box, so as to avoid any misperception, purely on the basis of its categorisation, that a certain activity is not being run under a certain pillar. The report also seeks to update the reader on the roll-out of any of the activities mentioned in the first interim report as potentially forthcoming over the following fifteen months. The third report will seek to capture all activities carried out over the duration of the entire Beer Pledge reporting timeframe. The report has been compiled principally, though not exclusively, on the basis of reports to be found on the Global Social Responsibility Initiatives database of the Worldwide Brewing Alliance, of which The Brewers of Europe is a member. Furthermore, some activities were also filed as commitments to the EU Alcohol and Health Forum and thus subject to scrutiny through the monitoring process that forms part of the European Commission’s compulsory requirements for all parties filing Forum commitments. Additionally, some company activities have also been included based on information provided in the 2013 Progress Report on the Global CEO Commitments made by 13 of the world’s largest drinks companies, including major brewing companies operating in the European Union. It is however to be noted for this latter report that, due to a different reporting period and scope, data may not necessarily be comparable between the two reports. An essential element of the European Beer Pledge reporting process is the involvement of a third party assurer. As in 2013, The Brewers of Europe invited KPMG Sustainability to provide limited assurance on the second interim report. This process was conducted against an updated Definitions and Criteria document, which is published alongside this report. The result of this thorough process is that this report has received independent limited assurance from KPMG Sustainability. KPMG’s assurance report can be found at the end of this interim report. EUROPEAN BEER PLEDGE Table of contents Table of contents 3 Table of contents About this report .............................................................................................................................1 Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................................3 Introduction by Demetrio Carceller, President of The Brewers of Europe .........................................6 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................9 The European Beer Pledge ...........................................................................................................13 1. Increase consumer knowledge of beer and its responsible consumption ..........................16 2. Ensure responsible advertising and marketing ..................................................................26 3. Address alcohol misuse ....................................................................................................31 Drink driving ...............................................................................................................31 Underage drinking ......................................................................................................39 Binge drinking ............................................................................................................47 Alcohol and pregnancy ...............................................................................................55 Methodology and structure ...........................................................................................................59 KPMG Sustainability’s Independent Assurance Report to The Brewers of Europe .........................61 EUROPEAN BEER PLEDGE Introduction Introduction 5 Introduction by Demetrio Carceller President of The Brewers of Europe Over the past year The Brewers of Europe has perseveringly continued to play a leading role in the European Alcohol and Health Forum, through the submission, implementation and reporting of commitments to action, and through our contribution to the lively discussions that have taken place in the Forum meetings. The European Commission’s ongoing support for the current EU Strategy and its EU-level structures such as the Forum has acted as further encouragement to The Brewers of Europe to continue stepping up with concrete actions in Demetrio Carceller support of the Strategy. These actions can also make an important contribution President The Brewers of Europe to the implementation of the 2014-2016 Action Plan on Youth Drinking and on Heavy Episodic Drinking that was endorsed by the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA) in September 2014. What this report shows is that The Brewers of Europe, its member associations and brewing companies at large have remained committed to the roll-out of the European Beer Pledge. As I stated in last year’s report, helping to address alcohol misuse is a responsibility we take very seriously and share with other stakeholders. This report contains details of initiatives that have been rolled out in partnership with governments, doctors’ groups, road safety authorities, parents, educators, the police, non-governmental organisations, consumer groups, indeed many parts of our society. Last year I announced a 3-year partnership between the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and The Brewers of Europe. This partnership was subsequently presented by ETSC to the Forum at its Plenary meeting in April 2013 and submitted as a joint Forum commitment that was launched in the European Parliament in November 2013. The roll-out continued in 2014 with the first national workshop in Italy in April 2014, further details of which are to be found in this report. A case study on alco-gates in Sweden was published in July 2014 and a further national workshop took place in Spain in September 2014. The Brewers of Europe will continue to report on the implementation of the SMART (Sober Mobility Across Road Transport) project throughout the duration of the Beer Pledge. There are other areas where The Brewers of Europe activities have been less publicly visible at EU level in the second year of the Beer Pledge. However, The Brewers of Europe remains fully committed both to further increasing consumer knowledge of beer and its responsible consumption and to continuing to strengthen the mechanisms that ensure responsible beer advertising. On 6 Introduction the former, intense work has been going on internally as we believe there is great potential for the brewing sector to step up in providing information to consumers. This point is very high on the agenda of The Brewers of Europe’s Board. On marketing self-regulation The Brewers of Europe is actively involved, as an associated partner, in the Responsible Marketing Pact managed by the World Federation of Advertisers. With the arrival of a new European Commission in November 2014 our strong