Sustainable Exception
Acting for our People and our communities
The environmental transition that we promote for our terroirs is inseparable from our human and social ambitions. We are a community of men and women united around common values: excellence in our know‑how, respect, sustainable practices, desire for constant progress in gender parity, inclusion and diversity, sharing the value of the company, supporting more responsible consumption and more.
We extend this human component of our CSR strategy to our partner farmers, winegrowers, bartenders and other vital stakeholders in our ecosystem for whom we put in place initiatives to create shared value and who we continue to encourage for their long-term development.
1/ Establishing well-being at work, promoting team diversity and ensuring accountable and engaged governance
Year after year, the Group moves forward in its quest for equality, parity, inclusion, diversity and behavioural ethics for all in the workplace. It has also made it a central pillar of its governance.
To guarantee that its ethical commitments intersect all its activities, CSR champions have been passionately driving this commitment-led approach since 2021. Their activity on the ground reflects our determination in this area and is the bedrock of our action.
89/100
Indicator of gender equality at the workplace (stable year on year)
8 yrs
Average seniority of Group employees
>90%
Percentage of training take-up on business ethics issues (95% on anti-corruption and 91% on GDPR)
Our actions
Bruichladdich distillery: Great Place to Work for Women and for Well Being®
Earning Great Place to Work® certification, Bruichladdich distillery is recognised as one of the Best Workplaces for Women (ranked 55th in 2023) and for Well Being in the workplace (93rd place in 2023). Initiatives introduced for its staff working on the island of Islay include a cost-of-living allowance granted to 66% of employees.
Some 83% of employees at Bruichladdich distillery have declared it an excellent place to work compared to an average of 54% among UK-based companies.
“Westland Warriors” Moveathon
Westland recognised how important the health and well-being of its team are and set up “Westland Warriors”, a programme that encourages its staff to count their soft travel miles covered while walking, running, cycling and partaking in other forms of physical exercise. For each mile travelled, the company donates $0.25, and each month the employee who travels the most miles can choose which charity receives the donation. Non-profits including Seattle Humane, Doctors without Borders, UNICEF and Feeding America have already been awarded donations.
Rémy Cointreau, employer honoured in China
HRoot is China’s leading HR media company, and recently awarded Rémy Cointreau the prize for Best Social Enterprise thanks to its efforts in sustainability, responsible consumption, community partnerships and workplace well-being for employees.
Sports, improving workplace well-being in China
In China, Rémy Cointreau set up the WeSports mobility platform in a bid to encourage its employees to travel more sustainably and fit physical activity into their daily routine. The platform offers online gym sessions and a steps calculator too. AI converts the data collected by WeSports into CO2 savings: 10 tonnes of emissions were avoided in the 2023-2024 financial year.
2/ Sharing value and our values with all our partners and communities
Sustainable transformation is a collective adventure. To go full speed ahead, the respect and dedication of each and every member of our community is of paramount importance, as is the support we give to our partners – from our supplier farmers and bartenders to our glassmakers and distributors, in all our markets. Sharing and passing on our heritage – both intangible, through our values, and tangible, through our financial support and expertise – is deeply engrained in our genetic makeup.
87%
of our strategic suppliers have a voluntary CSR process in place
3 yrs
recognition as a “Supplier Engagement Leader” by the CDP
Our actions
Educating and training our teams on sustainability
35% of employees have already participated in a climate fresk workshop
Rémy Cointreau has started to roll-out climate fresk workshops to all its employees. After six fresk workshops in 2022-2023, two new fresk workshops were conducted in 2023-2024, in Paris and Shanghai, led by Group employees trained to be climate workshop facilitators. So far, nearly 700 employees, the equivalent of 35% of all staff, have learned about climate change, its causes and its consequences. The Group’s target: 100% of staff by 2030!
Committing to preserve our terroirs
Telmont shares its vision of the climate transition in Champagne
This year Telmont published its “Guide to Sustainability in Champagne”, an informative, step-by-step overview of its approach. It acts as a road map focusing on two key goals: to be Climate Positive by 2030 and Net Positive by 2050. Since achieving these targets is contingent on the radical overhaul of how products are grown, produced and distributed, in ways that positively impact Telmont’s entire ecosystem. This open source guide is meant to inspire and onboard the whole champagne sector in the process.
Mount Gay does its part to protect our oceans
A partner of 4ocean to reduce plastics in our oceans for several years now, Mount Gay again partook in World Ocean Month, in June 2023. In the US, the brand supplied the rubbish bags and gloves for beach cleaning operations its sales teams organised with customers and distributors. Loyal customers were also encouraged to buy 4ocean bracelets at Safe Harbor regattas and events held to support this worthy cause.
3/ Encouraging more responsible consumption
Rémy Cointreau’s exceptional and sustainable products are intimately associated with pleasure and tasting, festive and precious moments forever etched on our memories. They are also at the centre of our initiatives to promote responsible consumption. The Group provides in-house training based on its proprietary responsible consumption “ritual” – R.E.S.P.E.C.T. – that it also promotes externally to consumers. It is also investing in innovation to reduce the alcohol content of its recipes.
91%
of employees have completed our responsible consumption e-learning module (vs 59% in 2022-2023)
Our actions
Tailoring our responsible consumption ritual to our different audiences
Launched in 2022, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is what we call the Group’s responsible consumption ritual, designed to guide employees and customers through a responsible consumption experience revolving around its exceptional wines and spirits. Composed of simple and easy-to-remember steps, each letter in the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. acronym stands for an action in the ritual. To go even further, as part of the partnership between Rémy Cointreau and the emlyon Business School campus in Shanghai, students in the class of 2023-2024 were asked to adapt for an Asian audience the marketing materials used to promote the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. ritual on the major Chinese social media platform, WeChat.
Digital labels to inform consumers
Following its 2021-2022 participation in the launch of the U-Label platform developed by SpiritsEurope and the Comité européen des entreprises vins (CEEV), the Group has come up with a digital labelling solution to meet consumers’ growing demand for transparency regarding products.
It released its first bottles printed with a consumer information QR code in 2023, within Europe. When the consumer scans the code, they are directed to a site that presents regulatory information (energy and nutritional values, ingredients list) and promotes responsible consumption. In the longer term, consumers will also be able to find out the provenance of agricultural raw materials and products’ environmental impact.