Month: May 2024

The Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) is a technical collaboration among leading global beverage companies to advance environmental sustainability within the industry. BIER focuses on sharing best practices, developing tools and metrics, and collectively addressing key environmental challenges such as water stewardship, climate change, and supply chain sustainability.

BIER members met in person at Pernod Ricard’s headquarters this May to network, discuss, and develop solutions to advance the sector’s environmental sustainability. These face-to-face interactions accelerate progress and foster deeper collaboration among the members. A few highlights included:

TNFD (Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures): This initiative focuses on assessing and disclosing risks and opportunities related to biodiversity and nature. BIER has collaborated with TNFD to develop guidance and metrics for applying the TNFD approach to the beverage sector in advance of its planned release for public consultation in June 2024.CSRD (Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure): Implementing CSRD is a significant challenge for all businesses, and BIER continued its 2nd year of collaboration to foster understanding and implementation of CSRD within the beverage sector.FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi): A majority of BIER members have already committed to or set emissions reduction targets through the SBTi. FLAG establishes additional requirements for land-based emissions from supply chain agricultural emissions. BIER members shared their experiences setting FLAG targets, and the latest implementation developments.Sustainability Roadmap Challenges: Every roadmap faces hurdles. BIER members explored the financial, technical and organizational challenges and opportunities to deliver robust sustainability performance.Watershed Collaboration: Building upon the success of Charco Bendito, BIER members are exploring new watershed collaboration opportunities. Initial efforts from BIER’s latest collaboration which is focused on India, were discussed and shaped by participation by representatives from WaterAid.

BIER plays a crucial role in advancing environmental sustainability within the beverage sector through various means. An outcome of BIER’s member meetings results in sharing best practices and developing industry-specific tools, guidelines, and metrics to help beverage companies measure and manage their environmental impacts.

In 2024, BIER released the 2023 Water, Energy, and Emissions Efficiency Benchmarking Study. This study was BIER’s 12th global benchmarking study – a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of water, energy, and emissions efficiency in the beverage industry.

Also recently released was The True Cost of Water 3.0. The True Cost of Water Toolkit 3.0 includes all the costs associated with the use of water, including purchasing water, energy to heat, cool, and transport water, chemicals and other materials used to treat water and discharge costs.

Through its work streams, thoughtful discussions, and engaging collaboration, BIER continues to build upon its 18-year commitment of driving sector actions and alignment, and corporate leadership on business-relevant environmental dimensions related to water, energy, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), climate change and adaptation, circularity and recycling. Our collaborative approach helps unite and drive continuous improvement and innovation in environmental sustainability across the beverage sector, ultimately contributing to a more resilient and responsible industry.

Our people making a difference is a series featured throughout Owens Corning’s 2023 Sustainability Report.

Owens Corning has made mental health a priority, and sites everywhere are embracing our efforts to provide emotional support for our people. One great example is in Rio Claro, Brazil, where Rubens Cardoso is leading a number of initiatives to help employees at the glass reinforcements solutions plant understand their mental health and the resources that are available to them. Rubens was instrumental in bringing suicide prevention workshops to the plant (see page 121), and his commitment to caring for his colleagues is apparent in his approach.

On the importance of protecting mental health at work 

I am an engineer, not a psychologist, but the human mind is very complex. If someone has concerns — with their family, bills to pay, or something like this — they will do the best they can do in their job, but a part of their mind will be focused on that other problem. Every year, we do a lecture to prevent suicide and expose our team to EAP+ and other channels we have in Brazil to help with those who are sometimes suffering in silence. We have resources to support them and their families, and it’s important to say to them that they are not alone.

On the connections between physical safety and psychological safety 

We encourage people to discuss safety by itself. If they don’t have the PPE, the resources, or the training to complete a task, they can raise their hand and say they won’t do it. Once people start to hide their emotions and fragilities, we start on a bad cycle. To break this, we must give the employee a voice and empower them, and then we can work together. The Safer Together campaign is very good because of this. We are together, and we can help other people to raise their bar and really be safe. It is the safety part, but also the psychological part, the mental part, and the health part. Sometimes if I’m suffering, I may not realize that I’m suffering. But the people who work with me can sometimes detect a behavior change in the person. When they realize that a colleague or a friend is suffering, they can help that person get access to help.

On the role people can play in helping their co-workers 

I believe that we can support our employees, in a humane way, and help them understand not only the EAP program, but also all the other kinds of support. Sometimes when people are in a crisis, they might not remember that we have the EAP. They don’t remember that they can look for support for a professional psychologist or therapist. These are very important resources, and in the future, I would love for everyone to be aware of these resources and how they can access them.