GLOBAL SPIRITS giant, Bacardi has signed up to a new pledge to ensure that all its sugarcane products are sustainably sourced by 2022.
As a founding member of Bonsucro, a global non-profit organisation fostering the sustainability of the sugarcane sector, Bacardi has committed to sourcing 40% of its sugarcane based products from sustainably-certified sources by 2017 and 100% by 2022.
Farmers, millers and end-users of sugarcane must meet rigorous requirements to be verified as sustainable by Bonsucro. Then as members, they work collaboratively to raise the bar of sustainable sourcing across the supply chain.
Bacardi is continuing to drive this effort, working with its suppliers to achieve high sustainability standards by also pledging to only choose suppliers who can produce high quality yields of sugarcane under sustainably certified conditions.
“There have been a lot of challenges in the sugarcane industry,” said Dave Howson, Global Sustainability Director for Bacardi.
“That’s why Bonsucro is so important. It’s really working to develop a sustainable sugarcane industry. Together with Bonsucro, our commitments are also a key pillar to building a sustainable future for Bacardi.”
Since 2006, when the company first began tracking its global impacts on the environment, Bacardi has reduced non-renewable energy use by 27.7%, supported by a 28.5% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from production. These activities are part of the Bacardi Limited “Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future” initiative that sets specific goals by 2022 for sourcing, packaging and operations to help the Company reach its vision of a zero-net impact.
