As a component of drinks company Pernod Ricard’s clean-water and sanitation project, it is distributing a week's supply of clean water to someone in need for every bottle of Absolut Elyx sold in the US.
Sales of the vodka SKU have already resulted in the distribution of water to 15,000 people, the French drinks company said. The programme, which is being performed in conjunction with the international non-profit organisation Water for People, is a five-year-long operation that aims to bring safe water to 100,000 people.
Pernod also says that the investment in water treatment that it made in its Irish Distillers facility is ‘paying off’.
‘In our Midleton distillery in Ireland, we treat the water as if we were supplying it for human consumption. It is a corporate requirement that all water used in the process be of a potable water standard,’ it said.
‘In 2014, Irish Distillers invested €220 million to double production capacity, which included upgrades and integration of its water resources management and treatment systems.’
Furthermore, Pernod Ricard Argentina has ‘created sustainable programmes to improve [the] quality and productivity of grape, reduce health and safety risk[s], mitigate environmental impact and encourage the implementation of simple practices within local communities'.
High-precision drip irrigation is one of the methods used by the subsidiary to promote sustainable viticulture.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
