The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) has released its two-year report of ‘Beer, Wine and Spirits Producers’ Commitments’ to Reduce Harmful Drinking.

Signed back in October 2012, the commitments were agreed upon by CEOs of leading global producers of beer, wine and spirits to improve harmful drinking worldwide.

The report released this week now highlights the steps and successes that have been achieved in the last two years by the group.

Specifically, key areas of the five-year program include helping to reduce underage drinking and prevent drink driving, as well as to expand the marketing codes of practice to promote responsible drinking.

Since 2013, when the commitments became effective, signatory companies have undertaken 180 global underage drinking prevention education programs. Most notably, the united companies helped drive the development of a legal purchasing age policy in Vietnam in 2014.

In addition, education programs run by the signatories in conjunction with NGOs, inter-governmental organisations and stakeholders reached more than 2.58 million underage individuals, while a total 375 drink driving initiatives were launched across 146 countries.

In September 2014, producers also launched a set of Digital Guiding Principles – the first-ever set of global guidelines created for beverage alcohol producers. The Principles enforce that producers must adhere to the 70/30 rule, which establishes that advertisements in print, broadcast and digital media should have a minimum 70 per cent adult audience.

But IARD and signatory companies say there is still a way to go.

 

“We are two years into the most ambitious initiative the industry has ever collectively undertaken to address harmful drinking and, while we have made good progress, there is still more work to be done. And we will do more”, Chief Executive of Diageo, Ivan Menezes said. “The second year of collaboration has encouraged us that through partnerships even more can be achieved and we will continue to work in communities across the world to reduce harmful drinking.”

Carlos Brito, Commitments CEO Group Chair and CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev added: “Our companies are represented in more than 100 countries, and we are committed to making a positive and lasting contribution through our joint efforts in all of the markets in which we operate.”

“Our Commitments are a good starting point to help reduce the harmful consumption of alcohol globally; but to take the impact of our work to the next level, we need to expand this collective approach to also include other beer, wine and spirits companies, as well as retailers, governments, international organisations, and local community groups. We are working hard to bring these partnerships together so that we can have an even greater impact in our efforts to reduce harmful drinking.”

For more information, visit www.producerscommitments.org