Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Key to building Corporate Citizenship: Enriching lives, communities and the environment through good business United Spirits Limited (USL) CSR Strategy supports our ambition to the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products company in India and the world. USL recognizes that its business activities directly affect the lives of millions of people around the world. We believe that the communities in which we operate should benefit from our presence. We will integrate our corporate social responsibility into our core business to create value for society and our shareholders. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Principles: 1. Through USL s CSR Policy, we will manage the company s most material social and environmental impacts with the goal of creating shared value for both our business and our diverse stakeholders. 2. At the core of our approach is a commitment to address the harmful effects of alcohol in society and advocate responsible drinking, thereby creating a positive role for alcohol in society. 3. We will partner with different stakeholders including Government, not-for-profit organizations, civil society, suppliers, farmers, and distributors to address the challenges faced by society. 4. Our programs will be consistent, have larger scale and impact, and reach out to all levels of society. 5. USL representatives will regularly monitor the status of each CSR activity to be undertaken by USL and the representatives will report their findings to the USL CSR committee periodically. 6. The surplus, if any, arising out of the CSR activities, projects or programs shall not form part of the business profits of USL. USL s CSR Strategy will encompass the following 3 areas: Promoting Education: Preventing Misuse of Alcohol in Society Empower Women [National & Grassroots] Benefit the Communities around our plants [Grassroots] 1
A. HEALTH AND ALCOHOL IN SOCIETY Alcohol has been part of India s social and cultural fabric for centuries and is an important part of celebrations the world over. USL has iconic brands enjoyed by millions every day. However, we acknowledge that some people drink irresponsibly and cause harm to themselves and others. We want alcohol to play a more positive role in our society. We will achieve this by encouraging adults to make responsible choices about whether, when, and how much to drink. Reducing alcohol misuse is a priority for USL and we are committed to playing our part. Stakeholder research (across investors, NGOs, and regulators) tells us that with regard to our reputation, the role of alcohol in society is by far their most important concern. It is in this area of reducing harmful use of alcohol that we can, and are expected to, contribute the most significant value to society. USL will focus its efforts in tackling alcohol misuse through effective programmes which seek to raise awareness, change attitudes and shift behavior. We will have prioritized our focus on the following two areas of intervention: a) Drink driving Road traffic injuries are a major public health problem and a leading cause of death and injury in India. USL will institute programmes that raise awareness to prevent drink driving, help consumers make responsible choices either on its own or in partnership with NGOs, state and central governments, educational institutes and others. b) Underage Drinking Underage drinking in India is increasingly becoming an area of concern. The average age of initiation in India dropped from 19 years to 13 years in the past two decades. USL will focus its efforts on working with the right partners to address underage drinking in India through targeted interventions. INDUSTRY COLLABORATION We share the goal of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reduce harmful use of alcohol by 10% by 2025. We fully support the Global Beer, Wine and Spirits Producers Commitments, a coordinated industry response to support the WHO s Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. In line with the commitments, we will expand and increase our efforts on: 1. reducing underage drinking 2. strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice 3. providing consumer information and responsible product innovation 4. reducing drink driving 5. enlisting the support of retailers to reduce harmful drinking. B. BENEFIT THE COMMUNITIES AROUND OUR PLANTS 2
We understand that our distilleries and bottling plants are situated at the very heart of the communities where we operate, and that we have a responsibility to create shared value for our shareholders, our employees who work so hard to make our business successful, and for the wider society that enables our business to flourish and grow. We take great pride in developing the skills of our people, and just as much pride in bringing education, life skills training, social enterprise programmes and responsible drinking programmes to our communities. Our community programmes enable those who live and work in our communities, particularly women, to have the skills and resources to build a better future for themselves. We will address development gaps focused largely on the following areas: 1) Health: Hold regular Health Camps to make curative health care services available to the community. Strengthen Primary Health Care centers in the villages with medical professionals and medicines. Create awareness on health seeking behavior. 2) Water & Sanitation: Millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water. Women are particularly impacted by the lack of adequate water resources. After assessing the community needs, we will work to provide clean drinking water to the communities through interventions such as the construction of bore wells, provision of water drinking stations in public places, water filters, water storage tanks or water harvesting. C) EMPOWERING WOMEN Empowerment means having choices, opportunities and access to resources all of which improve an individual s sense of self-worth and their ability to influence society and the economy. It is proven that empowering a woman leads to a multiplier effect which benefits many people: Lift one woman out of poverty and she ll bring four more people with her (CARE International). It is also proven that in countries where the gender gap is smallest, there is greater productivity and economic competitiveness. The need in India: Women make up only 24-29% of the workforce in India one of the lowest in the world. 66% of women graduates in Indian are not employed. One reason is that only about 7.4% have had any kind of training. Almost 91% of women who take a break in India want to come back to work. 33% are unable to rejoin full time work due to domestic pressures. Aligned to business: 3
Our values, our reputation and our purpose are important drivers of our commercial success. In this context, our Women s Empowerment program is an investment in our business. It will help us to grow the economies in which we operate, and to develop skills in the hospitality sector that is critical for our continued success. Project S.H.E Security (Water): Provision for clean drinking water Health: Healthcare for women/young mothers and adolescent girls Community preventive healthcare Education: Employable skills training Social Empowerment Security Health EMPOWERING WOMEN Economic empowerment through Skill building and Learning Our current CSR focus areas are given below: Sr. USL Initiative Schedule VII Activity 1 Health and Alcohol in i) Awareness & Society Education Program : Road to (a) Promoting Program Details National campaign aimed at enhancing road safety and reducing road fatalities due to driving under the influence of alcohol. 4
Safety - On ground capacity building training program for commercial vehicle drivers and college students Road Safety through mass education and awareness campaigns in all facets of road safety including not drinking and driving through classroom training and direct interface. (b) Commercial Drivers training on Road Safety focused on drivers of trucks, school buses, autorickshaws Designed to 39 cities across 16 states THREE ELEMENTS Road Safety and Drink Drive awareness for 5500+ commercial drivers Donation of state-of-the-art breath alcohol analysers Alcohol awareness education for 6000+ college students. PARTNERS Institute of Road Traffic Education The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Traffic police departments of various States 2 Health and Alcohol in Society Program : Road to Safety high visibility Media program Promoting Road Safety through mass education and awareness campaigns in all facets of road safety including not drinking and driving, through print, audio and visual media 5 Month national television-led outreach campaign with a national television partner NDTV Televised panel discussions on road safety issues that included. government, NGO s, road accident survivors, sportsmen and celebrities. Televised programs on road safety issues and live coverage of on-ground events to raise the public discourse on road safety. National Road Safety week engagement across 7 cities involving NGO s, students, road safety volunteers, celebrities and government. Celebrity endorsements to raise awareness on not drinking and driving. Digital engagement Road Safety film contest Call to action (pledge signing), Radio promotions Print advertisements 3 Benefiting the Communities ii) Health, Hygiene and Sanitation : Conduct multi-facility health camps - identification and screening. 5
Promotion of preventive health care and sanitation, and making available safe drinking water Awareness creation on health seeking behavior Providing clean drinking water 4 Women Empowerment PROJECT S.H.E Improving maternal health Employable skill training and creating women entrepreneurs iii) Women Empowerment & Livelihoods Reproductive health care. Pre-natal health checkups and post natal care Employable skills training in areas such as basic computing, communication skills etc Creating entrepreneurial skills (skills will be identified by undertaking baseline surveys in the identified villages) 6