are building professional equality, at the very heart of our corporate governance.
• 40% of women on the Executive Board by 2025 and 50% by 2030.
We are supporting our new team of CSR leaders
(made up of hundreds of passionate people around the world) in deploying actions included in our roadmap.
• Accelerate the sustainable transformation of the Group at every level and make our commitments a reality.
We are promoting an ambitious plan of employee shareholding.
In 2021, the Group rolled out its first plan of employee shareholding in France. This plan was a great success, with a subscription rate of almost 77%. In 2022, the Group opened a new plan for international employees. It was again marked by a high subscription rate, with almost 50% of employees choosing to invest. At the end of these two plans, 61% of employees are Rémy Cointreau shareholders!
• 50% worldwide by 2025 (61% in 2023/24).
Nous valorisons et cultivons la diversité au sein de notre communauté.
In terms of gender equality, Rémy Cointreau scored 89/100 on index 2023.
Comprising 5 indicators (pay gap, individual pay rises, promotions, individual pay rises on return from maternity leave and the presence of women among the company’s top 10 earners) and scored out of 100 points, the Equality Index has been designed as a practical tool for advancing gender equality within companies. The five indicators are as follows:
- Pay gap indicator: 34
- Increment rate gap indicator: 20
- Promotion rate gap indicator: 15
- Return from maternity leave indicator: 15
- High pay indicator: 5
• Reach 90/100 on the gender equality index in France by 2025.
Nous construisons la diversité culturelle et sociale au sein de nos Maisons.
• D’ici 2030, former des structures d’équipes toujours plus multiculturelles et développer des programmes pour renforcer notre posture d’acteur à impact positif.
We want to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities
We have started by conducting a disability diagnosis at all our French sites.
• Develop our actions to recruit people with disabilities and promote the connection between talent and local employers.
We seek to share our values with all our employees.
• 100% of employees will be trained in our ethics and/or anti-corruption charter by 2025 (95% in 2023/24)
We promote skill growth through training.
• 80% of our employees receiving at least one training course per year (82% in 2023/24)
Meet our “CSR Leaders”
To ensure that the Group’s CSR transformation is embodied at all levels of the company, we have set up a team of around one hundred CSR Leaders who ensure that our commitments are instilled in all employees and partners.
Passionate about their mission, they are deployed across different sites, brands and markets. Thanks to their commitment, our vision is brought to life in a humanised way, adapted to the reality of each region and to the different areas of activity.
Inspire, embrace and grow together
At Remy Cointreau, we believe that our CSR commitment only makes sense if everyone is involved. This is why we promote a sustainable vision of management by supporting our employees over the long term.
This is achieved firstly through a preferred social dialogue but also by strengthening our training policy and events dedicated to responsibility issues.
Internal training sessions specially designed for the group’s businesses have been implemented:
- Brand Academy, for a better knowledge of brands
- Art of Selling Academy, for the salespeople
- Finance Academy, for non-financiers
- Quality Academy, covering products and their presentation
- Digital Academy and Management Academy
More specifically, in the area of CSR, several initiatives have been put in place to train and raise awareness among the group’s employees:
• The CSR Academy Rémy Cointreau offers a 3-level learning path to progress at your own pace on CSR topics: Empowered, Advanced and Expert. Training, resources and quizzes enable group employees to enhance their skills and contribute to a more sustainable future, in a fun way.
• CSR “meetings” are organised several times a year to raise awareness among employees on various topics (corporate responsibility in the face of global warming, responsible consumption, etc.) and to share the group’s “best practices” (main actions of our sites, in terms of logistics transport, green IT, etc.)
• Climate Frescoes were also organised to raise awareness of global warming. The Group’s top 200 managers, employees at the Angers site, employees at Maison Telmont and the Benelux marketing and sales team all took part in the frescoes. Around 35% of the Group’s employees were made aware of the challenges of climate change through the Climate Fresco, and 8 frescoes were organised in-house.
• Finally around twenty Rémy Cointreau employees have been trained to become “fresco artists” and are regularly involved in the deployment of the frescoes within the Group.
THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CLIMATE FRESCO :
It is a game, lasting about three hours and structured in three phases. Its objective is to raise awareness through collaboration; participants co-construct a fresco summarising the mechanisms of climate change as explained in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Support our partners in the environmental transition
• Act as an initiator of change for stakeholders, through pragmatic and engaging support actions.
Carry out sponsorship initiatives
Over the past five years, we have financed over 5 million euros worth of sponsorship and direct and indirect actions to support our communities around the world (600 000€ in 2023/24). In this way, we aim to continue to make a positive impact in the areas in which we operate, in addition to being an attentive employer. Among the associations we support are 40cean in Barbados and the United States (beach clean-ups), WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), student internships and apprenticeships, tree planting, support for young people in difficulty or from priority urban districts…
Launch of the "Butterfly Regeneration Program"
Biodiversity is the best barometer of soil health and of the protection of living organisms. That is why we are stepping up our conservation actions through specific programmes in the very heart of our terroirs. This involves working hand-in-hand with scientists and associations, as we know that only a collective response can be truly effective in safeguarding natural environments. This planted a seed: to make the butterfly both a symbol of our commitment and a compass to guide our actions.
This led us to make pledges in four areas:
– In our terroirs: fuel a switch to regenerative farming methods at all our estates in order to reduce the use of chemical inputs and allow butterfly habitats to reform by planting cover crops, trees and hedges;
– At our production sites: perform biodiversity analyses with a view to rebuilding habitats through measures that are adapted to each region and local ecosystem;
– In our markets: encourage support for butterfly conservation through local sponsorship initiatives (see below for a description of the actions taken by The Botanist Foundation and Rémy Cointreau Americas).
– With our staff: our commitment to this cause can only be meaningful if all our staff rally behind it at their own level and with the resources they have to hand. In France, we have handed out 5,100 seed balls containing 11 species of organic nectar-rich flowers to provide food for more than 51,000 pollinating insects.
Integrating young people
For many years, Remy Cointreau has been working to train and integrate young graduates from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In Cognac, Rémy Martin initiated a partnership with the association “Nos quartiers ont du talent”(Our neighbourhood’s GotTalent) in 2014. On a voluntary basis, some of our employees work with young people who have lost confidence and are concerned about their future. Our teams provide them with advice for their recruitment interview(s) and also to build their professional network.
AND IT IS BEARING FRUIT!
Since 2014, this scheme has contributed to the hiring of 69 young people on fixed-term or permanent contracts.
Also in Cognac, and for more than fifteen years, Rémy Martin has been involved with the “Fondation de la 2e chance” (2nd Chance Foundation), which aims to help and support people who want to bounce back after an accident in life.
In Paris, our site has been associated since 2017 with the action of “Sport dans la Ville” association (Sports in Town). This association supports young people from priority neighbourhoods on their way to training and employment. In 2022, our Paris employees were once again invited to take part in CV workshops and interview simulations for people who live far from potential employment.
A partnership with the national forestry office for over 10 years (ONF)
Because forest cover helps protect biodiversity by safeguarding natural habitats, Maison Rémy Martin has been committed to forest preservation in France for over ten years, through a patronage operation in partnership with the Office National des Forêts (ONF) and its “ONF-Act for the forest” fund. Since 2021/2022, particular emphasis has been placed on the development and adaptation to climate change of pedunculate oak, a characteristic of Rémy Martin cognac production.
Mount Gay - joining forces to clean up the oceans
In conjunction with Ocean Month in June, Mount Gay has pledged to donate $5 from every bottle and $1 from every cocktail sold (US residents only, up to $100,000) to 4ocean’s Pound + programme.
With this contribution, the Barbados team is helping to fund the removal of several tons of ocean waste by full-time professional clean-up crews in the states of Florida, Texas, New York, Delaware and Maryland.
A NATURAL COMMITMENT
For Mount Gay, ocean preservation is deep in its DNA. A partner in more than 60 regattas in the United States, Mount Gay – a three hundred year old brand – is extending its partnership with 4ocean to carry out clean-up missions beyond its territory, showing its determination to end the plastic pollution crisis.
WHO IS 4OCEAN ?
4Ocean is a public benefit corporation, certified B Corp. It works to directly clean up the oceans, rivers and coastlines and seeks to stop the influx of plastic by changing our consumption habits.
To date, nearly 6,000 tons of waste have been collected by the 4ocean team.
Westland and Bruichladdich, our B Corp certified distilleries
This certification rewards Bruichladdich for its level of social and environmental performance since 2020. As such, the distillery joins a global circle of 4,000 companies that have implemented a rigorous approach to decision making, integrating a human and responsible dimension towards the Planet, beyond profitability.
“This certification confirms first and foremost the relevance of the corporate mission that we have set ourselves since 2001: transparency, sustainable development and community interest. We are very pleased to be part of this movement and of those organisations that wish, through their business model, to be the best for the world, working together to create a more inclusive and responsible economy .”
Douglas Taylor – Managing Director of Bruichladdich Distillery
Westland distillery aslo achieved this goal in 204 with a score of 103.1 points, giving the distillery one of the highest score amongst distilleries globally, and the highest score for an American distillery.
B CORP – A DEMANDING AND CELEBRATED CERTIFICATION
Being a certified B Corporation (B Corp) means meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. By combining external validation, transparency, and legal accountability, B Corp companies are trusted partners which generate value for their stakeholders. B Corp certification is administered by B Lab, a non-profit organisation.
Launch of our programme for more responsible consumption
We launched a programme to promote more responsible consumption by launching R.E.S.P.E.C.T., a simple tasting ritual accessible to everyone in order to adopt the right habits. (infographic of the ritual with the meaning of the letters).
• 100% of our teams will be trained in responsible consumption by 2023 (91% in 2023/24).
Make our customers and bartenders aware of responsible consumption
• Encourage each company and each main market to put in place at least one responsible consumption action per year by 2025.
Set up a specific monitoring programme for our most vulnerable teams
• 100% of our sales staff and Brand Ambassadors will receive specific training and medical and psychological monitoring by 2025.
Raising awareness of responsible consumption among teams
Training is a fundamental step in the dissemination of responsible consumption practices. It is a cornerstone of the “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.” responsible drinking plan launched in 2021, which aims to promote a responsible drinking approach internally (among the Group’s employees) but also externally, among the Group’s stakeholders. This plan is based in particular on a proprietary tasting ritual, which defines a responsible consumption experience for its exceptional wines and spirits.
An e-learning module dedicated to this issue has been developed. It is mandatory for all employees and contains key figures, best practices, a self-assessment test and role-playing exercises available in English, French and Chinese to raise awareness and train teams.
This module is a first step in the Group’s approach to this vital issue, which includes specific support for the most sensitive groups, such as sales staff, ambassadors and cellar masters and their teams.
The R.E.S.P.E.C.T ritual, to be shared without moderation.
Each letter of this ritual corresponds to an action or behaviour to keep in mind in order to fully appreciate our spirits and our champagne – because an exceptional product should only be appreciated rationally!
R for READY: « get Ready, by drinking water »
E for EAT: « Eat before and during the tasting »
S for SIP: « Smell and Sip Slowly» (sentez, puis
P for PAUSE: « Pause by drinking water before a second glass of alcohol »
E for ENJOY: « Enjoy responsibly: check your limits with your favorite Drink Control App »
C for CAPTAIN: « be the Captain by making sure your friends are celebrating responsibly too!”
T for TIME: « Take your Time »
Mount Gay House: "Know Your Limits" responsible consumption programme
Mount Gay House is committed to promoting responsible consumption among its Barbadian community. To this end, it has set up a communication campaign called “Know Your Limits” as a reminder to everyone to know the limits that should not be exceeded when drinking alcohol.
This initiative is part of the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. programme, which aims to make the Group’s employees and stakeholders more aware of their alcohol consumption.
Long live alternative cocktails!
Cointreau is committed to promoting responsible and moderate consumption. In 2020, it is updating its selection of recipes to create a new category: Alternative Cocktails.
These are tasty recipes with an alcohol content of 8% or less and whose ingredients do not exceed a combined equivalent of 25ml of 40% alcohol per glass.
In addition to a rich and diversified cocktail menu, Cointreau is happy to share top mixology tips with its community to make Alternative Cocktails an art in its own right.
As these cocktails are not alcohol-free, the brand invites consumers to consume them responsibly and in moderation. Alternative cocktails now represent 10% of Cointreau’s cocktail recipes. The goal is to make this 20% by 2025.
