What are the main resources you need for your brewery to operate daily? Cash, employees, equipment, grains, water, customers and that’s just to name a few. Once you have developed the processes for obtaining these – purchasing, growing, marketing, hiring – the question is: How can you make these processes more efficient in the future? One option is with corporate social responsibility (CSR), which you are most likely doing already, whether knowingly or unknowingly. CSR is more than just doing good for the environment or giving money to charity – it is looking ahead to the future resources you need to operate. Let’s take a look at exactly what CSR is and how you can organize activities to make your brewery more efficient.
Step one: What does CSR mean?
The first part to starting or reorganizing your CSR is knowing what CSR entails. The term CSR has a few different variations, but essentially encompasses three functions that focus on how your brewery makes an impact:
- Environmental sustainability – This is your brewery’s impact on the environment. Think of your brewery’s usage of all the materials it takes to make, distribute and serve the beer such as water, gasoline, grains and glass. The goal of sustainability practices is to limit your brewery’s imprint on the earth by creating more efficient processes to limit resources needed or finding ways to replace resources.
- Community engagement – This is your brewery’s impact on the community. Think of your brewery’s interactions with the community such as paying taxes, providing jobs, fulfilling a demand (craft beer) and donating to schools/charity. It also includes negative impacts typical with alcohol such as alcohol poisoning, underage drinking and drunk drivers. The goal of community engagement practices are to limit the negative impacts through education, services, corporate giving/philanthropy and volunteering.
- Employee engagement – Unlike the first two CSR practices, this is the impact on the people in the organization. Think of your human resource issues such as turnover, burnout and difficulty in hiring quality talent. The goal of employee engagement is to motivate and retain your team by connecting them to the positive impact your brewery makes in the community. Examples are volunteer programs, employee donation matching programs, or joining a board of directors for a charity.
Essentially, each of these three CSR pillars involve the resources the brewery requires to operate, and all of these resources involve the community to some degree. This is the concept of shared-value and the interdependence between the community and the organization.
Also, do not just think of your nearby community – anywhere you pull materials from or distribute to become communities that you are involved with.
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Step two: Assess existing CSR practices
The next step is to identify how your brewery is making an impact and what programs or practices you’re taking to limit its negative effects and further the positive ones.
Start by tracking your environmental footprint from start to finish to see how much it takes to make a pint or barrel of beer, include all materials, machines and manpower. Next, find out how much product is being donated every quarter for events. Third, ask staff if they are already connected to important causes in the area. Finally, see if the brewery is meeting minimum mandated regulations and where it is performing higher than expected.
From this, you will probably notice that you are already utilizing a few different CSR techniques in your risk-management, marketing, sales and operations.
For newer breweries: Believe it or not, you have been doing CSR activities. How many times have you been asked for product? One brewery that I work with has been open for about six months and receives daily requests to donate product. It is best to start a plan now before it gets even crazier than it already has been.
For established breweries: This may seem like an easy exercise, but really think about all the activities you do in all departments. Ask questions and think about the successes and failures of the last couple of years. This may help develop your future course of action.
Step three: Make a strategy and set goals
First and foremost, your CSR strategy should align and support your business goals and vision for your brewery. CSR functions are tools to help you carry out your goals. For example, if you are a new brewery, gaining awareness may be one of your main goals. You can use CSR to help build awareness through hosting events at the brewery, sponsoring charity events, or collecting items for donations.
Second, pick causes that align most with your brand, operations, community needs and ownership passions. All breweries need to focus on sustainability and the local community. Helping charities from outside your headquarters sounds good, but it also means that your local charities are not able to further the services to the local population.
Third, set goals and measures for your CSR strategy. You cannot define your success or returns on connecting with the community unless you have something against which to measure. By when and how much do you want to reduce energy usage? If you want to help with an environmental cleanup, how many hours and donation dollars are necessary to make the cleanup effort successful?
Finally, set a strategy for 12 months, three to four years, and as long as your vision statement states.
For newer breweries: Focus on community engagement goals the first year, but definitely begin tracking in all areas. Although you may not be able to afford new equipment in the near future that can save on energy costs, seeing your usage and stating a long-term goal of by when you want this completed is very important.
For established breweries: Your culture has already established an identity. Build upon that and engage with your customers on what they are passionate about. If you are already completing CSR activities, determine what you can do to make a bigger impact. Establishing goals on sustainability can lead to savings on operational costs. Goals on community engagement can lead to deeper relationships with customers and higher sales. Employee engagement goals can lead to lower turnover and hiring top-performing talent.
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Step four: Create a CSR team
The strategy you have created requires people to track, report, publicize and maintain. Compile a team of employees from all different functions of the brewery to help implement the plan and meet monthly. Empower each member of the team to research what trends are occurring and see if there is something your brewery needs to do.
A CSR team may not be needed at the beginning of this process because the original strategy and plan should be created amongst all ownership and department directors. As the CSR management team is established, the CEO, owner or someone on the executive team should be a part of the team to continually see how CSR is complementing their vision.
For newer breweries: Your team may be small, but it is mighty! Do what you can. Delegate what you can. Or hire an outside source to help.
For established breweries: Utilize a diverse team throughout the company with different backgrounds and experiences. Diversity is a powerful tool when utilized properly and this team can really help your brewery thrive.
Step five: Track and report progress
As data is collected throughout the year, the CSR management team should be tracking all sustainability, donation and volunteer measures. Compare results to goals and reflect on successes, weaknesses and areas on which to improve.
For newer breweries: Track what you can now and keep it consistent. You may not have time to fully analyze it now, but you will at some point. For all donations, get receipts from the charities or schools so they can be used as tax deductions at the end of year.
For established breweries: In my work thus far, I have been surprised by how much is not tracked or how underutilized data is amongst some breweries. Collect data, look for trends and outliers, and turn it into real knowledge for the brewery.
If you can complete these five steps, your CSR should be more organized, more strategic and more impactful on the community. You should also realize that CSR affects all aspects of the brewery and that all functions need to be aligned to achieving your future vision.
Finally, you should see that you have built yourself a more efficient path for obtaining the resources you need in the future to operate. How you are functioning today will be different than it will be in five or 10 years. So, create a CSR plan to support your vision of making more delicious beer and becoming a good corporate citizen in your community.
Brian Phipps is a Colorado native and passionate about helping the community. He learned the importance of volunteering and giving back through organizations, friends and my family and has worked in the nonprofit world for 10 years with several corporate partners to obtain donations, as well as publicize and report returns on those contributions. For more information about Confluence LLC, be sure to check out the company’s website.
