Tracy Clarke, Chief People and Culture Officer SBFE

February 14th is traditionally known as the day we celebrate our love and affection for each other. So, it feels appropriate that Suntory Beverage & Food Europe is launching today ‘Together for Good’, a new way for our employees to come together and demonstrate how we are living our company value of ‘Giving Back to Society.’

Giving Back to Society is deep-rooted within Suntory’s global purpose and is a strongly held company value. We give back from what our business earns, not only by reinvesting in our company, but by caring for our customers and partners and contributing to society. ‘Together for Good’ is our way of doing just that – bringing all employees together to contribute through volunteering, charitable giving, fundraising and performing small acts of kindness and sustainable behaviours that together will have a positive impact on society and our planet.

Our employees live our value of Growing for Good, and over the years, we’ve seen extraordinary acts of selflessness and coming together to impact communities for the better. We’ve pulled together in times of great adversity – donating drinks to vulnerable communities and emergency services during the Covid pandemic, natural disasters and the Ukraine crisis. We’ve seen employees' cycle through rain and wind to get from London to Paris raising money for Grocery Aid, conserving and cleaning up the Tajo River, Toledo as part of our Guardians of Tajo project and cleaning beaches in Ghana and Trinidad; they’ve prepared meals for the homeless in Amsterdam and supported Le Secours Populaire in France and Szlachetna Paczka in Poland. Not to mention the many bags of litter we’ve collected in the frequent clean ups at locations near our offices and factories!

To support our employees to work ‘Together for Good’, we give everyone a paid day’s leave to volunteer. We’ve also teamed up with Benevity, the world’s largest employee purpose platform who will host our ‘Together for Good’ programme. All employees across our region will have incredible opportunities to support hundreds of charities – in the community or digitally – to DO GOOD and make a difference.

We know that when we show kindness, are benevolent and support others, it has a positive impact on ourselves and those around us – and we also know it brings other benefits. A study from Benevity showed that employees regularly participating in goodness activities had 5 times higher levels of wellbeing, 4 times higher employee engagement and turnover was reduced by 57%*.

‘Together for Good’ is just one of the many ways we Give Back to Society - to find out more download our sustainability report.

*Benevity Labs Report Goodness Study