Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is and always has been at the heart of William Grant & Sons (WG&S), anchored in the Company’s Values.

The Company has a long history of trying to do the right thing with societal matters, even when no one is watching.

William Grant and his wife Elizabeth built the Glenfiddich Distillery with their seven sons and two daughters. From these early days, as a family business, the welfare of employees was paramount and environmental matters were always on the agenda. Below are some examples of the work they and subsequent generations of the family and employees have done:

In the late 1800s, addressing the discharge of waste waters into local rivers, as was common practice.

In the 1950s, after the second world war, the Company took an active role against drinking and driving.

With the fourth generation of the family getting involved in the business, many philanthropic projects were pursued for the benefit of local communities in Scotland and the nation as a whole: The National Piping Centre, the Scottish Seabird Centre, the Gordon Highlander’s Museum, and the Glenfiddich Bagpiping Championships were but a few of the projects pursued by the family and the business.

With the fifth generation coming on board in the 1980s and 1990s, new initiatives began to build in the business with the introduction of teamworking and harmonised conditions.

Later, private healthcare insurance for all was introduced, along with other programmes to support employee wellbeing.

In recent years the William Grant Foundation has been established. In 2023, it awarded £4.7 million in grants – a record total.

ALIGNMENT TO THE SCOTCH WHISKY ASSOCIATION

William Grant & Sons is fully aligned with the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA)’s ambition for the future, grounded in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The SWA’s four big goals are: tackling climate change by fully decarbonising the industry’s own operations by 2040; moving to a circular economy by making all new packaging widely recyclable; hitting responsible water use targets by 2025; and caring for the land through the active conservation and restoration of Scotland’s peatland.

The Company uses the GHG (Green House Gas) protocol for calculating its carbon footprint, alongside the SWA calculation methodology papers which are produced by Mabbett for the Scotch Whisky industry.