EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.
How EY can Help
-
The EY Family Enterprise DNA Model pinpoints the key areas of focus for family enterprise leaders to achieve their personal and business ambitions.
Read more
Japan’s Suntory, for example, is a private family enterprise in the beverage industry that has already aligned itself to GRI, SBTi, as well as WEF SCM standards. This 122-year-old company has implemented bold initiatives across seven sustainability themes – water, CO2, raw material, containers and packaging, health, human rights, and enriching life. Given the importance of water in its products, its water conservation efforts are amongst the most ambitious: Suntory is undertaking a forest development project in Japan that will provide twice the water it consumes2. Based on the success of its “Natural Water Sanctuary”3 projects in Japan, this concept has now been applied in other Suntory locations, including the US.
According to Rick Price, Director, Global Environmental Stewardship, Beam Suntory, “We’ve become a business that looks forward, not one to two years, but one to two hundred years. We think about making sure we’ve got a sustainable supply of grain trees, and water.”
Its overall efforts at reducing greenhouse gases were certified by SBTi in September 2021, indicating that its plan is consistent with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.4 Its US subsidiary, Beam Suntory, created two new sustainability roles in July 2021: Vice President – Global Environmental Sustainability, and Global Vice President – Consumer & Society Sustainability. This plural approach – split across environment, customer, and society – very well aligns with what EY has found to be a more tenable definition of sustainability.