Molson in the Community

On October 10, 2012, the Molson Coors St. John’s Brewery held its annual Volunteer Day. With the brewery closed in order to perform electrical sub-station upgrades, more than 60 employees took advantage of the downtime to give back to the community.

Shelley Hickey took the lead role in working with the City of St. John’s to come up with an effective action plan. After tropical storm Leslie, which hit the island back in September, there was a need to extensively reclaim and repair several local parks, walking trails and riverside areas. In addition, the brewery wanted to build on the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project, whereby several employees planted trees along the nearby, historic Rennie’s River.

With tools, safety vests, garbage bags and the usual Molson Coors St. John’s can-do attitude, the team went to work. In only a few short hours, several large piles of fallen trees and debris were gathered, flower gardens were cleaned, 450 seedlings were planted and a local park and walking area looked like new. The team finished the day with a neighbourhood walkabout, whereby 60 bags of garbage were collected from the streets around the brewery known as Georgestown.

A great day was had by all as the employees of Molson Coors St. John’s once again showed how important our community is to us and how giving back is fundamental to how we do business! As icing on the cake, the brewery was publicly acknowledged by the Mayor of St. John’s on a live television broadcast of the weekly City Council meeting.

“Molson staff did a great job and accomplished a great deal of work…It was great to see the business community giving back to the city,” said Mayor Dennis O’Keefe.

Cheers!
Sean Kennedy, Brewery Manager
Molson Coors St. John’s Brewery

Bart Alexander, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, Molson Coors Brewing Company volunteering with Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project at Brick Works in Toronto, ON.

What would you call a day when you got up early, planted some trees with friends and co-workers and then celebrated with an ice cold Molson Canadian beer?  For me it was awesome, a day bringing together the best of Canada for this visitor from Denver, Colorado.  In fact, the day was sponsored by the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project in partnership with Evergreen.  The Red Leaf Project launched in 2011, planting over 100,000 trees  to help make our awesome land (in Canada), even better.  Almost 1000 Canadians volunteered at 10 park projects last year, and this summer, the brand will increase its impact by tenfold – 100 projects!

As Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer for Molson Coors, I know that we make both positive and negative impacts on people and the earth.   We call that “Our Beer Print” – just like a beer leaves a mark on the table or coaster, we leave our mark.  Much is positive – such as the good times we spend together over beers, the jobs we create, and the contributions we make to our communities.  Some is negative – like alcohol abuse or discharges and accidents in our breweries.

We are dedicated as a company and as a collection of people to do all we can to grow our positive beer print and shrink our negative beer print.   This means we commit to be an ethical and well governed company, that sells quality products marketed responsibly, committed to environmental sustainability, investing in our people and the communities where we live and work, and taking our best practices to our suppliers and retailers.  It also means that we can help connect people to make a difference – just like we’re doing with the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project.

We know that our people appreciate our progress, ranking us as one of the top places to work in Canada.  And we believe that beer drinkers care as well, as demonstrated by the participation in Red Leaf Project.  We look forward to seeing that participation grow in 2012.

We’re devoted to improving Our Beer Print in Canada and every market in the world where we brew and sell our products.  So, next time you enjoy one of our brews, be it Canadian or an Coors Light or Rickards, taste our passion to refresh you and the world.

Cheers to you and your responsible choices!

To register/learn more, visit Molson Canadian on facebook

Vancouver – Kits Beach

A busy couple weeks of  Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanups with Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project are coming to an end with our last event in St. John’s NFLD tomorrow!

Across the country we hosted 12 cleanups where Molson Coors employees and consumers joined together at their local shoreline to spend a couple hours making our land even more awesome!  Thanks to all the volunteers!  Some photos from the Halifax, Moncton and Vancouver cleanups below.

Molson Coors crew in Halifax

Gorgeous s Point Pleasant – Halifax

Molson Coors Crew in Moncton

Cleaning up Aboiteau Beach, Moncton

Kits Beach, Vancouver

September continues on and it’s a busy one at Molson Coors as we host 12 Molson Canadian Red Leaf Projects across Canada in partnership with the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.

Thank you to all volunteers who took a few hours of their weekend and got their hands a bit dirty.   Reports and photos are coming in this week from each event…details from Toronto and Calgary first. Cheers.

Woodbine Beach Park, Toronto

Approximately 300 volunteers gathered to clean up the shoreline and surrounding area of Woodbine Beach Park.  We collected 677 kilograms of garbage! The hardworking Molson Canadian Red Leaf volunteers did some “good” and then received some “awesome” with tickets to the Casby awards!

Elbow River, Calgary

40 volunteers gathered to clean the Elbow River Pathway in Calgary. Over 35 bags of garbage were collected by Molson employees and Red Leaf Project Volunteers.

Last Thursday, September 15, within the scope of our “SEPTEMBER WATER STEWARDSHIP MONTH”, more than 100 employees from Molson Coors got engaged to clean up the shoreline in Verdun … under a pouring rain that never stopped! Another proof that Molson Coors employees, our greatest assets, can challenge the expected, and leave a positive beer print in our environment.

An annual September initiative along with our partner WWF-Canada, represented by Marie-Claude Lemieux in Québec.

Congrats to our amazing team for making this event a great success, and a special tribute to our “Build the Bench” team (15 employees in training) that succeeded to put in place a great connecting activity, which is so far from their day-to-day job! Cheers!

Cheers to a wonderful group of employees who challenged the rain to make that event a great success!

Chez Molson Coors: SEPTEMBRE – Mois de gestion responsable de l’eau!

À Montréal, plus d’une centaine d’employés-es se sont rassemblés pour procéder au nettoyage des rives de Verdun dans le cadre d’une opération nationale “Grand nettoyage des rivages canadiens” mise sur pied par WWF (World Wildlife Foundation – Fonds mondial pour la nature). Au cours du mois de septembre, Molson Coors aura mis sur pied une douzaine de ces rassemblements à l’échelle du Canada, dans le but d’engager le plus grand nombre d’employés-es possible.

Nos bénévoles ont été plus que généreux et courageux … la pluie n’a jamais cessé. Si le soleil ne s’est pas montré le bout du nez, je peux vous assurer que le soleil était partout dans nos coeurs, et que l’absence de Galarneau ne nous aura pas retiré notre bonne humeur, et notre passion de préserver l’eau!

Connaissez-vous notre “équipe de la relève”? celle-ci est composée d’une quinzaine d’employés-es Molson Coors qui doivent relever plusieurs défis les sortant de leur zone de confort, et ce, tout au cours de leur année de formation. Cette fois, leur défi était de réaliser cette activité dans tous ses détails (planification, partage des tâches et responsabilités, influence auprès de partenaires, influence auprès de tous nos employés-es à participer, communication interne et externe, organisation d’un BBQ accompagné de nos excellents produits! et j’en passe!) – BRAVO, MISSION ACCOMPLIE avec le plus grand des succès. Vous avez toutes les raisons d’être fiers de votre réalisation, un objectif que vous avez largement dépassé … ci-dessous une photo de toute l’équipe!

Sur cette dernière photo apparaissent (de G à D), Normand Houle de l’arrondissement de Verdun, Pierre Laflamme, membre de l’équipe de la relève et responsable des communications, notre fameux Panda (Sylvie Levasseur), Marie-Claude Lemieux de WWF (Fonds mondial pour la nature) ainsi que Raymond Carrier de l’opération net de la Ville de Montréal – un homme extraordinaire, toujours présent!

Merci à toute l’équipe et, surtout, n’oubliez pas ceci:

“Nous avons besoin d’une bonne eau pour brasser d’excellentes bières” – NOUS SOMMES HEUREUX D’AVOIR LAISSÉ UNE EMPREINTE POSITIVE dans notre environnement!

Our first Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup (GCSC) took place last Wednesday in Toronto, ON at Marie Curtis Park. Approximately 60 Molson Coors employees rolled up their sleeves and spent two hours cleaning up the park which includes a beach area right on Lake Ontario.  After getting our hands dirty and collecting some interesting items, the team celebrated “doing some good” with some “awesome” = cold beers

This was the first of many shoreline cleanups coming up this month as part of Molson Coors Water Stewardship Month and a continuation of the Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project, a national sponsor of the GCSC.

We hope you’ll join us for a Red Leaf Project/Shoreline Cleanup! Check our website to find the location nearest you.   Not one in your area?  Click here to join or organize your own in your community.  Cheers!

Cleaning up the park!

L-R: Gerald Butts, CEO WWF Canada with Tonia Hammer, Community Relations and Dave Perkins, CEO and President, Molson Coors Canada

Joanna Barrington and Hadley Archer, WWF Canada

Cheers!