Molson in the Community

A team of Molson folks will be travelling to Queen’s University this weekend to partake in the Queen’s School of Business CSR Certification “CSR weekend”. Travelling to Queen’s to participate in a dialogue with business students will be Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer - Scott Ewart, Vice President fo Government and Public Affairs - Ferg Devins, and Community Relations Co-ordinator - Tonia Hammer. Mary Donohue, a consultant working with Molson in Philanthropic endeavours will also be accompanying the group and participating in this unque learning event at Queen’s. This is the second  year that Molson will participate in the CSR weekend at Queen’s. Last year we announced the creation of the National Mentoring Program whereby students get teamed up with a Molson employee as a mentorin to tackle a particular challenge facing a non profit organization. The Molson mentor and student look at various perspectives and opportunities to resolve the non profit’s challenge and then Molson supports the student in a summer job position with the charity to resolve the issue. Look forward to seeing everyone in Kingston. If anyone has any ideas about enhancing CSR initiatives or other ideas that you would like us to consider, please comment below. Here’s to responsible choices !

Prior to the Business Council of British Columbia CSR Summit the past week a pre-summit panel was conducted on Thursday October 16th. The panel consisted of Vicki Gabereau moderating with participation by Dr. Mary Lynn Young, Director of the School of Journalism at the University of British Columbia and Scott Ewart, Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer for Molson in Canada.

It was an interesting dialogue that challenged the varying impacts of social media and traditional media for corporations in the business world. A core theme was a question about the impact of “citizen journalists” vs the more traditional media coverage of events and corporate news.

Scott spoke about the approach that Molson has taken on our community blog and the fact that Molson is committed to listening to our consumers, and for that matter, all stakeholders that may have an impact on Molson business in the market place. I must admit that it is also really great for us at Molson to have  Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer that “gets it” when it comes to our need to be in the conversations that are taking place out there. Scott repeatedly reminds us that we just need to be there because it is the right thing to do. There is also a critical need for corporations to understand that they have a social license to be mindful of and to protect as the go to market in all aspects of their business.

It was evident by conversations in the room (in my humble opinion) that there is still a real struggle for many corporations to embrace social media. I don’t think that it’s necessarily a disbelief in the validity of the medium, moreover it is still so new for people and often times major corporations need to follow established and validated  sets of benchmarks and key learnings before imbedding new practices into their business culture. At Molson we have been fortunate enough to have a culture of innovation where our team has been challenged with exploring opportunitites on line for decades. Being “in” the conversation from our standpoint is a lot better place to be than on the sidelines and outside of the conversation. Molson continues to learn by listening and through experimentation in social media and undersatnding the conversations that are taking place…whether that is on Facebook, through the millions of blogs that exist or on Twitter (MolsonFerg).  It is a very exciting time for our communications team at Molson as we continue to learn and develop our interactions and discussions through social media.

And as always…we welcome your thoughts, opinions and suggestions as to how we can ensure that we are tuly in dialogue with all the stakeholders interested in our business from the beer drinker loyalist to the regulator and special interest groups that take interest in our products. Here’s to responsible choices !

The Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC), of which Molson is a member, held it’s inaugural Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) summit in Vancouver on October 17th and the 42nd President of the United States of America shared key note speaker position with Frank Giustra on the work that these two gentleman have done via the Clinton Foundation and in particular with the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative in developing countries. The panel was moderated by Virginia Greene, President and CEO of BCBC.

The luncheon event was jam packed in the convention centre on the waterfront in Vancouver. President Cinton and Frank Giustra engaged in close to an hour discussion with Virginia Greene on a number of topics that highlighted the importance of Corporate Social Responsbility and the need for people and business to remain committed to making a difference, even in the face of these difficulat economic times.  Hats off to the organizors and volunteers for a wonderful event and forum for dialogue on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Upon the release of recycling results and their environmental stewardship for The Beer Store in Ontario, I felt compelled to write a post and share the positive news with everyone. The Beer Store (of which Molson is a shareholder) has been doing a terrific job in environmental stewardship since partnering with the Government of Ontario to be the Ontario Deposit Return destination for all beverage alcohol containers.

Brewers have been doing their part for a long time. The industry standard bottle has 47 brewers participating in Canada which means significant re-use of this container and eventual recycling when the bottle wears out. These brewers represent more than 97% of the industry volume in Canada…quite an accomplishment.

The Beer Store role in Ontario’s Deposit Return for beverage alcohol is continuing to improve upon environmental stewardship in the province. To read the full report you can download it at the Beer Store’s environmental page on their web site.

I will also point you to more details on what Molson and Molson Coors Brewing Company are doing in the context of corporate responsibility by re-directing you to our Molson Coors Brewing Company environmental responsibility page.

What do you think our industry and Molson can be doing to continue to be more environmentally friendly ? Please let us know by commenting below…cheers !

On Monday, September 22^nd Cam Atchison, the District Sales Manager for Ottawa, and his team joined me at a Volunteer Canada initiative in Ottawa to help create a community garden. 

Over 100 volunteers from VC’s Corporate Council showed up for the event which was a collaborative effort between Sustainable Living Ottawa East and Lady Evelyn Elementary School that was driven by the Grades 4/5/6 students.  The children were the planners, workers and visionaries behind the entire project!  Teams added value to the project by helping to complete some of the larger structural projects such as the installation of fencing, preparation of planting beds and building shade structures, with one student leading each volunteer group.  Dirt was moved, posts and student-painted pickets were installed, sitting benches were built and walking paths were put down and our Molson team performed with their usual eagerness and good humour.

The students were appointed junior team leaders and were passionate about getting the job done to their expectations.  Each one was delightful and so proud to take the leadership role in converting a small park into this amazing community garden.  Several members living in the community also stopped by to personally thank us for helping out.  The transition of the park in just three hours was remarkable. 

Thanks Cam, Travis, Martin, Kyle, Shannon, Wayne, Grant, Jeremy and Chris!  It was a fun-filled morning working together.  I just hope your muscles fared better than mine!