Diageo’s Ewan Andrew: Water Security in the Beverage Sector

Ewan Andrew, President, Global Supply & Procurement and Chief Sustainability Officer at Diageo, has been awarded eighth place in Sustainability Magazine’s Top 250 Sustainability Leaders 2026.

This spotlights the impact he has made during his time at the company, focusing on sustainable sourcing, recycled packaging and regenerative agriculture.

Ewan’s 20-year Diageo career

Ewan began his career at United Distillers, which was a subsidiary of Diageo, in 1997.

He started working at Diageo in 2002 as a Category Manager for Cartons and Gift Packaging.

Over the past 20 years, he has held many different roles at the company, working in procurement, operations and packaging.

He worked as a Supply Director for five years, before taking on his first senior position as SVP Manufacturing and Distilling for North America.

In this role, he was responsible for the safe and efficient operations of its distillation, maturing product, bottling and packaging footprint.

Ewan took on his current roles of President, Global Supply & Procurement and Chief Sustainability Officer in September 2019.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Edinburgh.

How does Diageo approach sustainability?

Diageo’s sustainability strategy centres around its Spirit of Progress plan, which aims to create a more inclusive and sustainable world.

It has four main priorities: 

• Doing business the right way
• Promoting positive drinking
• Pioneering grain to glass sustainability
• Championing inclusion and diversity

The company aims to change the way people drink by engaging, educating and empowering them to make informed choices.

It has made progress towards this goal, having reached one billion people with dedicated responsible drinking messages.

Its environmental targets are to reduce its Scope 3 emissions by 26% by 2030 and to achieve net zero across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050.

Diageo also aims to increase the recycled content in its packaging, as well as developing regenerative agriculture programmes in ten key sourcing landscapes.

One example is its recent restoration project in Scottish peatland, with the company investing up to £5m (US$6.7m) over the course of five years.

The project aims to restore up to 3,000 hectares of degraded peatland across Scotland.

Diageo will identify and co-fund projects that help to restore depleted peatlands, increase carbon storage, enhance biodiversity and improve water management.

Ewan said: “Restoring and protecting Scotland’s peatlands is essential to addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity and reducing carbon emissions.

“Peatlands also play an important role in water management, ensuring the sustainability of Scotch whisky’s number one ingredient.

“Through collective action with other partners and producers, we’ll restore many more times the amount of peat than we will use.”

All sustainability, net zero and sustainable supply chain leaders should attend:

• Sustainability LIVE: The Net Zero Summit - QEII Centre, London, March 4-5
• Sustainability LIVE: The US Summit - Navy Pier, Chicago, April 21-22

Co-located with Procurement & Supply Chain LIVE, these events brings together CSOs, ESG leaders and senior decision-makers at a moment when sustainability, supply chains and commercial performance are increasingly interconnected.

Tickets can be booked online today for The Net Zero Summit and The US Summit. Group discounts available.

Promoting water resilience

As well as ensuring a positive environmental impact, Diageo’s sustainability strategy focuses heavily on water stewardship.

It aims to reduce water use in its operations, with a 40% improvement in water use efficiency in water-stressed areas and a 30% improvement across the company.

It plans to achieve this through efficiency projects and investments in water recycling and reuse.

Diageo is also targeting indirect water use in its agricultural supply chains.

This includes mapping water use and integrating water and nature priorities into its regenerative agriculture programmes.

By sharing these practices with its suppliers and partners, Diageo is working on making its supply chain more resilient while supporting vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Ewan says: “At Diageo, water is the most important ingredient in all our products, our most strategic climate risk and for these reasons, a critical pillar in our Spirit of Progress goals.

“We view water stewardship not as a sideline – but as a business imperative and a shared responsibility that is key to our climate adaptation.

“But businesses can’t do it alone. The water systems we so heavily rely upon are shared assets. They require shared solutions and scale.

“Governments, businesses and communities can and need to work together to manage the world’s most precious shared resource.”