BIER Member Spotlight: Meet Kim Marotta
Meet Kim Marotta
Name: Kim Marotta, Global Vice President – Environmental Sustainability
Company: Beam Suntory
Connect with Kim on LinkedIn and Twitter
Welcome to our series aimed at spotlighting the individual leaders within BIER member companies and stakeholder organizations. Learn how these practitioners and their companies are addressing pressing challenges around water, energy, agriculture, climate change, and what inspires each of them to advance environmental sustainability in the beverage sector and collectively, overall.
Briefly describe your role and responsibilities and how long you have worked with your company.
I oversee Beam Suntory’s environmental sustainability strategy. I joined the company in June 2021, as their first Global Vice President of Environmental Sustainability. While I’m relatively new here, I’ve worked in the alcohol industry for more than 17 years, previously working for Molson Coors Beverage Company.
In my role, I partner across the business to drive progress against our environmental sustainability goals, and with other senior leaders who lead our consumer sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agendas.
We are building a center of excellence aligned with our ambitious goals across water, climate, packaging, and farm and field. We have wholly-owned manufacturing facilities across the globe that are driving best practices in partnership with our procurement and packaging teams. It’s incredibly energizing!
How has the company's sustainability program evolved over the years, and what are your specific priorities for 2021?
Our Proof Positive sustainability strategy, representing investments of more than $1 billion, launched earlier this year, inspired by the leadership of our parent company, Suntory Holdings, and with ambitious goals for 2030 across nature, consumers, and communities.
Within the nature pillar, which I lead, we’re focusing our efforts in a few impactful areas. This includes renewables, where we aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
We’re building strategic projects aligned with our growth projections and incorporating new technology and solutions that will ultimately help us build the distillery of the future.
We’re also building regenerative farming practices with our growers through pilot projects, such as with our corn growers in Kentucky, and aiming to expand those across our agricultural supply chain.
In packaging, we’re working closely with our brand houses to make our packaging more sustainable, and in water, we’re focused not only on reducing the water we use to make our products, but also replenishing the watersheds where our distilleries are located.
And that’s just a sample, as we have initiatives in place for white oak preservation, sustainable transport systems, and more.
