Earlier this month, I was invited to the 2024 Delphi Economic Forum to discuss about the role of power of partnership approaches in the quest to promote a culture of responsible drinking and moderation. Delphi is a magical and mythical place that breathes the cultural beauty and wisdom of the ancient world like few others. The high value that classical Greek philosophy attributes to moderation is best evident from the famous inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi that read: “Medèn ágan”, “nothing in excess”.
Fast forward to the complex, fast-moving consumer world of today, how can messages of moderation be advanced in meaningful and impactful ways when it comes to the responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages? Given the importance yet also inherent difficulty of the task, it is unlikely that a single actor, however well-intended or resourced, will succeed on their own. In other words, everybody needs to play their part(s), given that different actors are best at different things. Dialogue is therefore essential to define roles and responsibilities and explore the room for common actions and approaches.
Spirits-making requires a long-term mindset, with some aged spirits taking up to 60 or even 100 years from the start of production to product bottling. As such, our sector has a successful history of entering into long-standing partnership and cooperation agreements with different actors in the value chain to achieve high levels of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. In our sector, it has always been clear that commercial success and social responsibility are closely intertwined and need to develop hand in hand.
In line with this, our sector is firmly committed to taking action at local, European and international level in close cooperation with public and private stakeholders along the value chain. This includes long-standing efforts and initiatives across Europe to work with a variety of partners to promote responsible drinking and a culture of moderation and help and support efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm further. As founding signatories of the European Union’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices, spiritsEUROPE has committed to supporting and running Responsible Drinking Initiatives (RDIs) in every EU Member State within their respective national and cultural contexts, and you can find examples and regular updates of our work on our dedicated website www.drinksinitiatives.eu
In Greece, the spirits sector has voluntarily committed to advertise and promote its products responsibly, effectively implementing a series of responsible marketing principles since 2005 that were further revised and refined in 2012 and 2024. In addition, in recent years, the sector and producing companies have been working with a number of partners on three dedicated road safety training projects in order to prevent alcohol-related accidents. In addition, six different education programmes have been successfully implemented including dedicated training programmes with bartenders with a focus on how to serve responsibly and manage safety in the bar to protect the underage.
To understand what we are doing in other countries, please take a look at the article below summarizing one of our current long-standing RDIs in Germany. And, as every year, we will publish our Annual Impact Report in June to provide you with a concise overview of all our partnership projects across Europe – so watch this space for further news!
Ulrich Adam, Director General*
*In his capacity as permanent representative of SPRL ADLOR Consulting
