BIER Member Spotlight: Magaly Feliciano Lozada

Name: Magaly Feliciano Lozada, Global Sustainability Director

Company: Bacardi

Connect with Magaly on LinkedIn

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’m the Global Sustainability Director for Bacardi. I joined the Bacardi family 13 years ago. During my first years in Bacardi, my efforts were focused on driving environmental stewardship at the world’s largest rum distillery in Cataño, Puerto Rico. Apart from managing the environmental requirements for the distillery, one of the achievements that makes me proud was helping create a continuous improvement mentality in the sustainability area of this Great Place to Work.

Currently, as Global Sustainability Director, I am responsible for supporting all of our iconic brands with their sustainability initiatives, ensuring that at every step of the journey, from field to bottle to cocktail, the brands respect and care for the environment. To achieve this, I develop and ensure the implementation of sustainability strategies and programs across all Bacardi sites and with our business partners too.

Briefly, the scope of my responsibilities include:

• To build the sustainability understanding within the organization to determine the best approach linked to the key success factors for the company
• To improve performance by setting industry-leading sustainability standards and ensuring consistent application through the entire supply chain process
• To develop and own the capital expenditure plan according to the sustainability priorities
• To manage talent for expertise and leadership development in the environmental sustainability field

How has the company's sustainability program evolved over the years, and what are your specific priorities for 2022?

Sustainability has always been a priority for Bacardi. Back in 1862, our founder, Don Facundo Bacardí Massó, knew that healthy ecosystems mattered. Today, we are taking bold actions to reduce our impact on the planet – from our water consumption and energy use, to our waste and single-use plastics.

In 2018 we launched our ESG program called Good Spirited. The program has four pillars: Good Choices, Good Futures, Good Sources, and Good Footprint.

Our Good Spirited sustainability targets are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At Bacardi, our goals are:

• Cut greenhouse gases by 50% by 2025
• Cut water consumption by 25% by 2025
• 100% key ingredients & packaging certified sustainable by 2025
• 100% plastic free by 2030
• Zero plastic point of sale materials by 2023
• Zero plastic secondary packaging by 2023
• 100% packaging recyclable by 2025
• 40% recycled content by 2025
• Zero waste to landfill in all operations by 2022

The strategy has remained the same, yet the consciousness has evolved in a positive sense. The strategy has been deployed to all levels and functions within the organization. Sustainability is part of the criteria for our product development, materials purchasing, process and packaging design, transportation means even marketing. So, today I can proudly say that sustainability is embedded in the global, local, and individual agendas.

For 2022, we are continuing our focus on efforts to reduce water consumption in all our sites and implementing the actions established in our emissions reduction roadmap. Our top priorities are the installation of combined heat and power at our BACARDÍ rum distillery here in Puerto Rico and the energy recovery systems at our PATRÓN tequila distillery in Mexico,; making sustainable secondary packs by eliminating single-use plastic, and working on the development of the world’s first biodegradable spirits bottle.

Learn more about Magaly Feliciano Lozada in this BIER Member Spotlight.