Overview
The American Distilled Spirits Alliance (“ADSA”) is a leading distilled spirits trade organization comprised of companies with common interests in manufacturing, importing, and marketing of distilled spirits products in the United States. The members of ADSA are committed to doing business in a responsible manner and thus ADSA has developed this “Statement of Responsible Practices” as a non-binding guide of general principles for its members.
As a member-driven organization, ADSA has opportunities to develop and share best practices across the organization for the benefit of each respective member. As a result, each member has the ability to benefit from the collective knowledge of the organization. ADSA’s “Statement of Responsible Practices” is a broad-based set of best practices grounded in the core values of the organization and addresses a variety of industry-related topics.
Business Practices
We are committed to promoting and adopting ethical business practices, policies, and programs that protect and respect our employees and their diversity.
Responsible Consumption
We are committed to marketing our products in a manner consistent with safe and reasonable consumption.
Our advertising and marketing practices strive to achieve the following:
- Encourage safe and sensible approaches to consumption.
- Exclude or avoid representing activities that might lead to overconsumption or potentially harmful consequences.
- Make no claim of enhanced physical or intellectual ability or personal or social achievement.
- We are committed to eliminating underage consumption of beverage alcohol.
Our sales and marketing activities shall be directed at adults of legal purchase age. We encourage members to adopt sales and marketing practices that follow these principles:
- Only advertise and market our products in outlets that meet a minimum audience of 71.6% adults of legal purchase age.
- Not employ characters or activities that primarily appeal to non-legal drinking age consumers.
- Not present legal alcohol consumption as a “rite of passage.”
- Utilize models and talent in advertising and marketing materials that appear to be of legal drinking age or older.
Ethics
We conduct our businesses in a responsible and ethical manner.
We strive to conduct our business activities following these general principles:
- Honesty.
- Fairness.
- Respect for customers, vendors, employees, and competitors.
Safety
We take workplace safety seriously and strive to provide a safe and responsible work environment.
We seek to integrate sound safety practices into every aspect of our business, supporting the well-being of our employees. We are committed to facilitating a safe work environment for our employees, contractors, and all who visit our workplaces.
Our health and safety programs follow these general principles:
- Making health and safety the responsibility of every employee at all levels.
- Provide resources for our employees on good safety and health practices.
- Provide resources that seek to reduce and prevent occupationally induced injuries and illnesses.
- Emphasizing employee responsibility for compliance with safety rules and for continuously practicing safety while performing their duties.
Employees
We value our employees, recognizing their essential role in the success of our business, and strive to provide them a rewarding work environment.
We respect the dignity of our workers in the workplace and through our programs we work to provide for our employees the following:
- A safe and clean workplace environment.
- Policies that prohibit harassment or discrimination.
- Opportunities to meet the needs of our employees and help them continue to learn and have the opportunities to advance their careers.
Diversity
We believe that diversity enriches our performance and our products and we strive to engage a workforce that reflects the growing diversity of our communities and the marketplace.
We reject all forms of illegal discrimination, including discrimination by race, gender, age, language, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. We are committed to ensuring equal opportunities in the workplace.
Procurement/Sourcing – We encourage our partners, suppliers, contractors, and vendors to support our practice of valuing legal and ethical business and employment practices.
Environmental
We are committed to incorporating environmental friendliness into our businesses by operating under basic principles of environmental protection, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
Environmental Protection
We are committed to increasing our environmental consciousness and reducing the environmental impact of our activities.
Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
We are committed to managing finite resources in a responsible manner.
We believe that by better conserving energy and promoting the use of sustainable materials we can minimize the
environmental impact of our operations.
Corporate Citizenry
We are committed to being responsible members of the industry and our local communities.
We recognize the positive impact the role corporate citizenship can have in the betterment of our communities, including widespread results that not only benefit the greater good but also unite the workforce. We encourage members to incorporate corporate citizenry programs into their overall mission statements and adopt practices
that may include the following:
- Promoting investment of time and care in local communities to understand the needs of the community and to garner new ideas for innovative corporate policies.
- Reinvestment in the community by sourcing from local businesses when feasible.
Encouraging working in a collaborative manner with other industry members to develop best practices as agents of change. - Addressing local concerns through community outreach and investment programs.
Responsible Content
We are committed to depicting advertising and marketing in a responsible manner.
We are committed that our advertising and marketing should utilize content that:
- Does not depict or suggest violence, abuse, illegal activities, or dangerous behavior.
- Does not employ themes or symbols that may offend religious, ethnic, or other organizations of social identity.
Advertising Good Taste
We are committed to promoting our products in a socially acceptable manner.
We encourage members to adopt advertising and marketing guidelines that embrace these principles:
- Reflect generally accepted standards of decency.
- Reflect the positive contributions our products make to memorable experiences and social activities when consumed responsibly.
- Contain messages that are sensitive to generally accepted standards of good taste.
Product Development
We are committed to developing and selling products consistent with the values of social responsibility.
Our members agree that we will:
Not develop products that primarily appeal to non-legal drinking age consumers.