Molson Coors Beverage Co – Lobbying Governance & Transparency

Sign up to access all our data and the evidence and analysis underlying our overall scores. Once you've created an account, we'll get in touch with further details:

Lobbying Governance

Overall Assessment	Analysis	Score
Strong	Molson Coors discloses a clear internal structure for overseeing lobbying and climate-related advocacy, indicating moderate governance. The company states that "the Governance Committee of our Board of Directors oversees corporate and political action and receives annual reports on political giving," while "our Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer and Vice President - Government Affairs, in consultation with outside counsel, oversee all political activity." This named executive oversight is reinforced by the statement that "Molson Coors Leadership Team and Board regularly receive updates on advocacy activity and priorities" and that the Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer "is a member of the ESG Leadership Steering Committee," suggesting a channel through which climate strategy and lobbying are connected. The updated 2021 Political Contribution Policy "outlines Molson Coors policies, procedures and philosophy regarding lobbying and advocacy efforts" and affirms that such engagement "will not be influenced by the political preferences of any individual director, officer or employee," demonstrating the existence of formal rules and a review requirement for contributions. Climate-specific alignment is addressed at a high level: the company actively seeks to engage policy makers in the area of both mitigation and adaptation and claims that the described oversight "guarantees the Companys engagement activities are consistent with our overall climate change strategy." However, the disclosures do not describe a detailed monitoring methodology, metrics, or periodic audit to test climate-lobbying alignment. We also found no evidence of a public climate-lobbying alignment report, third-party review, or examples of the company challenging or exiting associations whose stances conflict with Paris-aligned goals. Beyond disclosing its climate alignment with two trade associations (Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) and American Malting Barley Association (AMBA)) and noting that "trade association membership is subject to senior management approval and oversight", they do not demonstarte a process for monitoring or correcting trade association misalignments. Accordingly, while Molson Coors names responsible parties and references processes linking lobbying to climate strategy, the limited detail on monitoring mechanisms and indirect lobbying alignment indicates moderate rather than strong governance. View Sources	B

Overall Assessment

Analysis

Score

Strong

Molson Coors discloses a clear internal structure for overseeing lobbying and climate-related advocacy, indicating moderate governance. The company states that "the Governance Committee of our Board of Directors oversees corporate and political action and receives annual reports on political giving," while "our Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer and Vice President - Government Affairs, in consultation with outside counsel, oversee all political activity." This named executive oversight is reinforced by the statement that "Molson Coors Leadership Team and Board regularly receive updates on advocacy activity and priorities" and that the Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer "is a member of the ESG Leadership Steering Committee," suggesting a channel through which climate strategy and lobbying are connected. The updated 2021 Political Contribution Policy "outlines Molson Coors policies, procedures and philosophy regarding lobbying and advocacy efforts" and affirms that such engagement "will not be influenced by the political preferences of any individual director, officer or employee," demonstrating the existence of formal rules and a review requirement for contributions. Climate-specific alignment is addressed at a high level: the company actively seeks to engage policy makers in the area of both mitigation and adaptation and claims that the described oversight "guarantees the Companys engagement activities are consistent with our overall climate change strategy." However, the disclosures do not describe a detailed monitoring methodology, metrics, or periodic audit to test climate-lobbying alignment. We also found no evidence of a public climate-lobbying alignment report, third-party review, or examples of the company challenging or exiting associations whose stances conflict with Paris-aligned goals. Beyond disclosing its climate alignment with two trade associations (Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) and American Malting Barley Association (AMBA)) and noting that "trade association membership is subject to senior management approval and oversight", they do not demonstarte a process for monitoring or correcting trade association misalignments. Accordingly, while Molson Coors names responsible parties and references processes linking lobbying to climate strategy, the limited detail on monitoring mechanisms and indirect lobbying alignment indicates moderate rather than strong governance.

View Sources

Lobbying Transparency

Overall Assessment	Analysis	Score
Comprehensive	Molson Coors provides a very detailed picture of its climate-related public-policy engagement. It names a wide range of specific measures it has worked on, including the UK Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regime, the Deposit Return Scheme across the UK and Ireland, the “Safe and Efficient Transportation Act” (HR 612), the design of Ontario’s industrial carbon trading system, implementation of Article 8 of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive, Extended Producer Responsibility proposals and the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. For each of these it also explains how it engages: the company describes “direct interface with Congress and the current Administration,” direct meetings with the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, ongoing dialogue with the UK ESOS administrators, and indirect work through trade associations such as the British Beer & Pub Association, Scottish Beer & Pub Association, Drinks Ireland/IBEC, Brewers of Europe and the Coalition for Transportation Productivity. It identifies the targets of those efforts—e.g., U.S. federal legislators, UK and EU regulators, and specific provincial ministries—showing the channels it uses and whom it seeks to influence. The company is similarly explicit about the outcomes it pursues. It wants the Deposit Return Scheme to be “effective, economically sustainable, doesn’t create barriers to trade across UK nations, avoids unnecessary complexity and doesn’t have the unintended consequence of disadvantaging lower ABV or single container drinks.” In Ontario it proposed an “ability for installations over 10 ktCO2e to opt-in to the system,” “a product-based benchmark for gratis allocation,” and “incentives for waste-to-energy in the food & beverage sector.” It supports HR 612 so freight can move more goods on fewer trucks, claiming this would cut fuel use by 4.6 million gallons and CO2 by 9,373 tons, and it is working with sector peers on a roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions in UK brewing and pubs ahead of 2050. By clearly naming policies, disclosing the mechanisms and targets of its lobbying, and spelling out specific policy changes or performance goals it seeks, Molson Coors demonstrates a comprehensive level of transparency on its climate lobbying activities.	A