About Lion
LION is a leading beverages company with powerhouse brands headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and founded in New Zealand. From iconic classic and craft beers to innovative ready-to-drink offerings, exceptional spirits, remarkable wines and more – LION’s brands have been shaping culture for more than 180 years. Proudly part of global company KIRIN, LION is focused on becoming an unrivalled Force for Growth and Force for Good. Our diverse portfolio of iconic brands includes Hahn, Steinlager, Stone & Wood, Speight’s, XXXX, Tooheys, KIRIN Ichiban, KIRIN Hyoketsu, Mac’s, Panhead, Emerson’s, James Squire and Little Creatures. LION also has an enviable portfolio of New Zealand wine brands; a craft spirits distribution arm in Australia in Vanguard Luxury Brands and Yarra Valley-based Four Pillars Gin. We employ more than 2500 people across our network of iconic breweries and other operations in Australia and New Zealand. www.lionco.com
The Challenge
LION saw B Corp certification as an opportunity to demonstrate its whole-of-business commitment to sustainability and independently validate the positive impact already being delivered by the organisation. The challenge was achieving certification with proof that its practices are credible, embedded and at scale across the organisation. The process required capturing and evidencing the good business that LION was already doing to be certified.
The Solution
Becoming a B Corp was closely aligned with LION’s Force for Good ambition, providing an independent, globally recognised framework to validate impact performance and strengthen accountability. With strong foundations already in place, the challenge for LION was to use the certification framework to assess the maturity and strength of its practices and identify areas for improvement, as part of its commitment to drive progress and continuous improvement in its ESG practices and principles.
The Approach
We supported LION through the B Corp Business Impact Assessment (BIA) to optimise their points by mapping requirements translated into practical, business-ready actions aligned with LION’s purpose, and by implementing and embedding their mature ESG practices into robust evidence ready for B Corp submission.
A core element of the project was highlighting the organisation’s commitment to implementing measurable, verifiable practices at scale. This included strong governance principles, strategies, and systems for managing its environmental and social impacts.
The project also leveraged compelling examples of impact-driven innovation within the portfolio, including Stone & Wood’s systems-based approach to sustainability, which features regenerative agriculture partnerships and practices that demonstrate how certified-sustainable sourcing can reduce footprint and create additional value for communities and ecosystems.
The Deliverables
We worked alongside LION to confirm strengths, create evidence for impact practices and identify where existing initiatives could be better defined and measured when seen through a B Corp lens. The deliverables included:
- Baseline Score established with actions required to achieve certification
- Target Score identified with detailed underlying action plan delivered for achieving the score
- ESG Leadership Strengths identified, through the Impact Business Model identification process
- Comprehensive Action List delivered, enabling LION team to move seamlessly into the implementation phase
- High Level Implementation Roadmap delivered through co-design for the LION team to have a clear view into the timeline for the submission milestone
- Internal and External Expertise identified, for any key implementation actions that require specialised or technical skills
- Stakeholder Engagement Opportunities identified, with broader strategic goals and included engaging teams across the business who have become leaders in continuing improvement plans
- Support in identifying and completing action items for submission
- Evidence checking to B Lab requirements and standards
- LION’s major ESG pillars identified for ESG storytelling
- Support through the verification process to defend points
The Results
LION achieved certification demonstrating strong performance across the assessment and reinforcing its whole-of-business sustainability commitment through an independent, globally recognised standard. Achieving certification at this level is particularly significant for a large and complex organisation, where meeting B Lab’s rigorous standards requires consistent policies, controls and evidence across multiple business units, sites and functions. LION’s highest scoring impact areas were Workers, Environment and Community, reflecting mature systems and policies, strong people and community outcomes, and a clear commitment to making a measurable impact at scale.
While the certification is fresh, interest and engagement is high, and LION has begun preparing for recertification under the new standards. Starting early is delivering clear benefits, including:
- Using the momentum of recent certification to drive continuous improvement rather than losing pace after the milestone.
- Allowing time to identify and sequence changes in a way that can be embedded through controlled planning for costs and resources, and aligned with other strategic initiatives.
- Leveraging the Year 0, Year 3 and Year 5 improvement deliverables to drive, shape and influence LION’s broader ESG strategic roadmap.
- By treating B Corp as an ongoing framework, LION is positioning certification not only as a mark of credibility, but as a structured pathway for sustained impact improvement at scale.
Client Testimonial
“The Growth Activists have been a trusted partner in our certification journey. LION initially partnered with The Growth Activists to help us navigate the Standard and its requirements and establish a clear action plan that made certification under Standard v1.6 possible. Post certification, we have continued our partnership with The Growth Activists to understand the Requirements of the new Standard 2.1 and the program of continuous improvement required to re-certify in 2028.”
Rebecca Loch, LION Sustainability Leader
