Inside Molson Beer’s corporate social responsibility program

How Molson Canadian excels at social responsibility without a stand-alone CSR department

Scott Ewert is the chief of legal and public affairs at Molson Canadian. But don’t let that title fool you. He also heads the corporate social responsibility (CSR) program.

“What I end up doing is setting the strategic direction for the communicators,” Ewert explained. “The legal people, through the general counsel, are making sure we’re fully compliant with legal requirements.

Molson doesn’t have a corporate social responsibility department, but it does have a thriving and robust CSR program. That programs falls within the company’s legal and public affairs department, which makes Ewert Molson’s unofficial corporate responsibility officer.

“When I got involved I was interested in reinvigorating [CSR], making it more relevant and making it a more vibrant program—which we’ve done,” he said. His efforts apply only to Molson Canadian, not the entire Molson Coors corporation.

Ewert has steered Molson from what he called one-dimensional CSR, writing checks to philanthropic groups, to three-dimensional giving that involves not only monetary investment, but also outreach in the community.