Heineken's sustainability report is out

In April 2010, Heineken proudly unveiled Brewing a Better Future, their comprehensive and integrated sustainability strategy for the next decade. It increases the scope and scale of our work on sustainability and gives substance to our long-term ambition to be the world’s greenest brewer. It also allows the company to balance their need for financial sustainability with the role we play in society.

Brewing a Better Future is an exciting journey that has only just begun. To realise our vision of a more sustainable world, we will make positive and long-term investments in the environment, communities, people and partnerships. To make sure we reach our destination, we have focused our actions and energy around three strategic imperatives:

* Continuously Improve the environmental impact of our brands and business
* Empower our people and the communities in which we operate
* Positively Impact the role of beer in society.

From these, we have grouped 23 programmes of work into six inter-related initiatives that will enable us to realise our Brewing a Better Future goals.
Governance structure

Brewing a Better Future is governed by a Steering Committee that meets each quarter. The committee comprises:

* Chief Corporate Relations Officer (chair)
* Regional President Africa and Middle East
* Chief Supply Chain Officer
* Chief Commercial Officer
* Chief Human Resources Officer.

On a day-to-day basis, Brewing a Better Future is governed by a team of representatives from the Supply Chain, Commerce, HR, Control & Accounting and Corporate Relations functions. The team is chaired by the Manager Global Sustainable Development. Each individual programme is led by a workstream leader from one of our global functions.

Progress and issues in relation to Brewing a Better Future are regularly on the Executive Committee agenda, and the subject is on the agenda of every Management Team in our operating businesses.

We realise that in order to be successful, we need to embed our Brewing a Better Future approach into our business processes. In other words: it needs to become part of our DNA. That is why as a first step in 2010 we established a sustainability committee in each market. Each market has developed its own three-year plan for achieving Brewing a Better Future goals, which will be rolled out in 2011.