2 Basis of reporting
ANNEX
Heineken has operating companies throughout most parts of the world. The reporting systems used by the
European operating companies are suitable for reporting the achieved environmental results. Operating
companies located outside Europe will be obliged to report environment-related policy decisions and
results. Heineken expects to be able to report these results in its next environmental report in two years
time. Several important parameters of the operational process, such as the consumption of water, electricity
and thermal energy, are recorded by our Heineken Brewery Comparison System (BCS) and Heineken Malting
Comparison System (MCS). In 2000, the BCS will be modified to make it suitable for the environment-related
results specified in Annex 5.
This report covers the environment-related results achieved by the European production units in
1997,1998 and 1999. The production units are comprised of breweries, maltings and soft drinks plants. The
reporting method complies with our standard guidelines for environmental reports. Our smaller breweries
with a capacity 750,000 hi may report their results using the abridged version of these guidelines. The
companies and their production units are specified in annex 5 of this report. These are the same companies
that are specified under 'Europe' in the Financial Report 1999. However there is one difference: the number
of hectolitres sold in Europe (45.4 million) that are specified in the financial report is less than the number of
hectolitres produced (49.8 million) that are specified in this report. Some beer was produced in Europe, but
was exported outside of Europe. The amount brewed under licence (Whitbread) is also not specified in this
report. The production of the entire Company in 1999 was 67.7 million hi, of which Europe was responsible for
73.6%. This does not mean that the specified environmental burden corresponds precisely with 73.6% of the
entire environment effect, but we expect that the actual values for energy and water will not differ signifi
cantly from this.
The results of the various groups for comparable activities, that is for brewing, malting and bottling
soft drinks are documented separately, namely for the consumption of water, thermal energy and electricity.
These are specified per emission of environmentally critical substances and are taken together for all the
activities. This applies to the quality and quantity of the wastewater, the emissions into the air, the amount of
solid waste and the nuisance. In a few cases the activities are combined at a single location, such as malting
with brewing or brewing with bottling soft drinks. Only the data from the production units are included in the
report. This therefore means that environmental burden of the head offices and the storage sites are not
included.
Production units that are acquired are immediately modified to the existing environmental repor
ting system, to enable the collection of data related to the environmental burden to begin as early as possi
ble. This ensures that reporting can be initiated at the start of the following year. The first year of reporting
for the newly acquired companies is specified per production unit in annex 5 of this report.
The reporting is based on the uniform definitions and report guidelines produced by Production Policy and
Control. In a number of cases, the operating companies have not succeeded in doing this, in which case an
estimate is given based on historical data or the data of comparable production units.