ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAI NABI LITY
TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
3.1 Reporting basis
This chapter presents the 2003 environmental data
for 83 breweries, 11 maltings and 17 soft-drink plants.
The data relate to the production of 85.6 million
hectolitres of beer, 516,000 tonnes of malt and 6.7
million hectolitres of soft drinks. In contrast to the
financial information provided in the previous chap
ter, our environmental reporting does not cover
licensing partners and recent acquisitions, among
them Brau Union, and the volume-related data refer
to the volume produced by the 83 breweries, where
as the financial information is based on beer sales
volume. A full list of the companies which supplied
data for this chapter can be found in Annex 6.
Policy is developed by the multi-disciplinary Safety,
Health and Environmental Affairs Steering Group, in
which the production, technical, legal and medical
departments are represented and which generally
meets four times a year. The chairman of the Steering
Group reports to the Executive Board, providing a
summary of policy developments and results.
An international meeting of local safety and envi
ronmental coordinators is held each year, attended by
a representative from each of the European operating
companies and regional representatives from Asia,
Africa and Central and South America, to brief them
on new policy and define new procedures so that they
can facilitate implementation at local level.
Targets
3.2 Environmental policy and governance
Policy statement
The safety, health and environmental policy state
ment adopted by Heineken's Executive Board in 2001
affirms that these three policy areas are central to
our operations. In addition to this policy statement,
Heineken has also adopted water and energy policy
statements and has some 60 procedures in place to
support the systematic and measurable improvement
of our performance in the areas of safety, health and
the environment. The policy statements and proce
dures can be consulted via Heineken's electronic
knowledge system, to which all employees involved in
safety, health and the environment have access. The
standards are identical for all production units all
over the world.
Organisation
Our policy is subject to continuous refinement, in
accordance with the annual President's letter, which
is translated into policy instructions, procedures and
programmes that can be implemented in practice.
Targets for such parameters as water saving, waste
water treatment, reduction in C02 emissions and raw
material consumption are set annually in consultation
with the production units and incorporated into a
rolling three-year plan which sets out the actions need
ed to achieve them. Once the plan has been approved,
the proposed actions are implemented. Because
Heineken's group targets are arrived at by aggregating
the individual targets which are specific to each
production unit, they may vary from year to year,
for example as production units are bought and sold.
Monitoring
Heineken started keeping records of environmental
performance in 1997, initially for the production units
in Europe. The coverage of the data collection system
was extended in 1999 to include all partially and fully
financially consolidated production units all over the
world.
The operating companies enter their data in the
Brewery Comparison System, which ensures consis
tent monitoring and reporting and enables reliable
comparison of a brewery's performance with that of
other Heineken breweries. The data entered by the
HEINEKEN N.V. SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2002-2003
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