Dietmar Roher
Brau Union Austria is one of the few large companies in Austria and
the country's only brewer with a thorough environmental reporting
system. The company does far more than required by law, partly to
show the outside world that it cares about the environment and is
taking action to preserve it.
BRAU UNION AUSTRIA'S TRANSPARENCY EARNS RESPECT INSIDE AND OUTS IDE THE COM PA NY
'Everybody knows that breweries need a lot
of water, electricity and fossil fuels to make
beer,' says Dietmar Roher, who is responsible
for Brau Union's environmental reporting and
helps coordinate environmental projects.
'We want people to know that we're working
to reduce our consumption.'
The statutory environmental reporting
requirements are limited to local waste
management reports, which each brewery
has to publish yearly. Brau Union Austria
goes further and publishes an annual exter
nal report, accessible through the internet,
which reviews the company's environmental
achievements and objectives.
To build the employee support which it
considers essential to improve the company's
environmental performance, Brau Union
Austria also publishes a report for internal
consumption. This 100-page document
presents the facts and figures and compares
the standards achieved by the different
breweries. It provides an insight into what's
happening elsewhere in the company and,
by highlighting the differences, encourages
employees to raise environmental perform
ance within their own breweries.
'The report serves as a benchmark, in the
sense that every brewery has to try to reach
the standard of the best', Dietmar Roher
explains. 'Employees can help to improve
performance if they know the facts.'
Their efforts are duly rewarded. The com
pany awards two 'Environmental Oscars'
each year, one to the brewery achieving the
most outstanding environmental perform
ance and one to the brewery making the
biggest improvement. A points system is used
to determine which is the winner, fostering
competition between the breweries.
'No local manager wants to be last on the list,'
says Dietmar Roher.
An award is also given in recognition of
individual efforts to improve the company's
performance. Last year, it went to the local
manager of the brewery in Schwechat for
setting up what Dietmar Roher calls a 'perfect
environmental organisation.'
'He gave the departments and the people
concerned the information they needed,
he held meetings and he's really good at
motivating employees to do things better,'
says Dietmar Roher.
Since Brau Union Austria introduced its
environmental reporting system in 1990, it
has had a lot of positive responses from both
individuals and organisations and the system
is often cited, in universities and elsewhere,
as a good example of transparency.
Performance of Heineken world-wide
36% of Heineken operating companies received a national
award for social, ethical or environmental performance.
