18. Chapter 1: The company (continued) will help to form the basis for our CSR agenda during the period 2007 to 2010. At a local level, 63 per cent of our operating companies report that they have contacts with NGOs and 43 per cent indicate that they participate in joint projects. To facilitate the process of stakeholder dialogue, some - including our businesses in the Netherlands, Nigeria, and our Central and Eastern European Region - have produced their own local or regional social or sustainability reports. The roll-out of the Stakeholder Assessment and Management Tool we announced in our previous Sustainability Report has been postponed as we want to put in a broader perspective at a later stage. During 2006 we will assess how our operating companies can best use this tool in the context of their own CSR programmes. We believe the tool's effectiveness will be enhanced if it receives greater support from local CSR management. Integrity We consider integrity an essential prerequisite to any business transaction we undertake. To safeguard the integrity of business decisions taken at any level of our international operations, we have developed the Heineken Code of Business Conduct, first adopted in December 2004, and the Heineken Code of Whistle Blowing. Both codes are published in full on our corporate website. The Code of Business Conduct sets out company rules on compliance with local laws and regulations, fraud prevention, dealing with business gifts, corruption, conflicts of interest and supply- chain responsibility. Our approach to business conduct provides a general framework for behaviour, which should be adapted to meet local business conditions and cultures. This allows operating companies to develop codes and methodologies that meet local requirements and match their own style, format and language. These local variations are checked for consistency with the framework code by our Business Conduct Review Committee. This Committee consists of representatives from Group Control Accounting, Group Corporate Relations, Group Internal Audit and Group Legal Affairs. Only approval from this Committee assures that an operating company is in compliance with our central code. Over the past few years, we have run a number of pilot projects to refine our implementation methodology. The current system is based on a successful test at the Surinaamse Brouwerij (Surinam) in July 2004. Heineken N.V. - 2004/2005 Sustainability Report

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Heineken - Milieuverslag | 2004 | | pagina 20