"Studies allow us to gain better insight into
biodiversity and also to prioritise our waste
water management."
Water management
Our strategy
We have a common core programme which runs
throughout our Supply Chain 'Aware of Water':
The programme focuses on all aspects of water
consumption, management and treatment and
requires all breweries and production units to set
local targets for water consumption as part of their
Operational Plan. These targets must reflect their
efforts in the gradual reduction of specific water
consumption. In this context we set measurable
targets with a three-year horizon.
Reduction of water consumption losses is also
a key part of our business-wide Total Productive
Management (TPM) Programme. In addition,
throughout the Supply Chain, Heineken has in
place a dedicated knowledge management system
which facilitates the exchange of best practices.
Each brewery or production facility is required
to input relevant, effective solutions to common
problems and challenges on a continuous basis.
It is our ambition to have all waste-water coming
from our breweries cleaned, either by municipal
facilities or by our own facilities. In pursuit
of this, we have adopted a programme for the
construction of 16 waste-water treatment plants
at breweries in Africa where no municipal facilities
for cleaning waste water exist. Our original target
of 20 installations has been amended following the
divestment of four breweries in the region.
Activities in 2007
In Irkutsk (Russia), specific water consumption
decreased due to the technical improvement of
the cooling plant. In Sterlitamak (Russia), better
utilisation of our production lines led to improved
efficiency in the consumption of water and in
St. Petersburg (Russia) more rigorous and effective
cleaning procedures were implemented and the
Pjotr van Oeveren
Safety Environment Manager
Heineken International,
the Netherlands
Specific water consumption: breweries and soft drink plants
hectolitres water beer and soft drink
Target
Actual
Heineken N.V. Sustainability Report 2007
Mapping the biodiversity impacts of our operations around
the world
As a business that takes its environmental responsibilities seriously,
Heineken benchmarks its environmental performance by using the
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. In 2006, we took action to
bring our reporting processes into line with two key GRI performance
indicators concerning biodiversity. These required us to report the
number and scale of Heineken operating sites situated inside or
adjacent to protected areas and unprotected areas of high diversity
value - and to define our most significant biodiversity impacts.
In 2007, we commissioned a study at Leiden University - focusing
on our own production sites and selecting water management as
a key parameter. Using a range of analytical tools, including the
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), the study established
the precise locations of our 154 production sites and matched
them to protected areas listed by WDPA.
Advanced software was used to combine these two pieces of
information, producing a definitive map of our sites relative to
WDPA areas. Because water management is Heineken's primary
biodiversity impact, the map was refined to plot all sites inside
or up to 50km from a recognised Ramsar wetland area.
This exercise produced a definitive list of 108 sites located in
or near WDPA areas. Of these, 14 did not have a waste-water
treatment plant. The study has allowed us to match both GRI
indicators concerning biodiversity and also to prioritise our waste
water management programme. We are now conducting detailed
feasibility studies into the construction of water treatment plants
at all 14 highlighted production sites.
