About this report
Heineken published its first Sustainability Report
in 2000 with the intention of making the report
a bi-annual publication. In 2006, we committed to
producing an annual sustainability report in order to
more effectively and transparently track our progress.
This is our second annual Sustainability Report.
In last year's report we explained our decision
to focus our sustainability activities on seven
areas:
Energy: consumption and C02 emission
Water: our consumption and waste-water
discharge
Safety: of our employees and our installations
Agriculture: the quality and availability
of raw materials
Supply chain responsibility
Responsible beer consumption
Impact on developing markets
This report, as with last year's report is structured
around these areas.
It is our intention to maintain these focus areas
for the years to come, but we have also committed
to keeping them under review and discussion
with our stakeholders. In addition, we have also
indicated that our Sustainability Report would
contain our targets, strategy, and activities in
the reporting year and the performance that was
achieved by these actions. More static information
such as the content of policies or the description
of management systems is provided on our company
website (www.heinekeninternational.com).
Information on performance relating to aspects
outside the seven focus areas is given in our
Sustainability Data Sheet that is downloadable from
the same website. This data sheet also serves as a
GRI table to this report and our Annual Report 2007.
The 2007 Sustainability Report has been
compiled using information sourced through our
environmental and social data systems. The scope
of the information presented and any relevant
remarks about the reliability of data is included
in the introduction to every chapter.
Dialogue
During 2007, we actively sought feedback from
a number of our stakeholders (more specifically
employees, people from the investment
community and some NGOs) on our previous
report. In general, the report and the way
in which we have defined our agenda were viewed
positively. Some points of potential improvement
were raised by stakeholders to which we have
tried to respond in this report. These changes in
approach and information are set out below.
a. Compared with last year, we have opted for
a uniform approach to all chapters: This layout
consists of:
A short introduction
A re-statement of our objectives for that
particular focus area
The overall strategy we pursue to reach
these objectives
The activities we have undertaken in the
reporting year to reach our objectives
Our performance in the year against objectives
What we will do in 2008 to further build on
our performance
To help bring the subject 'to life' we have also
included one or more short case studies for
each focus area.
b. We have re-introduced commentary on
our Code of Business Conduct and whistle
blowing procedure in the chapter 'Impact
on developing markets'.
c. Some stakeholders noted that, especially in the
area of energy, we sometimes indicated in the
past that we did not meet our targets due to the
effect of new acquisitions. These stakeholders
wondered if we could quantify this aspect. To
Heineken N.V. Sustainability Report 2007
