Heineken Cares
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"As an integral part of the
community, we care for
our employees and their
families and we empower
local stakeholders
who often depend on
our presence for their
livelihood."
3i
Brewing a Better Future
Regional President
Nothing exemplifies this better than our agriculture
programmes. We have been involved with
sustainable agriculture for more than a decade.
Our aim is to put in place the conditions that will
allow us to secure a steady supply of barley, hops
and apples from sustainable sources. This way,
we can continue to make quality products from
natural ingredients without depleting the soil on
which they are grown and in doing so, empower
the local farmers that grow the crops. We are
working together with our agricultural partners
to develop a tool that allows us to better monitor
the sustainable performance of our suppliers
and ourselves.
Caring also means local sourcing of raw materials
when ecologically and economically feasible. This
not only financially empowers the communities in
which we operate, but also reduces our transport
costs and carbon footprint. In 2010 we estimated
that we supported ten thousands of farmers and
their families. In Africa, our aim is to source an
average of 60 per cent of our raw materials locally.
The health of our employees is also of great
importance. Traditionally, our breweries in African
and other markets where governments do not
provide sufficient healthcare have had their own
clinics to bridge the gap. Our aim is that by 2020,
100 per cent of our employees, no matter where
they work, have access to basic pre-defined levels
of healthcare.
To better track the impact that our operations
have in a market, we conduct Economic Impact
Assessments, which allow us to measure our
contribution to developing countries and pinpoint
ways to increase it.
