Market-based dialogue
What our stakeholders told us
4
Overview About this report
Investors
As always, we maintained close contact with
our investors via road show events, specific
presentations on sustainability, meetings
and financial market conferences.
Shareholders associations
As a listed company, we have regular dialogue
with shareholder groups and regulators. This
year, at a central level, we had dialogue with
the Vereniging van Beleggers voor Duurzame
Ontwikkeling (VBDO) and IMSA through a
combination of meetings, correspondence,
Annual General Meeting (AGM) and discussions.
NGOs
We maintained contact with NGOs although
not as many as in 2009 when we had
an extensive consultation in order to build
our Brewing a Better Future initiative. This year,
at a corporate level, we met, corresponded
or consulted with, among others, the World
Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Oxfam Novib,
the International Labour organization (ILO),
Amnesty International and Stichting Onderzoek
Multinationale Ondernemingen (SOMO).
Other stakeholders
In order to have objective views on our
approach and performance, external parties
are regularly consulted. This takes place
via input into or consultation on Heineken's
sustainability approach. Besides Jean-Frangois
van Boxmeer, the following speakers took part
in the symposium on sustainable development
organised by Fleineken (in alphabetical order):
Jacqueline Cramer, former Dutch Minister
of Environment and Spatial Planning
Wouter van Dieren, Managing Director, IMSA
Paul Flohnen, Sustainability Strategies
Peter Lacy, Managing Director Sustainability
Services, Accenture
Tobias Webb, Managing Director,
Ethical Corporation.
See also:
http://www.heinekeninternational.
com/100413heineken_announces_10_year_
brewing_a_better.aspx
In addition, Baroness Jean Coussinsfrom the UK
acts as an advisor on corporate responsibility to
the Company. She is former Chief Executive of
the Portman Group and has served on the Better
Regulation Commission of the UK and the
Advertising Standards Authority and sits as
a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords.
In addition to the direct stakeholder dialogue as
described above, we have also been active in our
markets. Our local sustainability reports provide
us with a strong basis for discussions with local
stakeholders. As our sustainability agenda
expands, we are in the process of designing a
system that can fully capture our total stakeholder
dialogue at both a global and local level.
In 2010, we also delivered our commitment to
conduct a reputation survey among employees,
governmental and political stakeholders, media,
NGOs and trade associations in nine key markets.
One of the seven dimensions of our reputation
is 'responsibility and sustainability'. We will use
the outcome of the survey in our discussions with
stakeholders and the continuous review of our
Brewing a Better Future Approach. In 2010, we
achieved an overall reputation score of 4.06 out
of a possible 5 and a score of 3.84 in relation
to 'responsibility and sustainability'. This is a clear
indication that we need to improve both the
action and - in particular - the communication
that supports our work.
Though we used many different channels for our
dialogue, we clearly identified common themes
and requests. Here is what we heard and did
in response:
More communication on environmental
responsibility
- 21 markets published sustainability reports
- We made a further commitment that all
markets will do so by 2015
- Issued five Heineken N.V. corporate
announcements relating to
sustainability initiatives
- Held a public sustainability symposium
in Amsterdam
- Delivered nine senior executive
media interviews.
Harder targets and KPIs in all areas
- More specific targets and KPIs in areas
covered by Brewing a Better Future.
More and clearer local sourcing targets
- Commitment to move to 60 per cent local
sourcing in Africa by 2020
- Committed to review regional approach 2011
- Established a joint venture in Mexico to
locally source 50,000 tons of corn starch
previously imported
- Agreement in Ireland to locally source
100 per cent of barley in 2011
