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Sustainability: an established philosophy
for a new decade
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We have always believed that maintaining a long-term
perspective across all aspects of our Company is crucial for
success and we have tried to make that an integral part of
doing business.
To renew our commitment to this long-held philosophy,
in January 2009, our CSR Advisory Board considered and
approved a proposal to undertake a complete review of our
sustainability and responsibility agenda with the idea of
building a stronger, longer-term approach for the next
years. In addition to the implementation of our existing
sustainability programmes, much of 2009 was spent in
dialogue with stakeholders both internal and external on
this major undertaking. Six work streams and more than
200 people were involved. The targets and action plans
are contained in our 2009 Sustainability Report.
During 2009, we accelerated our support for and investment
in important global initiatives. In March, Jean-Frangois van
Boxmeer became a signatory to the UN CEO Water Mandate,
reconfirming water management as a core pillar in
Heineken's approach to sustainability. The CEO Water
Mandate provides us with an excellent platform to share
and learn best practice from others.
In September, Heineken, along with other key industry
players informed the World Health Organisation it would co-
fund a three-year international action programme to combat
drinking and driving, to establish effective self-regulation
and to research the impact of illicit, non-commercial alcohol
in developing markets in different regions. This major
commitment is being co-ordinated and run jointly by the
Global Alcohol Producers Group (GAPG) and the International
Centre for Alcohol Policy (ICAP).
The Heineken brand also continues to spearhead our actions
on responsible consumption. Our fully integrated 'Enjoy
Heineken Responsibly' platform is now in its fifth year.
We apply the same approach to continual investment and
improvement to this aspect of the brand as we do to every
other. We have maintained our levels of responsibility
messaging both on brand packaging and commercial
communication globally. At the end of the year we extended
and improved our Know the Signs campaign through the
introduction of situation and issues-based vignettes on
YouTube which make the message very 'real' for viewers.
We also added additional characters on the 'Know the Signs'
website and made interactivity easier for better and quicker
consumer understanding. We again dedicated the most
prominent 30 per cent of our pitch-side advertising at
all UEFA Champions League matches to responsibility
messaging. This is in addition to the responsibility broadcast
messaging and the hospitality branding around the venues.
KnowTheSigns
WHEN PEOPLE DRINK ONE TOO MANY,
THEY START SHOWING THE SIGNS OF
EMBARRASSING CHARACTERS.
CAN YOU SPOT THEM IN THIS BAR?
CLICK WHERE YOU SEE A SIGN.
-A.
Heineken' i
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For more information regarding our policies and objectives,
please see our 2009 Sustainability Report that will be
published in April 2010. This report will also be available
on our website heinekeninternational.com
It is the local actions and investments that also mark our
positive progress and 2009 saw a significant increase in
these. We now have 30 market partnerships relating to
responsible consumption, our Goss Brewery in Austria is
working towards C02 neutrality, our Greek and Russian
businesses undertook major initiatives to clean areas of
outstanding beauty, our French business introduced a major
new sustainability strategy. And in order to emphasise the
importance of local action and to show our commitment to
transparency, we will be asking our 20 leading markets to
publish their own Sustainability Reports for 2009.
Annual Report 2009 - Heineken N.V. 17