Heineken N. V: Sustainability Case Study

5. Case study sustainable development Heineken N.V.

On strategic level, Heineken states different business priorities, which are shown in Figure 8 (Heineken N.V., 2015) in Appendix H. One of these priorities is ‘Embed and integrate sustainability’, which is elaborated in yearly sustainability reports, different policies and case studies. In 2010 Heineken started a long term sustainability approach ‘Brewing a Better Future’ (adapted in 2015 to ‘Brewing a Better Future’). The focus in this approach is on four areas: protecting water resources, reducing CO2 emissions, sourcing sustainably and advocating responsible consumption (Heineken N.V.), this focus and the different values of Heineken towards sustainability are given in Figure 9: Sustainability

In which suppliers have to be responsible with human rights and the environment. However these aspects are not being described on an tangible way, but without any indicators which the supplier has to follow. The monitoring by Heineken is done by first doing a risk analysis in which high-risk suppliers are identified and assessed by a scoreboard. If this scoreboard is not fulfilling, there will be an audit on the site where after there will be a possible continuous improvement programme with the supplier. This approach leaves a lot of suppliers out of the picture and therefore the sustainable supply chain is not optimal

To move towards a strong instead of weak sustainable development in which the capacity of the environment is taken into account. First of all on strategic level the CSV concept should be fully implemented, so not only vertically but also horizontally over the organization, with a voice in the corporate affairs committee. This will help in valuing the company on economic, environmental and societal values of the company. Besides, it should exactly do what its strategy says: brewing to a ‘better future’, in which minimizing is not the objective, but eliminating. Of course this is a radical change which asks for a big investment and which is not immediately possible, but it can look for partnerships which it can create closed loop systems with so the environmental impact can be scratched. Another contribution to this is by implementing more cradle-to-cradle principles, in which waste is used again by ‘up-cycling’ or waste should be biodegradable in which the hazardous waste will be strongly reduced. Thirdly, it should work on creating a sustainable supply chain with its suppliers, so more information is necessary from all suppliers so the whole supply chain can be assessed. This is possible by LCA, so problems will be identified and solutions can be made. Finally, the transparency of the sustainable development can be increased to report more critically about its