Heineken needs water to brew and pack beer. We use water from a variety of sources: municipal grid, well water and surface water. Due to changing climate patterns, pollution, increasing populations and competition from other sectors, fresh water is becoming increasingly scarce in some parts of the world. To secure our future operations, both water availability and quality are of the utmost importance to our company. However, we also release water once it has been used in the brewing process. This water requires treatment in order to minimise any possible environmental impact. Thus, managing, treating and reducing consumption of this most valuable of the Earth’s resources is a high priority.
Our objectives
We aim to continuously decrease the amount of water we need to brew our beers and to limit any potential negative environmental effects of the discharge of waste water. To achieve our objectives, we have set the following targets:
- All breweries to use a maximum 7 hl of water for every hectolitre of beer brewed
- By the end of 2010, the average water consumption should be below 4.6 hl for every hectolitre of beer brewed
- By 2012 complete the installation of the 16 waste-water treatment plants in the region Africa & Middle East.
Our strategy
We have a common core programme which runs throughout our Supply Chain ‘Aware of Water’: The programme focuses on all aspects of water consumption, management and treatment and requires all breweries and production units to set local targets for water consumption as part of their Operational Plan. These targets must reflect their efforts in the gradual reduction of specific water consumption. In this context we set measurable targets with a three-year horizon.
Reduction of water consumption losses is also a key part of our business-wide Total Productive Management (TPM) Programme. In addition, throughout the Supply Chain, Heineken has in place a dedicated knowledge management system which facilitates the exchange of best practices. Each brewery or production facility is required to input relevant, effective solutions to common problems and challenges on a continuous basis.
It is our ambition to have all waste-water coming from our breweries cleaned, either by municipal facilities or by our own facilities. In pursuit of this, we have adopted a programme for the construction of 16 waste-water treatment plants at breweries in Africa where no municipal facilities for cleaning waste water exist. Our original target of 20 installations has been amended following the divestment of four breweries in the region.
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