Heineken Cares

HEINEKEN endeavours to source as much as possible of its raw materials locally. To help empower thousands of people across the communities where we are active, we aim to secure a sustainable supply of raw materials. Moreover, in the right quantity and quality and at fair and acceptable return and costs. Many of our local breweries run projects helping local farmers compete against imported grains, raising smallholder farmers' incomes, which contributes to the alleviation of poverty. Locally produced ingredients shorten our supply chain and the diversification of raw material sourcing, both beneficial to our local suppliers as well as our company.

Beer is a natural product. It can not be brewed without crops. The quality and availability of these crops are of strategic importance to HEINEKEN. We brew beer with natural ingredients and use the highest quality cereals, predominantly barley, for brewing, and hops for flavour and bitterness. For the continuity of our business, we need access to sufficient, high quality raw materials. Our partners, the farmers that grow the crops and the maltsters that malt the barley, need to be sure we pay them at a fair price and support them over the long term.

Across our business, we invest in programmes to engage local farmers in sustainable agriculture and in technologies to increase efficiency in the use of raw materials. A global hop programme has resulted in increased yield and efficiency in the use of hops. Our nominated Skylark project for sustainable arable farming resulted in the definition of important sustainability indicators. And sustainable orchards produce golden apples for our cider, contributing to biodiversity.

You can find more local cases in the quick links of the 'HEINEKEN Cares' initiative.

Particularly in the area of healthcare, being a multinational company means taking on responsibilities and actively contribute to the development of societies. Doing business in developing countries requires different skills, thinking, approaches and services than in developed countries.

HEINEKEN operates in many different countries. We aim for all of our employees and dependents to have access to basic medical care that meets pre-defined local standards. We strive to combat the World's poverty diseases: malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Our HIV/AIDS programme is an important and integrated part of HEINEKEN's healthcare initiatives, aiming both on prevention but also on access to anti retroviral drugs.

HEINEKEN has also launched the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation. A foundation that supports and enhances the improvement of health for the people who live in Sub-Sahara African communities where HEINEKEN is active, by financially supporting relevant health projects and health-related education. Click here for more information on the Foundation.

Our Economic Impact Assessments (EIAs) allow us to measure our economic contribution to the communities in which we operate. The results enable us to take informed decisions in order to maximise our local economic impact within the economic boundaries of our company. Currently, we have conducted 15 studies in countries like Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Greece, Nigeria, Mexico, USA, UK, Croatia, and Surinam.

HEINEKEN has defined a number of programmes to meet the set targets. Our objectives for 2013 are:

• In 2010, double, to EUR 20 million, the funding for the HEINEKEN Africa Foundation, enabling EUR 1 million investment per year thereafter
• Our local sourcing activities fully evaluated and regional targets for 2015 set
• The evaluation of our reporting and monitoring system for sustainable agriculture and a defined action plan in place to improve the compliance
• The standards for sustainable agriculture aligned with and verified by stakeholders
• The inventory of possible partnerships with NGOs in the area of CSI
• Those operations not meeting our pre-defined standard of healthcare include an improvement plan in their operational planning
• The conduction of 12 Economic Impact Assessments