Corporate citizenship

Our objectives

For Heineken to play a full role as an integral part of the societies in which we operate.

Our strategy

The vast majority of activities are carried out close to where the demand for support is, on a country level. The Heineken Group facilitates internal sharing of good and best practice, allowing our operating companies to learn from each other’s experiences.

Activities in 2007

In total, the Heineken companies reported an amount of approximately €5.7 million spent on corporate citizenship activities in 2007. This is 5 per cent down compared with 2006, when we reported a spend of approximately €6 million. These figures include both the activities by Heineken Group and those of our operating companies.

An ICT training centre was opened in Kumasi, Ghana. This training centre allows the local population to become trained ICT specialists, enhancing their chances in the labour market. The initiative to establish this centre, which was established in one of the buildings belonging to our former brewery, was taken by Heineken and received financial sponsorship from Heineken and the Dutch Government, amongst others.

During a symposium on the responsibilities of the private sector in health care, Heineken announced that it would donate an amount of €500,000 to the health insurance fund that is being set up by the Dutch Government in order to safeguard access to health care by people living in certain developing African countries.

To facilitate the exchange of practices and experiences by our operating companies, we successfully built and tested an internal internet-based application, the corporate citizenship workbench. In this application, operating companies can describe their best examples in a standardised manner, allowing other operating companies to learn from the experience.

What we will do in 2008