Heineken Sustainability Report 2008

What we delivered

Our water consumption improved from 5.15 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer in 2007 to 5.06 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer in 2008, which is above our target of 4.9 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer. Next year, the new acquisitions (mainly Scottish & Newcastle) will contribute positively as they had an average specific consumption of 4.07 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer in 2008.

In 2008, more than 80 per cent of our breweries complied with the maximum limit of seven hectolitres of water per hectolitre beer brewed as set out in our ‘Aware of Water’ programme. Four of the 28 non-compliant breweries are recent acquisitions.

The Heineken Group (excluding the companies acquired in 2008) showed three breweries that reduced water consumption below our norm of maximum 7 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer. The brewery in Skopje (FYR Macedonia) reduced water use from 7.1 to 6.2 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer, the brewery in Tiengiang (Vietnam) reduced water use from 7.9 to 5.3 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer.

And thirdly, the brewery in El Obour (Egypt) reduced water use from 7.1 to 6.5 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer. Unfortunately, there were two sites that showed an increase of water consumption to over 7 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer. The site in Boma (Democratic Republic) increased from 6.4 to 7.5 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer due to start up of new equipment. The site in Polein (Aosta in Italy) has corrected water figures from previous year, values are now in line with Heineken definition and values went up from 4.4 to 7.9 hectolitres per hectolitre of beer.

The effluent organic load discharged to surface water increased from 28.1 ktonnes in 2007 to 30.3 ktonnes in 2008, largely as a result of the contribution of acquisitions in 2008.