INFO
Heineken folder ‘Aware of water’
Laswell DigiEmotion B.V.
2001
cardboard, offset lithography
h 29,6 x b 21 cm
To the last drop
‘Water. A resource whose every drop counts.’ With this 2001 bilingual leaflet, Heineken was informing Heineken breweries worldwide about the importance of water and water conservation. Beer consists of over 90% water and clean drinking water is the most important prerequisite for brewing it.
In his Amsterdam steam beer brewery, for instance, founder Gerard Adriaan Heineken used clear dune water that had been available in the capital since 1853 thanks to Jacob van Lennep. He sat on the board of the NV Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Waterleidingen in Nederland (Dutch Drinking Water Supplier), which constructed a network of pipelines in the city. This also benefited Heineken itself, after a water pipeline was laid directly to its new brewery on Stadhouderskade – a classic win-win situation!
The second, Rotterdam-based Heineken plant drew water from natural freshwater sources on the – strategically chosen – brewery site in Crooswijk.. When the Heineken brewery in Den Bosch (1958) was built, access to clean groundwater also determined the location: the rural Haverleij district. To monitor the effects of groundwater abstraction, Heineken had monitoring wells installed here in the 1980s, which transmitted data to TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research).
Clean, cleaner, cleanest
Due to the takeover of Amstel and jammed logistics in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the group decided to build one large brewery in Zoeterwoude in 1970. It would have its own water treatment plant, allowing the brewery’s wastewater to drain into the surrounding surface water. Heineken could proudly proclaim that its Zoeterwoude brewery was the cleanest in the world – the treated wastewater was cleaner than the surface water it discharged into. From 2000, the group began implementing its ambition of giving all Heineken breweries worldwide their own waste treatment facilities or having their wastewater treated through third parties.
Shortage of water
From the early 1980s, pollution issues rose higher up in the Heineken agenda, resulting in environmental care plans for all sites. Yet the focus was still mainly on waste recycling. Water shortage only made the news in 1989 after the launch of the Falkenberg Index, which measures physical freshwater shortages by area. It then took more than a decade before multinationals as major consumers and polluters recognised the global water shortage – witness Heineken’s first Water Policy Statement in 1998 with new water conservation targets and commitments, including reducing water use in the brewing process to 7 hl (700 litres) per hl (100 litres) of beer. This was followed in 2001 by the launch of the Aware of Water programme, with the development of a sustainable water supply for Zoeterwoude shortly thereafter.
Africa Foundation
Moreover, in 2007 Heineken established the Africa Foundation for sub-Saharan countries where basic healthcare falls short, and residents have no access to clean drinking water. Through Mother & Child Care and the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) projects, the Foundation scores many successes on a small scale.
Footprint
In 2015, the World Economic Forum called water shortage the world’s greatest threat. A survey ensued, in which Heineken was named one of five Dutch listed companies that were the most transparent about its water consumption. Indeed, sustainability reports devoted much attention to the group’s efforts to reduce its water footprint. That same year, Heineken reported using less than four hectolitres of water to brew one hectolitre of beer for the first time, with the prospect of further reductions in the future. Of the wastewater from Heineken breweries worldwide, 97% is now treated, with a target of 100% by 2023.