EcoVadis chosen by HEINEKEN for sustainability-rating platform
HEINEKEN, the international brewer and Europe's largest, has chosen the platform developed by EcoVadis of France in order to assess and improve sustainability in its supply chain. The EcoVadis platform, tailored to the needs of the brewing industry, will help HEINEKEN drive up its CSR performance, and that of its suppliers.
- (1888PressRelease) April 06, 2012 - David Spacey, Global Procurement Director at international brewer HEINEKEN, states, "The development and rigorous implementation of sustainable procurement policies is a key element of HEINEKEN's Brewing a Better Future agenda. HEINEKEN has a strong preference to do business only with organisations that share [its] values of respect for the planet and [its] ethical business principles. Our buyer's discussions with suppliers have included environmental and social issues since 2005, but, after recently benchmarking against other companies' standards, we chose to raise the bar, increasing our expectations and updating our Supplier Code."
"Acknowledging that driving our CSR [or Corporate Social Responsibility] standards into, and through, our supply chain is both about assuring current performance as well as driving improvement, we invested time in finding a CSR performance-measurement platform that could meet all our requirements. After extensive reviews of the alternatives, we have chosen to utilise the EcoVadis platform," continues David Spacey.
The EcoVadis platform allows HEINEKEN to monitor risks within the supplier base, which spans more than 100 countries, while identifying suppliers' innovative sustainability practices. The EcoVadis platform will allow HEINEKEN buyers access to easy-to-use and reliable sustainability ratings, on a global scale. These ratings cover 21 environmental and social criteria, and measure compliance with the key elements of HEINEKEN's Supplier Code.
At the end of 2005, HEINEKEN adopted its first Supplier Code dedicated to supply-chain responsibility. The code is aimed at sourcing products and services in a responsible manner: it obliges suppliers to operate in accordance with the principles that the code sets out.
In 2011, HEINEKEN decided to reinforce this policy through a collaborative platform that allowed for the evaluation and improvement of its key suppliers' environmental and social performance. The company selected the EcoVadis platform for this purpose.
HEINEKEN and EcoVadis also collaborated in order to develop specific questionnaires and scoring models covering certain malt, hops and grains categories that come into the beer-making process. After a successful pilot programme covering 150 strategic suppliers in 2011, the EcoVadis solution is now being rolled out on a global basis by HEINEKEN.
"The EcoVadis solution offers an excellent combination of self-assessment, 360-degree supporting-evidence evaluation, and inter-industry competitor benchmarking. The ease of access and usability for both our large supplier base and our global procurement community was also a key factor," explains David Spacey of HEINEKEN.
"We did not want to deploy a generic assessment, but to address the specific lifecycle challenges of each of our core spend categories. The EcoVadis platform is a great solution to support this initiative with our suppliers and with our global procurement community," continues David Spacey.
In a study, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stated, "Businesses should use databases like EcoVadis […] as they collect and distribute data about suppliers and they provide buyers with an integrated supplier assessment tool focused on sustainable-development indicators."
Pierre-François Thaler, Managing Director and Co-Founder of EcoVadis, says, "We are very happy to collaborate with HEINEKEN, which is the first brewer to have engaged in such an advanced, sustainable supply-chain programme, going beyond the traditional social-compliance approaches. Through this collaborative platform, HEINEKEN and EcoVadis also wish to give the possibility to other big FMCG companies [in the sector of fast-moving consumer goods] to participate, in order to improve the environmental and social conditions of supply chains."
About HEINEKEN
HEINEKEN is an independent global brewer that employs 70,000 people, and was founded by the Heineken family. HEINEKEN is present in over 70 countries and operates more than 140 breweries, selling 214 million hectolitres of beer.
The company is Europe's largest brewer and the world's third largest brewer, in terms of volume. In 2011, HEINEKEN's revenue totalled €17.1 billion and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) stood at €2.7 billion.
HEINEKEN is committed to the responsible marketing of its 200 international premium, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. These include Amstel, Birra Moretti, Cruzcampo, Desperados, Dos Equis, Foster's, Heineken, Newcastle Brown Ale, Ochota, Primus, Sagres, Sol, Star, Strongbow, Tecate and Zywiec. The group's leading joint-venture brands are Anchor, Cristal, Kingfisher and Tiger.
HEINEKEN N.V. and HEINEKEN Holding N.V. shares are listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, in Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Prices for the ordinary shares may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbols HEIA NA and HEIO NA and on the Reuters Equities 2000 Service under HEIN.AS and HEIO.AS.
For more information about HEINEKEN, please go to: www.theHEINEKENcompany.com
About EcoVadis
EcoVadis operates one of the largest Software as a Service (SaaS) collaborative platforms, helping major companies assess their suppliers' environmental and CSR performance. EcoVadis combines an information system and a network of CSR analysts in order to provide buyers with simple and reliable information.
The company's solutions are currently used by 50 major international groups and cover 150 purchasing categories, 150 countries, and 21 indicators, ranging from "CO2 emissions" to "child labour".
For further information about EcoVadis, please go to: www.ecovadis.com
For further information, please contact :
Quote ref. : FTPB3725
Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer
UBIFRANCE Press Office in London
Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640
katherine.woods ( @ ) ubifrance dot fr
View other press releases at :
http://www.ubifrance.com/uk/
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