Contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Brewing great beers depends on a healthy natural environment and thriving communities. We depend on water and other natural ingredients to brew our beers and we are committed to sustainability initiatives that support our commitment to build a company to last for the next 100 years and beyond.

We support the United Nation 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We are working to contribute directly to many of these goals through our 2025 Sustainability Goals, Smart Drinking Agenda, Road Safety initiatives, volunteering programs, small retailer development and disaster relief efforts. During the development of the Sustainable Goals, each goal was evaluated against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify how they impacted each SDG. According to our 2017 Materiality Assessment the most material issues of the goals are water, agriculture, and responsible drinking. A new assessment is currently being developed and will be released in 2020.

Our 2025 Sustainability Goals

We are doing our part to tackle shared global environmental and social challenges. Our 2025 Sustainability Goals aim to deliver a measurable, positive impact on the environment and our communities.

Smart agriculture

100% of our direct farmers will be skilled, connected and financially empowered.

Water stewardship

100% of our communities in high stress areas will have measurably improved water availability and quality.

Circular packaging

100% of our products will be in packaging that is returnable or made from majority recycled content.

Climate action

100% of our purchased electricity will be from renewable sources and we will reduce our carbon emissions by 25% across our value chain.

Our Global Smart Drinking Goals

We are doing our part to tackle shared global environmental and social challenges. Our 2025 Sustainability Goals aim to deliver a measurable, positive impact on the environment and our communities.

We support the World Health Organization (WHO) target of reducing the harmful use of alcohol by at least 10% in every country by 2025, and United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) target 3.5 to strengthen the prevention of harmful use of alcohol globally. Our Global Smart Drinking Goals are intended to drive real progress to help meet these ambitions.

City Pilots

Reduce the harmful use of alcohol by at least 10% in six cities by the end of 2020 and implement the best practices globally by the end of 2025.

Social Norms

Influence social norms and individual behaviors to reduce harmful use of alcohol by investing at least 1.0 Billion USD across our markets in dedicated social marketing campaigns and related programs by the end of 2025.

No- and low- alcohol beer

Ensure No- or Low- Alcohol beer products represent at least 20% of our global beer volume by the end of 2025.

Label and alcohol health literacy

Place a guidance label on all of our beer products in all of our markets by the end of 2020*. Increase alcohol health literacy by the end of 2025.

* The guidance label will be implemented only in markets without substantive government-mandated labeling legislation, and where it is permissible by local regulation.

Key metrics

We updated our materiality assessment in 2017, identifying key environmental and social issues for our company and stakeholders and aspire to update and localize the assessment in 2020. More information on our materiality assessment, including Boundary Analysis Table, and GRI Index for this year’s report can be found at www.ab-inbev.com

Metric 2019 2017
Total water use (in billion hl) 1.642 A 1.775 A
Water use by hectoliter of production (hl/hl) 2.80 A 3.09 A
Total GJ of energy (in millions) 61.4 A 61.4
Total GJ of energy purchased (in millions) 59.4 A *
Energy usage per hectoliter of production (in Mj/hl) 104.6 111.6*
Energy purchased per hectoliter of production (in Mj/hl) 101.2 A
Total direct and indirect GHG emissions (Scopes 1 and 2 in million metric tons of co2e) 5.36 A 6.18 A
Total direct and indirect GHG emissions (Scopes 1,2, and 3 in million metric tons of co2e) 31.8 A 32.35
Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per hectoliter of production (in kg co2e/hl) 6.92 A 8.55 A
Scopes 1,2, and 3 GHG emissions per hectoliter of production (in kg co2e/hl) 55.3 A 59.4
% Renewable Electricity 20% A
% Returnable Packaging 40.9% A 46%
% Recycled Content in primary packaging
Glass
Cans
PET
42.3% A
59.1% A **
22.8% A
37%
59%
21%
Direct farmers skilled, connected, and financially empowered***
Skilled
Connected
Financially Empowered

50%
45%
35%

A Assured Metric
(please refer to External Assurance Report on page 56)
- Our goals on water, GHG emissions per hectoliter of production and energy pertain to our beverage facilities only and do not encompass our vertical operations such as malt plants and packaging facilities.
- Total direct and indirect GHG emissions data encompass beverage facilities and most vertical operations, including malt plants and packaging facilities.
- Scope 1 accounts for 67% of our operational emissions and includes co2 equivalent (co2e) from fuel used in our manufacturing processes and in cogeneration plants that generate on-site electricity. Scope 2 accounts for about 33% and represents emissions from purchased electricity.
- Scope 3 emissions constitute estimates based on a mix of supplier-based numbers, global emission factors and assumptions. Data’s main categories include, Purchased Goods and Services, Upstream and Downstream Distribution, Product Cooling (including on and off premise but excluding at home cooling), and End of Life. Around 50% of emissions are calculated with own data or data reported by suppliers through the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

* In line with our new sustainability goals, energy reporting will shift to energy purchased versus energy usage. Energy purchased per hl aligns with our RE100 sustainability goal of offsetting 100% of our purchased electricity with electricity sourced from renewable resources. Energy purchased per hl was not reported for breweries acquired from SABM in 2017.
** 2018 Recycled content percentage in primary packaging for cans has been updated. The data correction has been done following the external supplier audits.
*** Smart Agriculture data is based on up-to-date estimates.