The Sustainability section of the 2019 Annual Report provides information about the progress towards our 2025 Sustainability Goals launched in March of 2018. Together with our corporate website, they provide an update of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s performance on key metrics during the 2019 calendar year.
This chapter, along with the sections on Smart Drinking & Road Safety, Dream-People-Culture (including D&I), Better World, Community Engagement, Workplace Safety and the Business Ethics Description on page 53, as well as the risks on environmental, social, personnel, human rights and anti-bribery matters that are described in the Risks and Uncertainties section of the Management Report section of the 2019 Annual Report, have been established in accordance with the law of September 3, 2017 implementing Directive 2014/95/EU of October 22, 2014 amending Directive 2013/34/ EU regarding disclosure of nonfinancial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups. Together, they form the nonfinancial statement required under the referred law and include an overview of our environmental, social and personnel related matters, as well as human rights and anti-bribery matters. Some of the SDGs in relation to our goals refer to Improved Healthcare, Clean Water and Sanitation, Renewable Energy, Reducing Waste generation, Reduction of GHG Emissions and energy consumption, among others.
Alongside our environmental sustainability, information on Smart Drinking and Road Safety, Workplace Safety, and Business Ethics can be found on pages 39, 40, 41, 52 and 53 of this report. Additional information on volunteering and disaster response is also included in this report (page 42). These sections are intended to provide updates to stakeholders, including investors, employees, governments, NGOs, costumers, and consumers in countries where we operate in.
AB InBev prepared the 2019 report (these chapters and website) using the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Standards as a guide. To help determine the content developed, a materiality assessment was conducted, which helped identify the key issues that are of most importance to our stakeholders and our company. For 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.
Our 2025 Sustainability Goals and overall sustainability agenda aligns with several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015. Activities throughout our operations and supply chain are aligned to the metrics that are considered the most material to our business and critical to our stakeholders. We are focused on areas where we can make the most significant positive impact.
The data and stories presented on this report were gathered and verified with the assistance of content owners across all functions and geographic zones.
AB InBev has established processes to ensure accurate and consistent reporting of Smart Drinking and Safety, 2025 Sustainability Goals, and Safety performance data, as well as key performance indicators. In the Assurance Report of the Independent Auditor (page 56), and in key places along the report, we have identified which metrics have been externally assured by KPMG. Financial information included has also been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Environmental data from newly acquired operations are excluded from the running cycle. These facilities will be included in future reporting. Safety data is immediately tracked and monitored for all sites and included unless otherwise stated in text or footnotes. For all environmental and safety data, divestitures and closures are removed from the scope for the reporting year, but prior years are not adjusted.
Global goals on water, energy purchased, and greenhouse gas emissions presented in this section, as well as key performance indicators such as energy usage, include AB InBev’s wholly-owned operations unless stated otherwise in text or footnotes. Energy usage and purchased excludes the energy exported to third parties and certain projects under construction. The excluded energy use and purchase does not reflect the amount of energy used in our beer brewing processes.
For recycled content calculation, a weighted average of recycled content is calculated based on purchases for each supplier and recycled content in the material. Data on recycled content percentage is provided by suppliers and tracked on a regular basis. Packaging purchases are derived from AB InBev’s owned procurement system. Recycled content percentages are obtained from our suppliers. In 2019 we started with suppliers audits to assess reliability of the provided data. In the following years, we will enhance the number of supplier audits to guarantee reliability of the data.
In the scope of our reported Sustainability goals, both our beverage and vertical operations are included in addition to our Scope 3 emissions regarding information beyond our operations and that impact our supply chain with exception of the KPIs on energy and water usage and the KPI on Scope 1+2 emissions per hectoliter of production (in kg CO2/hl)”, as the relative KPI regarding scope 1 and 2 emissions also excludes vertical operations. For our beverage and vertical operations, including malting and packaging facilities use our Voyager Plant Optimization (VPO) global management system. This data is reported annually to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Specific data tables contain footnotes for additional data. Scope 3 emissions are estimated values based on a mix of own and third party data and total percentage follows the Science Based Target Initiative, where at least 66% of emissions are to be included in target scope. Approximately 50% of Scope 3 data is own data and data provided by suppliers via the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). CDP data is used to calculate supplier-based emissions of raw and packaging materials used in the manufacturing of beer. A hybrid approach, that has been validated by the Science Based Target Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project is used, which entails a mix of own data, supplier data, and market estimates. Scope 3 includes the following out of the 15 categories: Purchased Goods and Services, Upstream and Downstream Distribution, Use of Product (Product Cooling including on and off premise but excluding home cooling), and End of Life. Categories excluded include: Capital Goods, Waste generated in operations (more than 98% of waste generated is recycled), Business Travel, Employee Commuting, Upstream and Downstream leased assets, Processing of sold products, Franchises, Investments. These categories represent approximately less than 20% of total Scope 3 emissions.
This report contains forward-looking statements regarding estimations into the future. These generally include words and/ or phrases such as “will likely result”, “aims to”, “will continue”, “Is anticipated”, “it is estimated”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “project”, “result”, “is predicted”, “may”, “might”, “could”, “believe”, “expect”, “plan”, “potential”, or other similar expressions. These statements are subject to uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those stated in this report due to, but not limited, impact to climate change, water stress, financial distress, negative publicity, our availability to hire and/or retain the best talent, emerging regulations, and reputation of our brands, the ability to make acquisitions and/or divest divisions, access to capital, volatility in the stock market, exposure to litigation, and other associated risks not mentioned as well as risks identified in our Form-20 led with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information about AB InBev’s climate and water risks, management and performance of such is available through CDP.
