Today, we think about the future! Kompania Piwowarska’s new 2019 Sustainable Development Report.

Switching to „green” wind electricity, nearly 100% od waste and byproducts recycled, over 100,000 preventive breathalyser tests, and almost PLN 2.5 m donated to social initiatives, plus the 2019 Super Ethical Company title – these are just a few achievements mentioned in Kompania Piwowarska’s Sustainable Development Report “Today, we think about the future”, in which the company sums up 2019.

Protecting the environment, taking care of employees, the society and responsible alcohol consumption – these are the areas, in which Kompania Piwowarska has been active for years. The results of the initiatives executed in 2019 were presented in the company’s 12th Sustainable Development Report. Just as the previous editions, this publication describes the contribution of the Polish beer market leader to execution of the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations.

– 2019 was a year of crucial changes implemented across our company, which we show in the report. However, as the title indicates, already today, we think about the future – our future and the future of the surroundings we operate in. For that purpose, we invited prominent experts in the field of sustainable development to discuss the environmental and social challenges Poland’s beer industry has to face. In the report, their opinions are juxtaposed with our initiatives – we verify whether we are going in the right direction. In general, it is all good, but we need to continue to closely observe our environment and respond to more and more ambitious challenges – says Grzegorz Adamski, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development Manager at Kompania Piwowarska.  

Environmental protection

Greenhouse gasses. Within the scope of the 7th goal of “Agenda 2030” (Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy), in 2019 Kompania Piwowarska signed a Power Purchase Agreement with innogy for electricity generated by wind farms. Thanks to this cooperation, for the first time in Poland, large-scale production will be powered by wind electricity, and Kompania Piwowarska’s breweries will switch to 100% renewable energy (already in 2021) and reduce their CO2 emissions by 66% compared to 2019. And thus Kompania Piwowarska will become one of the first companies in Poland to use only renewable electricity in its production processes.

Moreover, to further limit the environmental footprint by reduction of greenhouse gases and energy consumption, Kompania Piwowarska’s breweries are equipped with a precise system for monitoring consumption of utilities. It allows the company to keep track of the usage of heating, electricity and cooling in particular time slots. The level of CO2 emissions is also constantly monitored, and the result is lower and lower every year. In 2019, Kompania Piwowarska’s breweries emitted 7.07 kg of CO2e per hl of beer.

Waste and recycling. Executing the 12th goal referring to responsible consumption and production, Kompania Piwowarska reuses and recycles almost all its waste and byproducts (99.82%). About 49% of its products is distributed in reusable packaging: returnable glass bottles and steel barrels used in gastronomy, so called kegs.

Returnable bottles come back to Kompania’s breweries as part of the special system developed by the company, where bottles are collected from the market, transported to the breweries, treated so they are ready to be reused, filled with fresh beer, and reintroduced to shops. This solution fully complies with the extended rules of producers’ responsibility set out by the UN – Kompania Piwowarska fully covers the costs, and when bottles cannot be used anymore, they are recycled. Bottles are so important for the company that in 2019 it opened a bottle redemption centre by its brewery in Poznań, which so far has collected 1.2 m bottles.

Water. The 6th goal of the UN “Agenda 2030” strives to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Within that scope, Kompania Piwowarska’s breweries remain world leaders in saving water. To brew 1 hl of beer, Kompania Piwowarska needs only 2.63 hl of water, while in other breweries it is often between 3 and 6 hl.

Society and employees

Responsibility activities. Executing the 3rd UN goal, dealing with good health and well-being, the leader of the beer industry in Poland engages its consumers in responsibility programmes, such as Check Your BAL. Over the 5 years since the launch of the mobile Check Your BAL zone at 61 major events in Poland, Kompania Piwowarska has engaged about 1 m people in total, while 340,000 people took a professional breathalyser test and over 100,000 animations showing the influence of alcohol on our bodies were conducted.

In September 2019, Kompania Piwowarska joined forces with the “Dom w Łodzi” Foundation, and together they launched the FASOFF campaign, the goal of which is to draw attention to the problem of alcohol consumption by pregnant women. Thanks to the campaign, as many as 4 m people came in contact with messages about the consequences of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. Kompania Piwowarska is also dynamically developing the non-alcoholic beer segment, allowing consumers to make responsible choices in situations where alcohol cannot be consumed, e.g. driving. Promoting consumption of alcohol-free beers, the company increased their sales in 2019 by 103%.

Since 2009, the Polish beer market leader has been running www.abcalkoholu.pl, an educational website that has already been visited by over 270,000 people. It features comprehensive expert information on the influence of alcohol on social health and life.

Employees. As part of the 5th goal, regarding equality and diversity, the leaders of the beer industry ensures equal professional opportunities to everybody, regardless of gender, age or other differences. The percentage of women holding managerial positions within the organization currently amounts to over 31.5%, and the difference in salaries for women and men fluctuates between +2% and -3%, which in practice means that the remunerations for both genders at Kompania Piwowarska are equal. The company is also one of the 14 companies who have signed the Diversity Charter.

Communities. Kompania Piwowarska has been supporting local communities for years. That way it executes the 11th goal, which refers to sustainable cities and communities. In 2019, the company donated nearly PLN 2.5 m for such causes. It supported projects regarding the development of Polish cities (LECHSTARTER – the flagship programme of the Lech brand) and protection of endangered species (Żubr brand), as well as different institutions across Poland. Over 60% of the employees got involved in different forms of organizational support and financial initiatives within corporate volunteering.

The confirmation of Kompania Piwowarska’s commitment to sustainable development is a number of distinctions the company received last year, including the Super Ethical Company title awarded by “Puls Biznesu” and the CSR Leaf awarded by the “Polityka” weekly. Kompania Piwowarska has also been one of the top 10 companies in the Responsible Business Ranking for years.

Kompania Piwowarska has been publishing its CSR report since 2009. The latest issue was developed in line with the Global Reporting Initiative, version GRI Standards 2016 (level Core), and it encompasses the company’s activity over the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31, 2019.

The full version of the report is available under the following link:

https://www.kp.pl/files/Raport-CSR-Kompania-Piwowarska-2019.pdf

Enjoy reading it!