Heineken will reward its managers to achieve zero emissions

The world's second-largest beer producer, the Heineken Group, has announced that it will reward its managers as part of its fight to achieve zero emissions by 2040, depending on how much they push for it. "It simply came to our notice then. The days when we delegated these issues to sustainability teams are long gone, "said its boss Dolf van den Brink. "We have figured out a way to link the carbon footprint reduction target to management rewards," Heolfen CEO Dolf van den Brink told Bloomberg. Executive members, investors and customers are increasingly pushing global giants to finally take concrete steps to reduce the impact of their production on the planet and the environment. Financial experts claim that linking this goal to the level of remuneration of company executives is the right way to motivate companies to take real steps. Already last year, Heineken accelerated some concrete measures to achieve this goal at the request of shareholders. It has implemented more than 130 projects in this regard, and currently operates, for example, five of the world's ten largest solar-based breweries. While consumers understand the need for an immediate solution to global warming clearly, van den Brink said he was not sure if they were willing to pay extra for environmental improvements throughout society. Approximately 90 percent of the emissions produced by companies are borne by suppliers, packaging, logistics and beer storage. The rest is created during the production itself. Therefore, reducing emissions in the supply chain is a very difficult task. "We could stop working with those suppliers who don't decarbonize their processes fast enough, but at the moment it's hard to predict what the results would be," said van den Brink. By setting short-term emissions targets, Heineken has pledged to reduce emissions by 35 percent by 2030 compared to 2018, thus supporting the conclusions of the Paris Climate Agreement to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius. "It simply came to our notice then. The days when we delegated these issues to sustainability teams are long gone, ”explains van den Brink.