Our stakeholders are crucial to our Brewing a Better World journey. They help us to stay focused and tell us when they feel we are moving off-track.
We communicate and engage with stakeholders in four ways: reputation research, expert meetings and ongoing stakeholder dialogue.
Reputation research
In 2013, we completed our largest ever reputation research cycle, talking to more than 7,000 stakeholders across 31 markets. The study is a combination of personal interviews by phone and an online survey. It focuses on seven key dimensions, one of which is ‘responsible and sustainable’.
Outcomes are used for assessing materiality, analysing gaps and related action planning, at a global and local level.
Expert meetings
We regularly organise expert meetings where a broad group of stakeholders, including scientists, peers, suppliers, government and NGOs meet with our internal specialists to share knowledge and insights on our sustainability performance and where we can improve in key areas.
Meetings are dedicated to our focus areas, with the objective to:
1. Get feedback on strategy, commitments and progress
2. Share opportunities and dilemmas
3. Discuss trends and innovation.
Ongoing stakeholder dialogue
We maintain an ongoing dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders at both a global and local level.
Our Executive Committee members actively participate in senior-level stakeholder meetings with relevant external stakeholders, including the World Trade Organization, World Economic Forum, Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition and ministers and members of national and European parliaments among a great many others. For a complete overview of our global stakeholder dialogue, see the current Sustainability Report.
In addition to global stakeholder dialogue, our Operating Companies are engaged in regular conversation with key local stakeholders. This input is used as the basis to refine the local sustainability action plans.
Working with Partners
We are actively involved at a global level in a significant number of organisations in order to further our aims for both business and society. Among the most notable are: