Anheuser-Busch InBev

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities and the channels it uses to engage with its stakeholder group.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. It also reports consistently against all its targets.

GHG emissions
The company discloses its target to reduce absolute scopes 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 35% by 2025 from a 2017 base year and reports progress against them. Furthermore, these targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory and the company discloses quantitative reductions for its scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2022 compared to the previous year. Additionally, the company has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions and reports progress against it. Moreover, the company also reduces its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions compared to previous year and its targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
The company is committed to disclosing its efforts to enhance soil health and agrobiodiversity through sustainable production and responsible sourcing practices.

Solid and air pollution
The company demonstrates commitment, has policies, and partakes in activities related to plastic use reduction and transitioning towards sustainable packaging. For example, it discloses that it operates substantial returnable packaging systems to promote circular packaging and promotes recycling at local levels. The company discloses quantitative data, including the proportion of recycled content in its packaging. It has also set targets regarding the use of returnable and majority-recycled packaging, and reports progress against them.

Water
The company reports water withdrawals from its own operations in water-stressed areas, and also requires its suppliers in its global responsible sourcing policy to set targets to reduce water use within their operations and develop plans to reduce water consumption. The company discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. Additionally, the company also reports a decrease in water pollution, and discloses that it committed that 100% of high risk locations must demonstrate measurably improved water quality and availability by 2025, and reports progress against this goal. The company also has a commitment to respect the right to water.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company discloses its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Act ethically
The company has a policy prohibiting bribery and corruption, and includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with direct business relationships. To identify bribery and corruption risks, the company uses BrewRIGHT, a compliance data analytics platform. Moreover, the company has a grievance mechanism that allows stakeholders to voice their concerns and file complaints related to bribery and corruption.

Provide and promote decent work
The company has a publicly available policy committing it to respect worker health and safety in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, it describes how it works to support the practices of its business relationships in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Moreover, The company publicly commits to gender equality and women’s empowerment. It further provides information on the proportion of women in its total direct operations workforce for each employee category, and discloses that it has 33.33% women on the board.

Respect human rights
The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect human rights and the ILO fundamental rights at work in its operations and supply chain. Additionally, it describes a process for identifying human rights risks and impacts, further explains how it assesses and identifies its salient human rights issues, and provides a case study describing how it has acted on a human rights risk issue. Moreover, the company has a human rights grievance mechanism accessible to all workers and external stakeholders, and discloses that it engages with these stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

Lobbying
The company has an opportunity to disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with its sustainability targets and to report (potential) misalignments.

Sustainability strategy and accountability
While the company discloses some sustainability objectives/targets including climate and social inclusion, it has an opportunity to establish group-wide targets for the most material parts of its value chain. Furthermore, although it discloses a remuneration policy related to sustainability, it could link this policy to improvement in nature-related objectives and social issues. Lastly, the company has an opportunity to disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise with respect to the company’s most material sustainability topics.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has an opportunity to disclose assessments of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, within its own operations and in its supply chain. It also has the opportunity to disclose its dependencies on nature within its own operations and upstream business relationships.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Key areas and species
While the company has partnered with TNC to map priority areas for biodiversity, it still has an opportunity to further disclose specific locations near vital biodiversity areas within its operations. Additionally, it can reveal species populations adjacent to its locations and the status according to national and international conservation lists. The company could also enhance transparency by disclosing locations of its suppliers in proximity to key biodiversity zones.

Resource exploitation and circularity performance
Although the company shares some details about its recycled inputs, it could further enhance transparency by disclosing the total weight or volume of all materials used. Currently, the company does not report quantitative data on its group-wide circularity performance, which presents an opportunity for improvement. Additionally, the company could set and disclose a target for enhancing soil health within its production or sourcing practices, while also reporting its progress in achieving this goal.

Solid and air pollution
The company should commit to avoid developing or marketing new chemicals or products with SVHC (substance of very high concern) properties, as well as work on reducing the production of hazardous substances and waste. It has an opportunity to report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. The company could also report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants and disclose time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

Water
The company reports an increase in total water use. While the company discloses reduction targets related to water intensity, it has an opportunity to disclose a target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations and report progress against it. The company monitors, but does not appear to disclose, on water quality parameters. The company does not disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Also, the company does not disclose its processes to identify and recognise the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, and describes how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company has an opportunity to commit to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders. Moreover, it should track its actual or potential negative impacts on the health of local communities.

Act ethically
The company has an opportunity to have a policy setting out its lobbying and political engagement approach, and divulge its expenditures on lobbying activities. Additionally, while the company states that it makes political contributions after approval from the Audit Committee, it has an opportunity to disclose whether these are made only by exception, and reveal the criteria for making the exception.

Provide and promote decent work
While the company discloses that it monitors the health and safety performance of its business relationships, it has an opportunity to elaborate on the specific methods employed for such monitoring.

Additionally, while the company affirms its compliance with minimum wage regulations for its workforce and expects the same from its suppliers, it has an opportunity to make a commitment towards paying a living wage. This can be accomplished by setting a time-bound target for achieving this goal, and additionally, requiring and supporting suppliers to also provide a living wage to their workers. It can further disclose how it determines a living wage in each region.

Moreover, the company can disclose targeted time-bound objectives regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment, while also sharing information on the ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men.

Respect human rights
While the company discloses a few examples of how it addresses its key identified human rights issues, the company has an opportunity to disclose a global system that will act on, prevent or mitigate these issues.