Archive

SAB launches its first Sustainability Report

SAB in South Africa recently launched its first Sustainability Report "Stepping up to the future".  The Report covers the areas of the group sustainable development framework and the 10 priorities but also recognises that it is ‘further influenced by South Africa’s specific needs at a national, provincial and local level'.  The Report also describes its stakeholder engagement model following the four steps of information gathering, stakeholder management, engagement assessment and review.

Kickstart launched in Colombia

Kickstart, one of South Africa’s most successful enterprise development programmes introduced by SAB in 1995, has been launched in Colombia by Bavaria. 

In Colombia the programme is called Destapa Futuro (Uncover the Future).

Destapa Futuro will benefit 60 emerging entrepreneurs in Colombia in the first year, with an investment of $1,500,0000.  SABMiller’s Bavaria has committed to a multi-year programme which is designed to have a positive cumulative effect on poverty over time.

Nearly 50% of the Colombia population lives below the poverty line, although over 90% of the population over the age of 15 can read and write. 

Kickstart has also been successfully rolled out to SABMiller’s operation in Botswana in 2005.

It’s worth helping

SABMiller’s Kompania Piwowarska in Poland has launched a campaign called "It’s worth helping".  Its objectives are to run a competition which will provide grants to projects submitted by non governmental organisations to support socially excluded people, as well as to raise the profile generally of social exclusion in Poland.

The campaign is also supported by research and media partners.  This will provide credible information on the topic and a public platform to discuss social exclusion and the competition. 

The public can vote for the selected projects by SMS, newspaper coupons or on the website, www.warto.eu, but the Programme Board also has the right to decide on allocation of resources.

Launch of the 2006 Sustainable Development Report

The new Sustainable Development Report includes all the information on the review of the sustainable development strategy and information on each of the 10 sustainable development priorities.  You will also find examples of progress made during the year. 

Download Sustainable Development Report 2006 (pdf)

Supporting the Investment Climate Facility

The announcement in June 2006 that SABMiller has committed US $2.5 million to the Investment Climate Facility over a five-year period, follows extensive liaison and discussion with the UK Government and other multinational companies about how to help improve Africa’s investment climate.

We were delighted to be invited to consult with the UK Government and other businesses in the private sector in 2004 and we became part of the Business Contact Group with interests in Africa.  We worked with the Commission for Africa and following the Commission’s report, we and another five companies became founder members of the Business Action for Africa network.  The remit of Business Action for Africa covers several areas to improve the business environment including the supply chain, HIV/Aids and health generally, enterprise and entrepreneurship.

With brewing interests in 29 African countries and through our partnerships with the Commission for Africa and Business Action for Africa, we already have a track record for contributing towards the creation of local businesses and contributing to the development of the business environment. Our contribution to the Investment Climate Facility will help to create business environments that will encourage international investment and generate sustainable business opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs.  Specifically ICF aims to cut red tape, help secure property rates, make contracts enforceable, speed up business registration and improve financial and labour markets.  It will also work on streamlining customs, tax and competition regulations.

Consulting with external stakeholders

We were delighted to present our new sustainable development framework to non governmental organisations (NGOs) and academics from around the world at a meeting in Cape Town at the end of May. We are taking all our stakeholder conversations into account to see how we can incorporate some feedback into our future work.

For more information on the business environment in Africa, visit http://www.businessactionforafrica.org/ and http://www.investmentclimatefacility.org/.