Heineken gets Neighbourly with community investment drive

Dutch beer company Heineken has become the latest major business to join a social media platform designed to help communities connect with companies through local charitable, environmental and social enterprise projects.


The brewer has partnered with Neighbourly to support its responsible business strategy and deliver positive local impacts through its seven sites across the UK.

More than 2,000 Heineken employees will now be able to find and collaborate with local causes that matter to them; manage their support for their chosen causes and then measure the impact of their involvement. 

Community investment

Heineken UK corporate relations director Jeremy Beadles underlined the fundamental commercial and societal benefits of engaging in local activity and increasing corporate investment into communities.

“Heineken’s breweries, offices and pubs have been at the heart of local communities for years – so it’s really important that we play our part in making them better places to live and work,” Beadles said.

“With seven sites across the UK, our partnership with Neighbourly will really help us connect with great local community causes around our sites, so we can make sure our community investment has a real local impact, but on a national scale.”

Nick Davies, founder of Neighbourly, added: “As the Neighbourly community grows, it’s great to see yet another company understand and embrace the value of becoming a Neighbourly business.

“Heineken is a leader in sustainability and community involvement, pioneering a number of best practices in the area of social responsibility and demonstrating a commitment to reporting and measuring the impact of its efforts. This makes them an ideal partner to join the Neighbourly platform and we are pleased to have them on board.”

Heineken joins a growing list of organisations including Marks & Spencer and Starbucks that have joined Neighbourly. Last October, M&S signed up with the social platform with an aim to reduce food waste by 20% by 2020. That partnership will see 150 of the supermarket’s biggest stores pass surplus food onto a host of social charities.

Since launch in July 2014, businesses have pledged more than £2m, 50 tonnes of food surplus, 9,246 volunteer days and backed 486 causes. Neighbourly has since streamlined the donation process through a food-specific platform.

Brewing a Better World

In recent years, Heineken has continued to demonstrate a credible sustainable agenda at the heart of its business strategy. Towards the end of last year, Heineken UK released its 2014 Sustainability Report reporting the progress of the firm’s ‘Brewing a Better World’ strategy, which included protecting water sources, reducing emissions and sourcing sustainably.

Speaking exclusively to edie, Heineken director of global sustainable development Michael Dickstein indicated a strong desire to collaborate with others on sustainability and CSR issues. The planet’s climate and resource challenges have become so vast that no one company or organisation can solve them alone, Dickstein said.

Heineken at edie’s Sustainability Communications Conference

Heineken’s head of public affairs and corporate responsibility David Paterson will be among the expert speakers at edie’s fourth annual Sustainability Communications Conference in May. 

In a session focusing on how marketing and sustainability are effectively working together in practice, Paterson will provide practical examples of how marketing has encouraged responsible consumption, explaining how Heineken has developed a campaign with a long-term integrated approach to creating genuine shared value for all.

Find out more about the Conference and register to attend here.

George Ogleby

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