Creating Meaningful Connections – Kompania Piwowarska Published its 2022 Sustainability Report

At the beginning of 2022, Kompania Piwowarska (KP) defined its overarching purpose of “Creating Meaningful Connections”. Within its framework, the company set two goals for itself: be a force for planet positivity and serve up positive and inclusive experiences for people and society. The introduction of this PURPOSE reflects the beer producer’s consistent and timely execution of the “Better Future 2030” company strategy, which combines business goals with sustainability ambitions, making them of equal importance. These activities constitute the company’s contribution to the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.

You can access the report is available exclusively online here.

“Creating Meaningful Connections represents the way our company executes the “Better Future 2030” strategy adopted two years ago. It encompasses issues related to the natural environment, society, our product offer and performance. Our stakeholders become increasingly motivated to work with trusted and reliable businesses. We have no doubts that we ourselves need to initiate changes necessary to support nature and the communities we operate in. Therefore – wherever possible – we do our best to improve the state of our planet and society, while engaging our contractors, suppliers, and non-governmental organizations, meaning everyone with whom we can do more than just by ourselves. And even though this is just the beginning of our journey, we have already developed numerous joint initiatives, which we explore in our report” – said Grzegorz Adamski, Public Affairs and Sustainable Development Manager at KP.

On a journey to carbon neutrality
One of KP’s most important long-term commitments is a 30% reduction of its carbon footprint across the entire value chain, i.e. emissions related to its packaging, logistics, beer cooling and sourcing brewing ingredients, such as barley and hops.

• In the 2022 Report, for the first time, KP published detailed data on these emissions, indicating what has already been achieved, also in terms of “Creating Meaningful Connections”.

• Together with the Eurocash Group, the biggest FMCG wholesale distributor in the country, the company reorganized truck transportation between the two businesses within the framework of the “Single Source” project.

• In the years 2015-2022, thanks to many implementations, the company reduced its CO2 emissions from transportation by 15.3% (17,452 t). The manufacturer continues to improve its solutions in the area of warehousing and transportation of its products, as well as storing them at points of sales.

• KP has about 65 thousand refrigerators to sell beer – it consistently replaces old models with new ones that use up to 40% less energy. This has resulted in a 6% reduction in emissions from the cooling process over the past two years. Additionally, removing energy-intensive open fridges allowed the company to reduce the emissions from the cooling process by further 5%, while raising the default temperature inside the in-store cooling appliances from 2°C do 5°C, so far, has brough a 4% reduction in the CO2 emissions generated by points of sale in the cooling process.

In 2021, the beer producer transitioned to powering its facilities with electricity generated by wind farms, which translated into a 55% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions across the company breweries. In 2022, 100% of electricity consumed by the breweries and their warehouses came from renewable sources. 

Circular packaging
KP’s sales structure is dominated by packaging with significantly lower environmental impact – cans and reusable glass bottles, which together constitute 91% of the company’s sales. In 2022, 41% of KP beers were sold in reusable packaging, which ensures significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than other types of beer packaging. The second biggest packaging group are aluminum cans made in 50% from recycled materials.

Corporate Governance
At KP, diversity is a matter of key importance, therefore the company teams are diverse in terms of gender, age, ability level, education and ethnicity. All activities in that area are executed by the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Team.

One of the company goals is to increase the representation of women in leadership. By 2030, half of senior management positions at the company will be held by women. In 2022, 33.7% of all managerial positions were held by female employees. The pay gap between man and women at KP in 2022 ranged from +1% to -3%, which in practice represents equal pay for man and women. 

Society
Supporting those in need is one KP's operational priorities. The company provides financial support for both local and national social goals of great importance and encourages its employees to get involved in relevant activities, often assisting their efforts. “Kompania Wolontariuszy” (Company of Volunteers) is a corporate volunteering program conducted within the company, which in 2022 was joined by 1,700 out of 2,672 employees.

In 2022, the company put more emphasis on environmental education – thanks to a series of webinars called “How are you, our Planet?”, every quarter, all KP employees were provided with the opportunity to meet with experts from the field of broadly construed environmental protection and thus make eco-friendly changes in their own lives.

KP closely monitors local and global trends and market demand. Based on that, it regularly expands the offer with new flavors, premium brands and non-alcoholic beers. In 2022, Kompania Piwowarska was the leader of the 0.0% beer market, with a 34.5% market share. The goal is to achieve a 20% share of non-alcoholic products in the company sales by 2030. By taking this direction, the company responds to the changes in beer consumption and proves that it is aware and feels responsible for the health and safety of consumers. Moreover, KP addresses consumers with the use of messages and educational activities tackling extremely important issues, such as: 

• Drink driving – in 2022, the “Alcohol and car – it doesn’t rhyme” educational campaign reached 16m people.

• Alcohol consumption during pregnancy – the 2022 #FASOFF social campaign with the reach of 9.7m.

• Underage drinking.

Additionally, as part of its educational activities, the company was present at festivals sponsored by its brands with the “Check Your BAC” zone, where it was possible to take a professional breathalyzer test. Thanks to that, in 2022, over 72,000 sobriety checks were carried out at festivals. Moreover, nearly 484 people visited the abcalkoholu.pl platform run by the company, dedicated to broadly defined alcohol issues. 

Environment and biodiversity 
Established by KP in 2022, the Żubr Fund continued its activity, focusing on protecting the habitats of endangered animal species. In cooperation with the Dziedzictwo Przyrodnicze Foundation, it financed the purchase of 15 ha of land for so-called eternal forests, where no logging or planting is allowed. Additionally, the Fund financially supported the establishment of 50 micro-reserves, which are small protection zones around trees where endangered bird species breed. The Fund donated funds to the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowieża for the purchase of a “supercomputer”, which will process data from detectors installed across the Białowieża Forest with the use of artificial intelligence.