The HEINEKEN Company – Brewing a Better Future

Bringing responsibilty to life to meet a global sustainability challenge.

The Challenge

As part of their ambition to become the World’s Greenest Brewer by the year 2020, HEINEKEN has developed a long-term Sustainability programme called 'Brewing a Better Future' to build on the Company’s historical commitment to be a more sustainable Company. Brewing a Better Future is a global initiative, which looks to improve the impact of the company’s operations on the environment, empower the communities and people impacted by its operations and to positively impact the role of beer in society.

HEINEKEN introduced the programme in 2009, and continues to focus its efforts on achieving its targets but also embedding this commitment in their operations and ways of working around the world. HEINEKEN has defined 6 core initiatives to guide the Company’s efforts over the coming years, which are captured in the graphic below.

Our challenge was to support the delivery of the programmes with a suite of informative and action-inducing e-learning modules, which would enable HEINEKEN to educate its employees about the complexities of sustainability in an engaging and easily understood way. The end goal? To help employees at all levels on their path to understanding and supporting HEINEKEN’s sustainability initiatives.

The Solution

Brewing a Better Future covers a vast range of topics, from the drivers for the commitments the Company has set to practical application of solutions to meet these commitments. Our approach was to create short, sharp e-learning modules that deliver the key messages succinctly and give employees clear and practical ways to put their sustainable practice into action.  

Content from the best of the best

The basis of high-impact e-learning is, of course, fantastic content. We were lucky to work with HEINEKEN’s leaders in their field to get content that worked for a culturally diverse audience and reflecting the global nature of the HEINEKEN Company. We worked closely with the Global Sustainable Development team within Global Corporate Relations, which sponsored the training: the courses aim to educate employees about the drivers, contributors and expectations of the various operations and teams who will play an active role in this journey and provide practical solutions for how all employees can contribute to Brewing a Better Future at work and at home.

Looking lovely? That's the unique visual identity for the sustainability modules...  

HEINEKEN has developed a unique and distinctive look and feel for all its communications and training related to sustainability in line with its Corporate visual identity and values. Building on this great platform, we developed an identity for the courses to connect it to all the sustainability initiatives and so it could work in any of HEINEKEN’s wide range of operations. It’s a serious topic, but serious doesn’t need to be dull, right? Animations with playful imagery make important messages all the more memorable.

Want sustainable learning? Use a structure that sticks

We wanted people to get to the point quickly and to know what the relevance was for them. So, we split each course into three bite-sized topics – ‘Introduction’; ‘Overview’; and ‘Your Contribution’.

The ‘Introduction’ section is all about why the topic matters to the business and its various stakeholders, and how it fits in to supporting the Brewing a Better Future pyramid.

The ‘Overview’ section covers the essentials about the course’s topic, with challenges to put the content into practice.

‘Your Contribution’ is where we give the learner a clear call to action – what can they do to make a difference? This not only covers small, day-to-day changes that will positively affect the environment, but also covers changes in people’s attitudes that make that ongoing and more personal difference.

The Results

So far we’ve produced six Sustainability modules, some of which are in the process of being translated, and there are more to come. These courses allow HEINEKEN employees to learn about what HEINEKEN’s doing, and what they can do to help deliver on the organisation’s Brewing a Better Future commitment. We’re proud to be part of supporting HEINEKEN’s ongoing Sustainability ambition, creating courses that will have a positive impact on the business, environment, people, and their communities. And of course, e-learning is about as carbon friendly as you can get in the training world!