Drahomira Mandikova: A Refreshing Approach to Sustainability

Please tell us a bit about Asahi

Asahi is an exciting business because it's a global business based on beer. It was established in Osaka in 1889 and then started to grow – firstly in Japan, becoming number one in the country with the amazing  Super “Dry” beer, but also acquiring other businesses, moving to beverages and food.

The portfolio is really diverse in Japan: 60% of the revenue comes from alcoholic beverages, but the other 40% is food and soft drinks.

And then the company decided to grow and to bring Asahi to the world, but also acquire new brands because it is a lot about the people and brands for the company.

Beer brands owned by Asahi Group Holdings:

Beer

• Asahi Super Dry
• Peroni Nastro Azzurro
• Kozel
• Pilsner Urquell
• Grolsch
• Great Northern
• Carlton Draught
• Victoria Bitter
• Tyskie
• Ursus
• Radegast
• London Pride
• Gambrinus
• Lech
• Zubr.

Non-alcoholic beverages

• Birell
• Dry Zero
• Beery
• Great Northern Zero
• Mitsuya Cider
• Wilkinson
• Calpis
• Wonda
• Cool Ridge
• Goodday.

What is your role and how are you driving sustainability at Asahi?

Sustainability has been a part of the business for many years. But there was a different approach in different regions. So my role as the global chief sustainability officer is to ensure that we integrate our sustainability approaches into every decision, every business process, everything that we do.

One key thing is to build our global capabilities. So we are working on the IT system now to collect the data that we need. We also launched a common methodology for Scope 3 measurements.

Everybody was doing it their way to collect or understand the Scope 3 impact. So we created one methodology on the global level – a standardised approach.

What is Asahi doing to enhance supply chain sustainability, particularly in relation to Scope 3?

We have a very bold commitment. We want to be net zero by 2040 for scopes 1, 2 and 3.

By 2030, we are targeting a 70% decrease in scopes 1 and 2 and 30% Scope 3.

So what we are doing now with all colleagues around the world is the roadmap of where we can get to, what are the required costs, investments, change management related to this, where the solution exists, where it's still a problem, the feasibility of all these actions.

So this is my role – to ensure that we understand how to do these things, not just to have a lovely commitment.

We are really accelerating the progress in all these areas.

Last but not least, the reason why I'm here in London is just to make Asahi Group more visible and to engage with partners because sustainability cannot be done by one company or one industry.

How has your new central procurement team helped?

A very important part of our journey related to Scope Three was the establishment one year ago of our central procurement team. It's connecting all people working in procurement around the world.

The central team is in Singapore and we have people there who are only dedicated to sustainability and innovation.

The second very important thing is human rights because we have suppliers in different areas and we are going to ensure that human rights are really protected, not only for our employees but also for employees of our partners, our suppliers.

The third pillar is agriculture. To brew beer, you need to have a quality valley, quality hops and you need to work with the farmers. And we do a lot of direct cooperation and also helping with the sustainability agenda with them. And this is driven by procurement. It was a big change in the governance and organisation, but really helpful because we have a team which is focused on this, we are engaging with our partners, we contact suppliers, we are sharing what we believe in and inviting them to be with us on our journey.

What is it that you love about your job?

I have been with the business for 25 years and I am originally an economist. I worked in a bank and then I felt like it was not really for me. So despite studying economics, I actually established the school magazine. I was chief editor and this brought me to the beer business because the beer business was about people, about meaningful connections where people really can have fun together.

I came to Plzeňský Prazdroj and I was so curious to know everything. They showed me the original production of Pilsner in cellars and it's so unique. And I met people who were from the families of those people who established that brewery and they shared the stories. I have to say I was never drinking beer before. I came from a family where my grandfather was Hungarian, so we drank homemade wine if we were drinking alcohol. It was like the first contact when I had a sip of Pilsner Urquell. I fell in love with it.

It is all about people working there, the brands we have and how we ensure that we are able to bring them to consumers today. I did a lot in Europe about communication, reputation, crisis management, the regulatory agenda and lobbying, but sustainability was part of that.

I always felt it's my personal purpose to shift the business environment to broader sustainability. It’s somewhere I feel I can have a meaningful impact.

In terms of the brewing industry, how do you see its future (in regards to sustainability, low- and no-alcohol products, etc)?

I think we have a great advantage of being naturally circular from the early years. So this helps. I think it's part of the natural way of doing this business, being sustainable and being more on target towards net zero.

We are progressing very well as an industry. I think the majority of the brewers stepped into this space and started to ensure that renewable electricity is part of our operations.

What is challenging for every industry is the heat, the carbonisation. We see it in our operations at Asahi. So we are trying to do different things. We use heat pumps in the UK in other regions. In Italy, we source the heat decarbonisation from solar panels.

Our R&D centre at Asahi is very innovative, like many Japanese companies. We are working on translating the biomass into the source of renewable energy. So there are many things happening, but it remains a challenge.

Packaging is an important part of Scope 3. We did a lot of work for example with the can producers because if you have recycled content in the can, the emissions are much lower.
We are working with the producers to ensure the collections. We were working in different markets on the deposit return schemes to ensure that consumers are bringing the cans back.

Because circularity is integrated into all processes, when we are doing innovations, the people have the sustainability criteria, not just commercial criteria. Marketers know that if they propose to have a non-returnable glass bottle, it's read from the perspective of the emissions. So can we bring this product to consumers in a different package? Can we reduce emissions through the return of a bottle? Can we do it in a can?

Of course it's very complex. Every country has a different scheme, different infrastructure. But it's about the understanding in the business that, with every decision you make, you can impact that result.

So I'm positive. It's not easy, but I'm positive.

Anything else you'd like to add?

In some areas, water is another area we are focusing on. One element is the direct water consumption in our manufacturing. We are at a best in class level in the majority of our sites, especially in Europe with water consumption.

From my perspective, the key closing message is that we are progressing where we work together with others. Sustainability cannot be addressed by one industry – it's really the whole ecosystem. So we need to engage with everybody to look for solutions. And probably the most difficult but very important part is the engagement with consumers so that people get it.

To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.

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