SOUTH AFRICAN BREWERIES (SAB) CALLS FOR RESPONSIBLE DRINKING & ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS PART OF ESG STRATEGY

By Zimkhita Kweza

In 2021 the over 100 year’s old beverage producer South African Brewery (SAB) launched its very first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy. SAB Corporate Affairs VP Zoleka Lisa said the company’s ESG strategy was built around eight strategic priorities: climate action; water stewardship; entrepreneurship; diversity and inclusion; circular packaging; smart agriculture; responsible consumption; and ethics and transparency.

The company says it is aware of the harmful effects of alcoholic products and how the misuse of alcohol has become a big problem for the South African government and the public at large. According to the Medical Research Council of South Africa (the MRC report) drunk driving is one of the biggest threats to road safety in South Africa. Research indicates that 50% of people who die on the roads have a blood alcohol concentration above the legal 0.05 gram per 100 millilitres.

The 2025 Goal

SAB’s goal is to lead responsible consumption by measurably enabling responsible communities, responsible driving, responsible marketing and responsible trading. In order to drive this agenda further, the company launched its evidence based responsible consumption platform called SAB Sharp. SAB Sharp is a 5 year (2021-2025) outcome based strategy split into four key pillars namely, Live Sharp, Drive Sharp, Talk Sharp and Sell Sharp. This platform includes the SAB Sharp Charter that consists of a manifesto of SAB’s commitment to championing responsibility which includes a citizen’s commitment that South Africans can sign up to on the SAB website.

Live Sharp

The first pillar Live Sharp is committed to empowering responsible communities that the company does business with through securing and protecting jobs and reducing the prevalence of GBV (Gender Based Violence) in hotspot areas. Programmes under this pillar include supporting over 30 000 businesses across its value chain, uplifting and protecting 2 000 women in at risk communities and training over 100 000 men through #NoExcuse (GBV program).

Drive Sharp

The goal for this pillar is to help law authorities enforce regulations discouraging drunk driving thus, reducing alcohol related incidents in hotspot areas. One of the ways SAB plans to achieve this is by ensuring that 30% of accused drunk drivers are successfully prosecuted through the Alcohol Evidence Centre (AEC) program.

Talk Sharp

Talk Sharp focuses on the language used in the brand’s marketing content across all platforms and aims to encourage healthy conversations around alcohol use in hopes of reducing issues such as binge drinking. This pillar hopes to drive behavioural change by as little as 5% within targeted group’s pre and post intervention.

Sell Sharp

Responsible trading is detrimental to the reduction of alcohol misuse and issues such as underage drinking, SAB is pioneer- ing responsible consumption by training and rewarding businesses that promote responsible drinking within different communities.

Encouraging Entrepreneurship

In a country with a youth unemployment rate of 32.9% entrepreneurship and job creation has always been at the heart of SAB, the company has invested in entrepreneurs within their value chain, focusing on farmers, retailers and social innovators and empowering women entrepreneurs. The brewery’s 2025 entrepreneurship goal is to support 30 000 small and medium businesses across SAB’s value chain and drive the growth of 15 000 women-owned businesses in townships and rural areas.

“Best of all, 90% of the beneficiaries come from rural areas and 70% are woman with 50% of the beneficiaries being youth. That is the kind of change we are proud to drive in this country that we love so dearly,” says SAB Corporate Affairs VP Lisa.

SAB aims to support over 50 000 businesses across its value chain and ensure they thrive in challenging environments. Formed in 2010 as a B-BBEE transaction, the SAB Foundation was set up as an independent trust able to invest millions of rands to drive entrepreneurship and employment in South Africa. Since then, the SAB Foundation has deployed over R534 million in grand funding, business development support and interest-free loans to 5 229 entities between 2015 and 2022.

The entrepreneurial investment and support is demonstrated through several flagship programmes listed below:

• Disability Empowerment: supporting disabled entrepreneurs and social innovation that improves the quality of life for people with disability.

• Rural Catalyst Programme: supporting strategic farming models and initiatives in areas where there is high poverty.

• Social Innovation Awards: supporting and scaling businesses targeting solutions to social challenges.

• Tholoana Enterprise Programme: investing in entrepreneurs who show the potential and commitment to grow a business and create jobs.

SAB is proud to report its 2021 entrepreneurship achievements that comprised of 5 229 entities supported through the SAB Foundation entrepreneurship programme. This is followed by 85% of Foundation Covid Relief beneficiaries indicating that they would have closed down if they had not received support and 63.8% farmers supported indicated being more profitable as a result of the support received.

“We want to support entrepreneurs on their journey and show our commitment to providing a tangible and sustainable future for all South Africans,” says Lisa.