Green is More than the Colour of the Bottle

Environmental Issues at Heineken Breweries over the Long Term

Author(s)

  • Keetie Sluyterman Utrecht University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.11685

Abstract

‘Going green’ has been an important issue for business since the last decade of the twentieth century, but also earlier, companies had to deal with environmental concerns or took measures that had an environmental impact, either positive or negative. Based on archival research, this article looks at the way the Dutch brewer Heineken has reacted to a number of environmental issues during its long history and how it has responded to the evolving concept of sustainability. The article shows that in some cases the company reacted defensively, but in others it was proactive, especially when environmentally friendly measures offered opportunities for innovation. All these measures were taken in the hope of being allowed to keep growing the business.

Sinds het laatste decennium van de twintigste eeuw is ‘vergroenen’ een belangrijk onderwerp geworden voor het bedrijfsleven, maar ook in eerdere periodes moesten bedrijven milieuproblemen aanpakken of namen zij maatregelen die een positief of negatief effect op het milieu hadden. Dit artikel bespreekt, op basis van archiefonderzoek, op welke manier de Nederlandse brouwer Heineken gedurende zijn lange geschiedenis omging met een aantal milieukwesties en hoe hij reageerde op het steeds veranderende concept duurzaamheid. Het artikel laat zien dat deze onderneming in sommige gevallen defensief reageerde, maar in andere proactief, vooral wanneer het nemen van maatregelen een mogelijkheid tot innovatie inhield. Dit alles gebeurde in de hoop dat de onderneming mocht blijven groeien.

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Author Biography

  • Keetie Sluyterman, Utrecht University

    Keetie Sluyterman is emeritus professor of business history at the Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She has written or jointly authored business histories of Rabobank, Royal Dutch Shell, Heineken and many others, and wrote an overview of Dutch business: Dutch Enterprise in the Twentieth Century. Business Strategies in a Small Open Economy (Routledge 2005). Her research interests include multinationals, Corporate Social Responsibility and Varieties of Capitalism, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Recently she published: Keetie Sluyterman and Gerarda Westerhuis, ‘The Changing Role of CEOs in Dutch Listed Companies, 1957-2007’, Enterprise & Society 23:3 (2022) 711-745, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2020.77.
    E-mail: k.e.sluyterman@uu.nl.

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Published

2022-12-22

How to Cite

Sluyterman, K. (2022). Green is More than the Colour of the Bottle: Environmental Issues at Heineken Breweries over the Long Term. BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 137(4), 43-64. https://doi.org/10.51769/bmgn-lchr.11685