Sustainability Magazine June 2025 | Article Title

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PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT ASAHI

DRAHOMIRA MANDIKOVA

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.

TITLE : GROUP CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY OFFICER

COMPANY: ASAHI GROUP HOLDINGS INDUSTRY: FOOD & BEVERAGES LOCATION: TOKYO, JAPAN

Drahomira Mandikova spent 10 years as Corporate Affairs Manager for SABMiller in Slovakia, before nine years as Director of Corporate Affairs and Communication, Czech and Slovak Republic, Plzeňský Prazdroj. Following three years as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Asahi Europe & International, Drahomira became CSO of Asahi Group Holdings in March 2024.

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.

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AND HOW ARE YOU DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY AT ASAHI? 60%

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.

OF ASAHI’S REVENUE

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.

COMES FROM ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

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.

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June 2025

Drahomira Mandikova, Group Chief Sustainability Officer,

Asahi Group Holdings

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BEER BRANDS OWNED BY ASAHI GROUP HOLDINGS

NON- ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES BEER

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40 %

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.

OF ASAHI’S REVENUE IS FROM FOOD AND SOFT DRINKS

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.

WATCH NOW

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.

2023 sustainability highlights

HOW HAS YOUR NEW CENTRAL PROCUREMENT TEAM HELPED?

A very important part of our journey related to Scope 3 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.