Determining the content of the reporting

Scope of the CSR reporting
We are reporting on relevant and significant social, ethical and environmental issues for the financial year starting on January 1st 2010 and ending on December 31st 2010. The reporting is done via the Group wide CSR reporting and management system.

We use various sources and inputs to determine the areas to be included in our CSR reporting. In 2009 we engaged an external consultant to determine which indicators were relevant. Since then, we have continuously improved and developed our performance measures through informal consultation with internal and external stakeholders, including students, NGOs, employees and other stakeholder groups. We use internationally recognised standards such as the GRI G3, the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006) and the IEA protocol for CO2 Emissions from fuel combustion (2009 Edition), in order to ensure comparability with other companies. We also receive recommendations on our CSR activities and reporting from our assurance provider KPMG.

In 2011 we will formalise our stakeholder engagement work and hold discussions with internal and external stakeholders to gain a better understanding of the Carlsberg Group's most significant CSR issues. We will collate this information in next year’s report and produce an assessment for stakeholders which will provide a more transparent overview of the CSR issues we face as a global business. It will also ensure that we report on all our significant CSR issues.

Boundary setting
Entities included in the performance data include majority-owned subsidiaries, which are defined as companies which Carlsberg Breweries A/S directly or indirectly owns, in which it controls more than 50% of the voting rights or which it in some other form controls. However, the coverage for each indicator in our external reporting varies and our environmental and safety indicators only include the impacts of our production sites or processes (see definitions).

Joint ventures and companies where Carlsberg does not exercise management control are not included in the reported data. We are, however, continuously working together with our partners to ensure a consistent focus on CSR issues.

Any majority-owned entities acquired during the financial year will be included in the reporting for the following year.

Comments on Boundary setting:
·  Baku Castel in Azerbaijan is not included in the 2010 performance data as our systems were not fully integrated, even though the company was acquired in August 2008. The company will be included from the financial year 2011. The impact is not assessed to be significant.

·  Gorkha Brewery in Nepal and Baku Castel in Azerbaijan will be included in the performance data for 2011.

·  The following sites have been removed since the 2009 report: Lingwu (China, closed), Arendal (Norway, sold), Pori (Finland, closed)

·  The following sites have been added since the 2009 report: Korle (China, brownfield brewery)

·  In order to obtain a more correct reporting structure in Carlsberg Malawi, the Blantyre site reported on in 2009 will be reported as three entities in 2010, i.e. SOBO Blantyre, MDL and Carlsberg Malawi Brewery Ltd (CMBL). 

Ensuring data quality


When collecting information on our CSR performance, we have used the widely accepted principles of balance, clarity, accuracy, reliability, timeliness and comparability.

Additional information on each of these principles is given below: 

Balance
We are committed to communicating honestly and openly about our performance, both when it has improved and when it has not. Our aim is to provide our stakeholders with sufficient information about our company to enable them to make their own judgements concerning the Carlsberg Group’s position and role in the societies where we do business.  

Clarity
We are striving to make our CSR reporting accessible and easy to read. We have consulted with usability and web experts to ensure that the performance data and reports are easy to understand and well-communicated on our corporate website.

Accuracy & reliability
In 2009, we implemented a new CSR reporting system to help us collect data from the local sites and collate it on an overall group level. In 2010, we reinforced the use of this programme and improved the definitions of many of our performance indicators to help our entities report accurate and reliable data. However, we recognise that we still have challenges in obtaining a complete and fully aligned overview of all our CSR data, especially when it comes to local procedures for data gathering.

Our reporting system is developed by Enablon, an international provider of CSR software solutions. The system gives us a high degree of control over the data gathering process and helps the local companies compare data year-on-year. It also allows instant consistency checks during the data gathering phase.

We have appointed KPMG to provide independent assurance on selected environmental indicators. In the various web sections, we indicate which data have been assured. For further details see KPMG Assurance Report.

Timeliness
Internally, we report on our CSR data with varying frequency, determined by the nature of the information. Health and Safety data are reported on a monthly and quarterly basis. All other CSR data are collected annually. Where necessary, we are revising the frequency of reporting in order to strike the right balance and to obtain the right data at the right frequency. Our annual data gathering and external reporting is aligned with the financial data reporting, which is based on the calendar year.

Comparability
Our reporting criteria and indicators are based on the GRI G3 guidelines (2006) where applicable. Where our indicator definitions vary from GRI, we make these publicly available (see definitions section) to enable greater transparency and comparability within our CSR performance data.

2010 was the second year that CSR data were gathered across the Group using our new CSR reporting system. We have used 2010 as the baseline for our CSR performance measurement. Comparable data is available for 2009 and 2010 for the majority of our indicators, but some are new and do not have historical data. From 2011, we will include three year comparisons, in accordance with the GRI recommendations, for all data where a three year history is available.

Definitions
We have identified differences in the interpretation of some indicators at site level during the reporting process. However, we do not believe these differences are significant for the validity of the reported data.

Within the Environmental data, any reference to 'production site' or 'site' refers to sites where we produce beer, soft drinks or malt, as well as combinations of these, and the consumption from these sites. The term 'production site' does not include off-site consumption in logistics and off-site administration.

You can download the definitions for our environmental indicators from the left hand column.

Targets
We report on two different types of targets and plans:

1) One-year short-term plans

2) Three-year targets and objectives

These have been developed by each of the functional owners of the CSR focus areas. The targets may be adjusted if significant changes occur in the business, such as major acquisitions and divestments if these are made before the target date. As far as possible, we allow for such changes by applying scenario-planning to our target setting process.