Green Practices, Supply Chains & Performance Of Kenya’S Brewing Industry

Abstract

Green supply chain management is a relatively new area of study especially in the African and Kenyan context. This study set out to find out how well the brewing industry in Kenya has adopted and implemented green practices in its supply chain. It sought to investigate how well the major barley commercial farmers, the malting plant, the commercial breweries and major craft brewers have adopted and implemented green practices within their processes. This is because Kenya is one of the countries that are adversely affected by water scarcity and the brewing sector is one that heavily interacts with the environment, given that it obtains all its raw materials (barley, malt, sorghum etc.) and process requirements like water and energy from the environment. The study investigated the key drivers of green practices in these organizations, the common practices and any opportunities that are yet to be explored in this area. It sought to find out any impact on financial and environmental performance in the organizations within the brewing supply chain that had effectively implemented green practices. The research took on a cross-sectional case study of the following organizations in the brewing supply chain: East African Maltings Limited and associated barley farmers, Kenya Breweries Limited, Keroche Breweries Limited and craft breweries like Brew Bistro and Sierra lounge. Findings from the study revealed that adoption and implementation of green practices within the brewing supply chain ranged from low to moderate adoption, with the farmers and three of the breweries demonstrating a low level of adoption and implementation of green practices, and one brewery and the malting plant demonstrating moderate levels of the same. The finding also revealed that the key drivers across all were cost reduction and strict government regulations, while factors like internal management structures such as ISO 14001 certification were found to have propelled the afore mentioned organizations to moderate levels of ‘greening’. Top management support was found to be an essential success factor in successful greening, and for the brewery that had moderately adopted and implemented green practices through set internal structures, financial savings were able to be demonstrated especially in the area of energy management. The data obtained was not enough to conclude a direct correlation between implementation of green practices and positive financial performance, although it gave give a good indication that investment in the right green practices can result to financial savings.