Environmental commitment

For more than a century, FEMSA has operated with an awareness of its impacts on the environment and an attendant commitment to reducing those impacts and developing sustainable operations. Our environmental policy governs the actions of our business units and leads us to take environmental considerations into account in everything we do.

The principles upon which our policy is based include the following:

• Innovation in our operations through environmentally friendly technologies.
• Continuous training of associates in techniques designed to protect the environment.
• Active encouragement of environmental leadership among our associates.
• Constant awareness of opportunities to reduce our environmental impacts and use of natural resources through efficiency, innovation, and performance monitoring.

Listed below are a few of the actions we have taken to reduce our environmental impacts and work toward more sustainable operation:

Water use

• Our efforts to conserve water in our operations have resulted in a savings, over the past five years, of 10.6 million cubic meters of water-enough to supply 38,000 households annually.
• Our 33 wastewater treatment plants, 20 of which are located in Mexico, contribute for the more efficient use of water at FEMSA's facilities.
• We have developed in 2008, the first great action introduced by the FEMSA Foundation in conjunction with Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB): The Water Center for Latin America and the Caribbean (CAALCA). This Center fosters to solve the major water problems that people of this region undergo.
• In FEMSA Cerveza, thanks to the Environmental Administration System, our plants have reduced up to 54% the quantity of used water, achieving to be a world reference in the beer industry regarding to water saving. We have achieved to produce one beer liter using 3.8 water liters; this amount compares to a world average of 10 water liters per beer liter produced. In 2008, this System was awarded with the Best Environmental Practices recognition by CEMEFI.
   

Energy use

• In 2004, we invested nearly Ps.23 million in energy savings programs, which over the past five years have saved 140 million kilowatt-hours of electricity-equivalent to the annual electricity use of 108,000 households per year.
• We have reduced the consume of gas in our beverage operations in 9% annually per unit produced.
• In 2008, after two years of investigations, the Insumos Estratégicos area developed the Neviz refrigerator, which nowadays is the world's friendliest cooler with the environment. Its electric energy consume is comparable to a 25 watts light bulb, besides it uses an inert cooling gas that is totally recyclable when its useful time is over.
• We use compact vehicles that run on electricity rather than gasoline in high-traffic areas such as downtown Mexico City.

Recycling

• Together with ALPLA, a plastics packaging company, and Coca-Cola de Mexico, we invested US$20 million in the construction of the IMER food-grade, bottle-for-bottle, PET recycling plant.
• In 2008, the IMER plant, achieved to process more than 12,000 tons of PET, out of which 7,800 were incorporated to new bottles. During 2008 the quantity of PET recycled in the plant increased 70% compared to 2007.
• In the last two years we have recycled mores than 12,000 tons of aluminum equivalent to 901 million of aluminum cans.
• We made savings for 22.1 million of hour-kilowatts of electricity through the recycling of 64,000 tons of glass in the last two years.
• In our strategic business units we all contribute to the confinement of batteries; organic, inorganic and recyclable trash separation; promoting other ecological actions among our employees, their families and the visitors we have in our facilities.

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