San Miguel Corporation

IV. BEST PRACTICES

This portion contains the best practices of San Miguel Corporation that was also adopted by some of
their subsidiaries. It includes the policies and regulations they implemented to achieve their business
objectives. Furthermore, the strategic decisions they made to optimize the business process and
production of goods and service in way that will be beneficial for the company, stakeholder, the
environment and its consumers.

A. Environmental Programs
San Miguel Foundation Inc.’s environmental program includes land, water and air conservation.
Smaller-scale-tree-planting operations are carried out by the foundation in locations recommended
by various San Miguel Corporation (SMC) plants. Tree planting campaign are typically timed to
coincide with botanical holidays.

The Foundation promotes coastal water conservation through its Coastal Resource Management
program, which promotes artificial reef installation, mangrove restoration, and marine resource
renewal. Waste management training is also provided, and plant facilities donate garbage cans.
B. Applied Color Labeling (ACL) Recovery
It is a screen printing method where the paint is directly applied to the raw glass bottle. Previously,
the handling for misprinted bottle labels requires the used of hefty amount of water due to the need
of extensive cleansing of the bottle. Therefore, the organization adopted Applied Color Labeling which
requires minimal used of water and is cost effective as it reduced the amount of materials needed for
paint production for their bottle labels. This method requires the misprinted bottles to undergone
manual scraping,collecting and melting the scrapped misprints and then blend it with unused raw
material to produce a labeling paint.This is mainly practiced by two of their subsidiaries namely, San
Miguel Yamamura Asia and Mandaue Glass Plant.Meanwhile, Mincorr and San Miguel Rengo resorted
to the use of lead-free printing ink to make it safe for use and recycling.

C. Vermicomposting of Mandaue Brewery

Vermicomposting allows the creation of nutrient-rich soil that will serve as a gradual organic fertilizer
and is made possible through the used of earthworms to convert organic waste.The earthworm that
Mandaue Brewery plant uses is African Night Crawler. The allotted facility for the cultured
earthworms is a concrete housing covered with a roof making it conducive environment for worms.
The finished result, vermicompost,is comprised entirely of partially digested waste and worm
excretions. The soil conditioner is supplemented with vermicompost, which is of higher quality than a
regular compost. To promote the used of this method, independent farmers, as well as some SMC
staff, received vermicomposting training and seminars.

D. Recycling Practices at Manila Plastic Plant

For the past thirty years, the Manila Plastics Plant has been conducting regular recycling operations.
The company began by recycling plastic from its own internal waste. The rejected materials are
grounded before being infused with virgin raw materials with a ratio of ten percent recycled crates
and ninety percent for the former.This makes a significant contribution on making a clean and healthy
environment while effectively reducing manufacturing cost.Defective crates are recycled into a San
Miguel Beer green crates.

Rightpak International Corporation, one of SMC’s subsidiary,produces plastic pallets with waste
laminates as its one components.Plastic pallets, which are used to hold bottled beverages, now
contain up to 50% recycled material. Manila Plastic Plant is consistently researching and developing
new technology in order to achieve the appropriate hues of crate colors by varying pigment intensity
and formulation.It is looking into generating accurate possible applications for plastic garbage and
trimmings to ensure that nothing is wasted.

E. Cullet Recovery at Glass Plants

Also known as glass recycling, a process wherein the defective and/or used glasses are crushed and
grounded to turn it into a usable product. Cullet recycling reduces the use of virgin raw materials.Culls
are made up of silica,feldspar,limestone, and soda ash.Seeing as cullets melt faster than raw
materials, the factories were able to reduce their reliance on electricity. Furthermore, recycling cullet
aids in reducing the amount of glass bottles dumped into the environment. During manufacturing, the
infusion of cullet to the mix reduces greenhouse gas emission.Cullet was said to be beneficial for the
glass maker, the environment and consumer.

Glass bottles for beverages,alcoholic beverages and other products are manufactured at Manila Glass
Plant, SM Yamamura Asia Corporation, Mandaue Glass Plant and PrimePak. Broken bottles and cullets
are reconfigured and undergoes separation procedure. The toughness and quality of these lightweight
bottles are on par with their bulkier counterparts. Cullets are used as a raw material source in these
glass manufacturing plants. The cullets comes from the facility’s internal rejects as well as certified
glass purchasers. Specifically, SM Yamamura Asia Corporation manufactures GLASSLite bottles, which
are lightweight and made with fewer raw materials.

F. Waste Ink Reuse at San Miguel Rengo Packaging Corporation

When it comes to printing on corrugated carton boxes, ink that has been specially developed for a
specific demand typically has leftovers, and these leftovers can only be used for the same type of
project. When reorders are spaced widely apart, the remaining ink is rendered useless and
squandered In March 2003, the plant devised a method to reformulate or reconstitute the residual
ink in order to standardize the same or different color shade. Since mid-August 2003, the facility has
recycled 5,779 kilogram. By using cheaper substitutes, they were able to ink and 650,000 pesos in
raw material costs. This helped the plant save money on waste management and disposal.

G. Using Waste for Feeds

The fermentation sludge from Distilleria Bago, Inc. is used as fertilizer. Sludge fermentation produces
easily biodegradable organic materials. Microbes degrade biodegradable materials in the absence of
oxygen. SMC breweries also have a mechanism in place to recover residual grain and bagasse from
the brewing process, which B-Meg collects and used it as fertilizer.

H. Coca-Cola’s ‘”Mission P.E.T.”

Mission P.E.T. where P.E.T. means Pinoy Environment Team is a project that was established and led
by Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. in 1999. The project supports the marketing of CCBPI’s product
in one way containers by promoting the identification,gathering,sorting, and recovery of post-
consumer PET containers and aluminum cans, which aids in the marketing of CCBPI products in one-
way containers.

In order to entice customers to engage in the collection, CCBPI established recovery facilities in a few
supermarkets to save post-consumer PET soft drink bottles with a value. The continued
implementation of the project has demonstrated to be a useful contributor to the reduction of solid
waste volume. Collecting PET and aluminum containers also promotes employment, help preserve oil
and bauxite resources, and highlights the significance of efficient waste management.

I. Project Blue Sky

SMC’s Polo Brewery was the first to implement an anti-smoke spewing program on its property,
requiring a certificate of conformity from every vehicle entering the plant (COC). This project came
before the highly praised Project Blue Sky of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’
Clean Air Campaign, which was launched in 1994. More than one hundred twenty organizations have
now implemented the “no COC, no Admission” policy in their facilities, including SMC’s Mandaue and
San Fernando Breweries. The Philippine Business for Social Progress’ Center for Corporate Citizenship
is in charge of the project.

J. Environmental Forum
The quarterly Environmental Forum, which began in 1998, is organized by CTS-EMG. The forum is
intended for SMC staff members in charge of pollution management and control, particularly,
Pollution Control Officer. Its mission is to raise public awareness about environmental regulations,
emerging technologies, waste management, and the operation of waste treatment plants.
K. Disaster Management
This initiatives involves the distribution of aid to disaster-affected areas as well as rehabilitation
activities such as development of livelihood projects and the repair of school and child care facilities.
Both the employees who participate in fund-raising activities and the San Miguel Business Units plays
an active part in this endeavor.

L. Local Consumer Activities

These are marketing and sales initiatives to assist them in operating in regions where SMC already has
a presence or where they hope to establish a presence.

Reference

https://thinkuniversal.com/acl-printing/

https://pierreanjellisantos.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/san-miguel-corporation-spreading-
innovations/

https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recycling-US-broken/97/i6

https://www.sanmiguel.com.ph/page/environmental-and-other-programs

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijce/2012/861467/