Water & Agriculture Specialist at The South African Breweries (SAB)

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

Water Stewardship:

• Co-develop and partner to implement the Zone plans to support the delivery of global and local ambitions/priorities.
• Identify and manage water risks in priority regions, ensuring a secure and sustainable water supply for operations and surrounding communities.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, such as government, local water authorities, academia, technology providers, and NGOs to implement water stewardship initiatives, including promoting nature-based solutions to enhance watershed protection and restoration as well as strengthening water infrastructure to improve service delivery”).
• Partner on optimization of water usage across operations, reducing the overall water footprint.
• Support innovative water conservation and circularity and reuse technologies within ABInBev facilities.
• Regularly monitor, report, and improve water performance metrics to meet sustainability goals.
• Proactively advise on opportunities for the company to enhance reputational status & regulatory compliance for water stewardship initiatives.

Sustainable Agriculture:

• Develop and implement programs to promote sustainable local sourcing of raw materials, such as barley, sorghum, maize and cassava, while reducing the environmental impact of farming practices, in line with Local/Global priorities/ambitions.
• Collaborate with partners, local farmers and suppliers to improve agricultural resilience through training, financial & resource support, as well as access to climate-smart technologies.
• Monitor the sustainability of the agricultural supply chain, ensuring compliance with the Company’s Responsible Sourcing Standards.
• Support the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices to improve crop & soil resilience as well as biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.
• Build partnerships with academic institutions, research bodies, technology providers and industry stakeholders to foster innovation in sustainable farming.
• Regularly monitor, report, and improve sustainable agriculture performance metrics to meet sustainability goals.
• Manage tech providers/data systems integrations for effective reporting.

Compliance and Reporting

• Support compliance with local water and agriculture-related regulations and industry standards.
• Keep abreast of the latest policy, research and best practice on evolving social and environmental risks/opportunities
• Provide regular sustainability performance reports for internal and external stakeholders, including data on water usage, agricultural impact, and progress toward company targets.
• Support the preparation of content for annual sustainability reports and other corporate disclosures.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Act as the company’s representative for water and agriculture matters at industry forums, conferences, and stakeholder meetings.
• Build strong relationships with governmental bodies, NGOs, and other organizations to drive collaborative initiatives.
• Engage stakeholders to break barriers to water investments in relevant markets.
• Work closely with internal teams (procurement, corporate affairs, supply, sustainability to integrate water and agriculture strategies into business operations.
• Ability to combine both strategic and practical perspectives to ensure Zone wide initiatives are translated to practical implementation measures that will deliver business results in market.

Key Attributes and Competencies:

• Strong leadership and project management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication (written & verbal) and stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Problem-solving, results orientation, analytical and strategic thinking skills.
• Strong understanding of sustainability and environmental issues.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science, Agriculture, Water Resources Management, Engineering, Sustainability, or related field.
• A Master’s degree will be an advantage.
• 5-8 years of experience in water resource management, sustainable agriculture, or related fields, with a strong track record of delivering results.
• Expertise in water risk assessments, watershed management, and agricultural sustainability.
• Familiarity with data analysis tools and sustainability reporting frameworks (e.g., GRI, CDP, SASB).
• Knowledge of climate-smart and regenerative farming practices.