Budweiser Budvar registration failures show ESG impacts of U.K. noncompliance

Most businesses think more about their products than what they come wrapped in, but a recent U.K. penalty against Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar indicates packaging is an increasingly important element in sustainability regulations.

Last month, the U.K.’s Environment Agency found the brewer failed to register for 18 years with the government as a producer of packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007. The company agreed to pay 414,000 pounds (U.S. $532,000) to charity to reflect the savings it had made by not complying in the first place, plus a 30 percent fine and agency costs.

“It’s important that businesses take responsibility for the packaging that they place on the U.K. market,” said Jake Richardson, a spokesperson with the agency, in an Aug. 15 press release. Richardson acknowledged Budweiser Budvar remedied its failure to pay its “rightful share” toward the recycling of its packaging.