Kampala — Nile Breweries (NBL), a subsidiary of SABMiller, has adapted a 10-point programme to grow its business but with an approach at sustaining nature and humanity.

The "Ten Priorities-One Future" sustainable development draws on the belief that businesses will not exist for long if they do not integrate sustainable approaches.

"The idea is to use the current resources to make profits without compromising the future," said Onapito Ekomoloit, the NBL director of corporate affairs, at the launch of the Sustainable Report 2010 in Kampala.

Already, the sustainable development efforts have enabled Nile Breweries remit sh100b in taxes for the last financial year.

Some of the key priorities of the campaign will be making more beer using less water. The company envisages that by 2015, the average water use per hectoliter of beer produced will drop by 25%.

The other is discouraging irresponsible drinking and integrating enterprise development of local Ugandans in the company's value chain.

Through the value chain programme, so far 11,000 farmers are producing sorghum and barley in what Onapito refers to as contributing to "Uganda's rural agriculture transformation."

"A malting plant is being built in Jinja. The import bill will decrease. But the biggest contribution is providing market and employment," said Onapito. Eagle beer produced using locally grown sorghum is now the biggest selling beer in Uganda. In the first season of 2010, NBL will spend sh6b in buying grain from farmers.