Sustainability: BAT’s approach to ESG
Sustainability is a key strategic aspect for BAT and an important asset for the creation of a shared value system with our consumers, our shareholders and our stakeholders, in all the countries where our Group operates
Today, the BAT Group is going through a transition, moving from being a business where sustainability has always been simply important to one where it is instead front and centre in every aspect of its business.
We have made significant progress on our journey towards sustainability, as evidenced by our presence in the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the 19th consecutive year in 2020, as the only company in our industry, and by the many other independent awards we have received in this area.
Our strategy has evolved to deliver a better future for all our stakeholders, anticipating and meeting the evolving needs and wants of our consumers, reducing health risks and offering ever greater choice.
Our sustainability programme has therefore been updated to reflect and adapt to our environment. Specifically, reducing the health impact of our business is our main area of focus, along with the importance of addressing climate change and achieving excellence in the environmental management of our operations. At the same time, we remain committed to ensuring a positive social impact and sound corporate governance throughout the Group.
Indeed, BAT aims to contribute to ‘A Better Tomorrow’: a better future for consumers, employees, and the communities in which it operates. Currently, there are 13 million consumers of products with a potential reduced risk of BAT and, by 2030, we aim to reach 50 million consumers on a global scale.
In addition, we have long taken a holistic approach to sustainability, measuring the social impact of our activities with the ESG (‘Environmental, Social, Governance’) model, consequently gearing each of them towards at least one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN.
For BAT, the ‘better future’ is greener, more conscious, fairer and more innovative. These are fundamental goals that should not be enunciated through occasional initiatives, but achieved through a scientific and data-based approach built on authoritative partnerships, independent studies, measurable projects and certifiable positive impacts.
BAT’s contribution to a greener future comes through multiple actions and extraordinarily ambitious goals.
We rely on natural resources to run our business and minimising their use is fundamental to realising our strategy. As a global company, we are aware that we also have a responsibility to society at large: that is why we work to achieve environmental excellence, for a greener tomorrow.
BAT wants to play a leading role in the fight against climate change, and the following are some of our ambitious environmental goals on a global scale
by 2025, reduce water consumption by 35%;
make 100% of our plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable, with a view to implementing a ‘zero waste’ waste management strategy;
halve CO2 emissions, achieving ‘carbon neutrality’ for offices and production sites by 2030 and for the entire supply chain/value chain by 2050;
achieve that 100% of the wood used by our contract farmers for tobacco curing comes from sustainable sources.
Not only that: our business, now and in the future, depends on the protection of biodiversity and natural resources. The sustainable farming practices we help spread and enforce help farming communities thrive and protect themselves from deforestation and other environmental degradation.
In addition, our global Vuse brand for vaping products, which in September 2021 proved to be the number one brand in the world in terms of value share, is also the first brand in the world to be awarded the title ‘carbon neutral’.
For more information on sustainability, we invite you to read our Group’s ESG Report 2020.