BAT launches sustainability agenda to deliver A Better Tomorrow

Today, BAT publishes its new sustainability report based on the Group’s evolved strategy to deliver ‘A Better Tomorrow’ by reducing the health impact of its business through offering a greater choice of enjoyable and less risky products to consumers.

The publication is launched alongside the Group’s annual report and follows last week’s Capital Markets webcast which announced stretching new targets across the environmental, social and governance (ESG) landscape, including: 

•  Increasing BAT consumers of non-combustible products to 50 million by 2030;
•  Achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and accelerating our existing environmental targets by 2025;
•  Eliminating unnecessary single-use plastic and making all plastic packaging recyclable by 2025.

The Group’s new Sustainability Agenda supports the company purpose to deliver A Better Tomorrow with a principal focus on harm reduction, underpinned by excellence across its other ESG priorities. Together, this will drive BAT’s long-term business sustainability and create shared value for consumers, society, employees and shareholders.

Since launching its first vapour products in the UK in 2013, BAT has made significant progress in developing, manufacturing and commercialising a range of new category products. Today, its potentially reduced-risk products are available in 48 markets globally and in 2019, the company grew its New Categories business by 37% to £1.3 billion.

Jack Bowles, Chief Executive of British American Tobacco, said: “Today we are transitioning from being a business where sustainability has always been important to one where it is front and centre in all that we do.

“Over the last 20 years, we’ve made significant progress on our sustainability journey. Yet our approach needs to constantly develop, much as the world around us is evolving – from increasing expectations of the role of business in contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and addressing climate change; to evolving consumer preferences and the emergence of new category products, such as vapour products (e-cigarettes), tobacco heating and modern oral products, that offer potentially reduced risks for the many millions of people across the world who continue to smoke cigarettes.

“I am proud that we have a strategy with sustainability embedded at its heart and I firmly believe it will lead to ‘A Better Tomorrow’ for our consumers, our employees, our shareholders and, undoubtedly, for society.”

The Sustainability Strategy Report is complemented by an online ESG report that provides detailed information about BAT’s policies, management approach, performance and targets for all its ESG priorities. BAT also reports against the newly launched World Economic Forum (WEF)’s ESG index, Standards, the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) Tobacco and Agricultural Production Standards and the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Standard.

To download any of BAT’s sustainability and ESG-related publications, please visit: www.bat.com/sustainabilityreport
Other highlights of the report include:
 
Excellence in Environmental Management:

•  9.5% reduction in direct CO2e from 2017 baseline and aiming to be carbon neutral by 2030
•  13.1% reduction in water withdrawals from our 2017 baseline and aiming to reduce by 35% by 2025
•  1,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent saved annually by removing silicon caps from Vype e-liquid pods
•  99% of wood fuel used by our contracted farmers for curing was from sustainable sources in 2019

Delivering a Positive Social Impact:

•  5,000+ human rights training sessions for farmers in our tobacco leaf supply chain in 2019
•  12-20% increase in tobacco crop yields as a result of our new seed varieties covering 57% of our 2019 volumes from contracted farmers
•  18% reduction in total accidents to employees and contractors in 2019
•  82% employee engagement score in our 2019 ‘Your Voice’ survey, 7% higher than the FMCG comparator group.
•  £46.1m invested in community projects and charitable donations in the last three years.
•  Female representation in senior management has more than doubled since 2012, from 11% to 23% in 2019, and women represent 37% of all management roles globally.
•  Our global B United network provides a forum for our LGBT+ employees.

Robust Corporate Governance:

•  100% employees completed our Standards of Business Conduct and formal compliance sign-off procedures in 2019
•  Updated our International Marketing Principles to reflect developments in marketing, technology and our product portfolio
•  100% compliance with our Youth Access Prevention Guidelines