Addressing sustainability issues is fundamental to being a responsible tobacco business and sustainable business practice is at the heart of our strategy.

We see it as particularly important for businesses in controversial or challenging industries to address sustainability, as this is where the most significant issues exist and where the greatest progress can be made.

Our sustainability activities span the whole of our business, including our work to develop potentially reduced-risk products; upholding high standards of corporate conduct in the marketplace; working with farmers to encourage sustainable agriculture practices; addressing human rights issues and creating a great place to work.

We have been transparently reporting on our activities since 2001 and believe this long history of reporting demonstrates a serious commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability. Over the years we have built a strong reputation for social responsibility and sustainability and have been seen by some as leaders in our industry. We were the first tobacco company to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 11 years ago, and have been included every year since; we have received a number of reporting awards; and feature in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index.

Our sustainability agenda

Our sustainability agenda aims to build value for our shareholders and other stakeholders by addressing our social, environmental and economic impacts. Through this, we build value for the business, for our shareholders and for other stakeholders. This means generating returns for our shareholders by doing the right thing by our stakeholders and the environment. This concept of sustainable value underpins all of our sustainability activities.

By taking action to address our impacts today, we help our business to thrive in the future.

Our agenda focusses on five key areas for our business:

• Harm reduction - we will strive to bring commercially viable, consumer-acceptable reduced risk products to market.
• Marketplace - we will take a lead in upholding high standards of corporate conduct within our marketplace.
• Environment - we will actively address the impact of our business on the natural environment
• Supply chain - we will work for positive social, environmental and economic impacts in our supply chain
• People and culture - we will work to ensure we have the right people and culture to meet our goals

You can read more about our vision for sustainability in our Sustainability Report