As industry leader, our first priority must be to focus attention and resources on factors affecting sustainability throughout the supply chain, including, reforestation, water conservation, reduced carbon emissions, child labor and environmentally sensitive agricultural practices. However, we also know that our actions have a powerful impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on five continents—farmers, employees and families in rural communities. That’s why we’re committed to investing in infrastructure and social programs that improve living conditions, promote education and make communities stronger and healthier.
Case Study 1
Water Guardian Project

One of our most successful public service initiatives to date is Project Water Guardian in Vera Cruz, the heart of Brazil's tobacco-producing region. We partnered with the Altadis Foundation (a nonprofit organization owned by Imperial Tobacco) to improve the area's water quality.

The results turned out to be better than we expected. Not only did water quality drastically improve, but the program was so successful that the local government is taking over the project and will continue to fund it for the foreseeable future.

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Case Study 2
Bamboo Reforestation Project

Bamboo is the single most important non-timber forest product in the Philippines. This raw material is used for a range of goods and many industries, including agriculture, construction, fisheries, furniture, and handicrafts. Bamboo also has provides environmental value, as it offers vegetative cover for deforested areas; soil erosion control and riverbank stabilization; carbon sequestration; nutrient and hydrologic cycle; and biodiversity conservation. Bamboo is important to farmers in the Philippines as it used for framing materials in barn construction.

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Case Study 3
Compost Facility in Nashville, North Carolina
At our leaf tobacco processing facility in Nashville, North Carolina, we recognized a unique opportunity. Instead of sending the factory's by-products of dust, and unmarketable leaf-scrape and stem to the landfill, we could compost them in order to reduce our environmental impact.

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Case Study 4
Sustainable Wood Production in Brazil
Our Brazilian subsidiary, Universal Leaf Tabacos Ltda, has a long history of tree planting activities to provide wood for tobacco curing, having started woodlot planting activities at the beginning of the 1980s.

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