Reflecting on 25 years of giving back

The tobacco industry is controversial. I get it, of course I do, because it simply is. But can a tobacco company really be a good corporate citizen? Despite the skeptics and the anti-tobacco lobby who will continue to see bad where there is good, I deeply believe so. I am proud of what we have unified to do, and of the impact we have had so far.

Whenever any company in the industry talks about social responsibility, cynics are quick to search for a hidden commercial interest. They will claim that our motivation “to do the right thing” is a diversion tactic – a public relations exercise without any real impact on business practice. Or a way to recruit “new” customers. I invite these individuals to make more of an effort to understand what truly drives us at JTI.

What if I told you that since its founding in 1999, JTI has voluntarily given away more than $500 million? Well, this is a fact. Over the past quarter of a century, we have deployed, where legally allowed to do so, in excess of half a billion dollars supporting thousands of worthy projects designed to improve the lives of people in the communities where we operate. This is a staggering amount. And this without any commercial agenda attached.

Such level of commitment is what I want to celebrate as part of our 25th anniversary: 25 years of community engagement and community investment at JTI. It not only reflects the size and scale of our efforts, but it paints a true picture of how much we are committed to making a difference to people’s lives. I am proud that we have managed to bring hope, relief and positive change in the face of adversity to so many. Our story is one of discipline and focus, set in motion with passion by our caring and engaged 45,000+ employees, and guided by a spirit of generosity. We do not have to do this, but we do because we want to build a better future. We never ever advertise or promote what we do in community investment or put forward any of our commercial brands. In fact, this is our approach to working with our partners: that we remain behind their names and their genuine efforts to make a difference.

We are tackling some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges faced by communities around the globe in countries where JTI operates. Through the JTI Foundation, we help them to become more resilient to natural and man-made disasters. We strive to foster inclusivity, to reduce inequalities and to support access to food, hygiene and education for those who need it most.

About 90% of the resources we deploy is invested at market level: rather than mandates from headquarters, decisions on what is most appropriate are left up to local teams, encouraging and supporting them to find innovative ways to achieve results. They are best placed to tell us about the needs, the burning issues in their community and how we can potentially address them. They simply know best. With about 500 projects running simultaneously, in 65 countries, this represents a huge amount of work for both HQ colleagues and our markets, to follow up and monitor progress, to track the KPI’s of our efforts and to report them into the relevant sustainability standards.

This approach and the discipline embedded has brought us tremendously encouraging external recognition, and hence a deep desire to keep giving, and to do more: among others, we are proud to have scored a maximum 100 out of 100 on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Asia Pacific. Such recognition is important to us, of course, but not as important as the impact JTI is having around the world, daily.

Our employees dedicate tens of thousands of hours to support our many projects – 215,000 volunteer hours between 2015 and 2023! In total we invest about $40 million in our communities every year – by all accounts, this is a lot of money and naturally we take it very seriously. I look forward to the day when JTI will report having spent more than $1 billion over the next 25 years! ‘Creating a Better Future’ is an integral part of our Purpose and a large driver of our stellar employee engagement. It always has been, and it always will be. Our employees and community partners make this all possible. Without them, it would just be like “throwing money” at the issues, which would simply not be us.

Our range of activities and projects is vast but targeted to the specificities of each location. Our Community Investments in Emerging Markets program (CIEM) for example, has reached seven – soon to be nine – emerging markets since its inception in 2019, benefiting more than 600,000 individuals by providing access to clean water and sanitary facilities. To them, these projects are life-changing.

In Bangladesh, we worked hand-in-hand with four local partner organizations to deliver basic human needs to more than 300,000 vulnerable people, linked to water and sanitation, which are critical issues in the country.

In Cambodia, we are supporting significant efforts to clean the country of landmines, leveraging incredible “hero” rats’ ability to sniff out TNT and other explosives. This is enabling us to help restore land to the local community so that an entire country can again, exploit its land to productive use, including offering the ability to children to wander around, without incurring horrific damages caused by left-over mines that too often have destroyed lives.

The list is long – too long to list them all here - and our intent is sincere. What is so motivating to us at JTI is the true impact that we have. I am so humbled to see the dedication of our people and of our partners, who despite the occasional gratuitous cynicism, continue to give their time (and money) to make the world a better place. One action at a time.

You know who you are. A heartfelt THANK YOU for all that you do.