Environmental Management
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and its parent company, Reynolds American Inc., rely on natural resources to run the business. Making efficient use of them and minimizing the environmental impact of operations is critical to delivering the company’s strategy. That is why R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is driving environmental excellence for a sustainable tomorrow.
Water Stewardship
Recognition
Good water stewardship is vital to running efficient operations. In 2022, the Reynolds Operations Center (ROC) in Tobaccoville, N.C. earned the internationally recognized Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) certification, becoming the 17th BAT Group facility globally to receive the certification and one of only 275 organizations worldwide to earn the respected designation.
Innovation
In the Spring of 2023, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company announced that it had entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources to construct a water reclamation plant on-site at the expansive Reynolds Operations Center in Tobaccoville, N.C. NextEra Energy Resources’ WaterHubSM installation at is projected to reclaim more than 60 million gallons of water a year, equivalent to the annual water supply of approximately 550 average U.S. households, reducing Reynolds American Inc.’s environmental footprint and contributing to the BAT Group’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) goals.
Through the WaterHub, we expect to reduce water withdrawn at the Reynolds Operations Center by over 40%, which in turn would reduce the water withdrawn across our global operations sites by approximately 6%.
Bernd Meyer, President of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
The WaterHub at the Reynolds Operations Center will be one of the few projects of its size in the U.S. using advanced water reclamation technologies, allowing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to reduce their dependence on potable water for factory utility operations.
Construction of the project kicked off in fall 2023, and the project is expected to be operational by late 2024.
Renewable Energy & Electricity
In 2022, the Reynolds American organization achieved its 30% renewable energy target—three years ahead of schedule. U.S. factories, including the Reynolds Operations Center, purchased 100% renewable electricity, an amount equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of about 20,000 U.S. households.
Reducing & Recycling Waste
The Reynolds American organization is committed to using fewer resources, creating less waste and enabling reuse and recycling. Efforts to generate less waste resulted in achieving the 2025 target, reducing waste generation by 15%, three years ahead of schedule. In 2022, the Reynolds American organizations’ facilities’ waste to landfill was reduced by 96% compared to 2021. During the fourth quarter of 2022, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Reynolds Operations Center was zero waste to landfill.
Transitioning to a Hybrid & Electric Fleet
In 2022, Reynolds American Inc. announced its three-year plan to transition its 1,800+ trade and operations vehicle fleet to a mix of hybrid and electric models as part of its sustainability strategy. The move drives progress on the global BAT Group goal to achieve carbon-neutral operations by 2030 and will result in a projected annual 1000+ ton reduction in carbon emissions, equivalent to 202 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year.
At R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s facilities in North Carolina, Operations teams utilize vans and trucks to get their jobs done. The organization has made the switch to e-transit cargo vans and replaced diesel-powered switchers with electric versions at its operations centers. In addition, EV Operations vehicles and switcher chargers have been installed at the Reynolds Operations Center.
Read the Reynolds Sustainability Summary 2022 on ReynoldsAmerican.com
Cigarette Butt Littering
Cigarette butts do not biodegrade quickly and should not be littered.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJRT), and its parent company Reynolds American Inc., are committed to working with adult consumers to encourage responsible disposal. Research shows that adult consumer education and awareness-raising initiatives are successful measures. RJRT and Reynolds American Inc. entities support a number of such initiatives and education campaigns.
Cigarette litter is an important concern for the tobacco industry, and RJRT and other Reynolds American Inc. entities are actively doing something about it. We value their collaboration with organizations such as Keep America Beautiful (KAB) and TerraCycle to help address the issue with effective and scalable solutions.
Since 2009, entities of Reynolds American Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s parent company, have invested more than $12.5 million in cigarette litter education, prevention, cleanup, and recycling through Keep America Beautiful and TerraCycle.
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP)
Entities of Reynolds American Inc., RJRT’s parent company, have been longtime supporters— since 2010 —of Keep America Beautiful‘s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP), the nation’s largest program aimed at eliminating cigarette litter.
Through KAB, the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) provides monetary donations to KAB’s affiliates across the country, allowing them to engage in litter prevention activities, including providing receptacle ashtrays, distributing pocket ashtrays, and conducting cigarette litter clean-ups.
Communities that have implemented a CLPP showed a 63% reduction in cigarette litter in 2023. Through proper disposal, the program aims to educate adult consumers and inspire practices that keep cigarette butts off the ground.
CLPP is designed to empower community mindset change on proper butt disposal through education and receptacle points–but it doesn’t stop there. Through further collaboration, collected cigarette butts are sent to TerraCycle for recycling.
TerraCycle
TerraCycle focuses on reducing waste and dealing with hard-to-recycle materials, such as cigarette butts. To make the best of the cigarette waste, our operating companies and Keep America Beautiful collaborate with TerraCycle in an effort to keep that litter out of landfills and, instead, to recycle it into fertilizers and usable items like park benches.
Operating companies of Reynolds American Inc., RJRT’s parent company, have partnered with TerraCycle since 2012 on the Cigarette Waste Recycling Program, which provides adult volunteers across the country the opportunity to collect cigarette butts and send them to TerraCycle, where they are combined with other recyclable materials to make useful, Earth-friendly items such as lumber, furniture, containers and more.
TerraCycle uses a start-with-waste model that utilizes its network of financial partners, processors, manufacturers, and vendors to form partnerships that will execute a through-the-line process that ensures that butts are recycled into new items.
Starting with post-industrial and post-consumer cigarette waste, TerraCycle extracts the Cellulose Acetate material from the cigarette waste and then processes it to a usable format for TerraCycle’s end-user base. Residual organic components such as ash, tobacco and paper are separated and composted.
Unlike 98 percent of single-use plastics , cigarette filters are not derived from fossil fuels.
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP)
Sustainable Packaging Materials
Reynolds American Inc. and its operating companies, including RJRT hold goals for 2025 that include further reducing plastic in our packaging, and increasing the recycled content of the plastic packaging that remains. This sits alongside our efforts to minimize packaging overall, and the aim for all packaging to be recyclable or compostable by 2025.
RJRT has implemented several initiatives to make products and packaging more sustainable. The company has advanced sustainable forest management by transitioning cigarette packaging to paperboard certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. RJRT also replaced the foil inner bundle in most RJRT cigarette packs with paper inner bundle in an effort to increase recyclability** and are educating consumers on proper waste disposal and recycling through product labeling on 97% of packs in the cigarette product portfolio.
**Exterior plastic poly wrap and paper pack must be separated by the adult consumer in an effort to ensure the pack is recyclable. Recyclability is subject to local law and infrastructure. Check with local recycling facilities regarding acceptance.
Forward-looking Statements and Other Matters
This website may contain certain forward-looking statements, including “forward-looking” statements made within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “believe”, “anticipate”, “could”, “may”, “would”, “should”, “intend”, “plan”, “potential”, “predict”, “will”, “expect”, “estimate”, “project”, “positioned”, “strategy”, “outlook”, “target” and similar expressions. These include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, amongst other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the economic and business circumstances occurring from time to time in the countries and markets in which the Group operates.
All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors. It is believed that the expectations reflected in this website are reasonable, but they may be affected by a wide range of variables that could cause actual results and performance to differ materially from those currently anticipated.
Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are uncertainties related to the following: the impact of competition from illicit trade; the impact of adverse domestic or international legislation and regulation; the inability to develop, commercialise and deliver the Group’s New Categories strategy; adverse litigation and dispute outcomes and the effect of such outcomes on the Group’s financial condition; the impact of significant increases or structural changes in tobacco, nicotine and New Categories related taxes; translational and transactional foreign exchange rate exposure; changes or differences in domestic or international economic or political conditions; the ability to maintain credit ratings and to fund the business under the current capital structure; the impact of serious injury, illness or death in the workplace; adverse decisions by domestic or international regulatory bodies; changes in the market position, businesses, financial condition, results of operations or prospects of the Group; and direct and indirect adverse impacts associated with climate change and the move towards a circular economy.
Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in BAT’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including the Annual Report on Form 20-F and Current Reports on Form 6-K, which may be obtained free of charge at the SEC’s website, https://www.sec.gov/ and BAT’s Annual Reports, which may be obtained free of charge from the BAT website https://www.bat.com/.
The forward-looking statements reflect knowledge and information available at the date of preparation of this website and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.