Table of Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Sustainable Marketing.................................................................................................................................3
Company overview......................................................................................................................................4
Mission and vision.......................................................................................................................................5
Sustainable Marketing Practices of BATB....................................................................................................6
Current sustainable practices of the company............................................................................................6
AFFORESTATION..........................................................................................................................................8
DEEPTO......................................................................................................................................................10
ALTERNATE FUEL.......................................................................................................................................11
BIODIVERSITY............................................................................................................................................11
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT CLUB...................................................................................................11
Recommendation......................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................15
Introduction

British American Tobacco Bangladesh Company Limited is a subsidiary of British American

Tobacco and is one of the 68 countries in which BAT has manufacturing plants. It is one of the
oldest and largest multinational companies operating in Bangladesh. Based in Dhaka it has one
cigarette factory in Dhaka and one leaf-processing factory in Kushtia. The company currently
employs around 200 managers and 1000 employees.

Listed both on the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, BATB is the leading company in
terms of capitalization at 7.93% of total market capitalization.

BAT works in a socially constrained industry thus, to reposition itself as a ‘socially responsible’
corporate citizen operating in a contentious industry, but capable of self-regulation, BAT issues a
social report. However, the report is partial and equivocal.
Several issues that arise from the report exemplify its discretionary nature. Testimony to this was
the method of issue selection, stakeholder engagement, and broad validation of
this process by external audit.

Although in Bangladesh British American tobacco is involved in various community

development programs.
 Committed to rural wealth and hygiene improvements through concerted activities in
rural areas.
 The company is also one of the highest taxpayers in the country.

 Supports Shandhani (posthumous eye donation) and the Centre for the Rehabilitation of
the Paralyzed as well as other charitable development organizations.
 Since the inception of its afforestation program in 1980 the company till date has
planted and distributed 38 million trees across the country with a sapling survival rate
exceeding 91%.
 In national disasters the company has been prompt in lending timely support to people
of the affected regions.
Sustainable Marketing
Definition

Sustainable marketing is the process of placing traditional marketing strategy and tactics behind
services and products that fall into the environmental category.

Factors

1. People and society: Within sustainability, relationship can refer to anyone within society
such as employees, customers, citizens, or communities. People are either part of a
business seeking economic growth that can work toward implementing sustainability
practices.
2. Planet & Conservation: Sustainability origins are within environmental science and
environmental conservation. The concerns about the planet came first, then as
sustainability was refined, the definition incorporated people, and profit in later iterations
of the concept of sustainability.
3. Profit & Development: Businesses are often in the pursuit of creating efficiencies,
creating value, or innovating. The more our public community emphasizes a need for
businesses to become sustainable, the better a business will.

British American tobacco Bangladesh follows these factors from the very early stage of their
operations in Bangladesh. They work with the society of Bangladesh also with their employees,
they have afforestation program which was awarded Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship
Award in 2014 under Green Leadership by Enterprise Asia.
Company overview
British American Tobacco was established back in 1910 as Imperial Tobacco Company Ltd and
the head office was in Calcutta. In 1926 ITC launched a branch at Moulovibazar, Dhaka.
Cigarettes were made in Carreras Ltd., Calcutta. Imperial and Carreras merged into a single
company in 1943. After the partition in 1947, cigarettes were coming freely from Calcutta, but
introduction of customs barriers in 1948 between India and Pakistan interrupted the smooth flow
of cigarettes from Calcutta to East Pakistan. In March 1, 1949, Pakistan Tobacco Company
(PTC) came into existence with head office in Karachi; with the assets and liabilities of ITC
Limited held in Pakistan. At that time East Pakistan Office was situated in Alico Building,
Motijheel. In order to meet the increasing demand, the first factory in the then East Pakistan was
established in Chittagong in 1952. From this time, onwards requirements for cigarettes for East
Pakistan markets were met from products manufactured in Karachi. In 1954, PTC established its
first cigarette factory although high-grade cigarettes still came from West Pakistan. The Dhaka
factory of PTC went into production in 1965. After the war between India and Pakistan in 1965;
the import of tender leaf from India to produce Biri was stopped. This gave a big boost to
cigarette business. It was at that time the East Pakistani entrepreneurs set up 16 cigarette
factories in this region.

Afforestation is the pet project of the company, which has started in1980 and till now the
company has planted 42 million trees across the country. In this regard, British American
Tobacco Bangladesh has won many awards during last 28 years but the most prestigious of all
are Prime Minister Afforestation Award in 1993, Presidents Award in Agriculture in 1975,
Sports Journalist Award and FAO Award in 1998. Beside this, the company is also involved in
vegetable seed multiplication project, Dishari- a basic IT education project in rural area for poor
students and other social and cultural activities throughout the country. The Company has its
Head Office and the cigarette factory in Dhaka, a green leaf threshing plant in Kushtia, a green
leaf re-drying plant in Manikgonj and several Leaf and Sales offices throughout the country.
Mission and vision
There are certain missions the organization is heading to accomplish.

 Growing company share of the total tobacco market

 Dominating key identified segments

Employee and Trade Union of BATB

The workers are labelled in the following categories:

Permanent
 Probationer (Basically MT)
 Temporary (seasonal)
 Badli
Trade union is established in the following company’s working locations:
 Head Office and Dhaka Factory
  Chittagong Factory
 Rangpur Leaf Factory

Sustainable Marketing Practices of BATB

Current sustainable practices of the company

PROBAHO
For millions of people in Bangladesh, the only available drinking water is laced with arsenic and
therefore extremely hazardous to health. Having recognized the gravity of the issue, BATB have
stepped forward with the ‘Probaho’, Bangla for ‘flow’, project. Through Probaho, they aim to
provide rural communities with safe drinking water. This initiative is also aligned with the
Government’s aim to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). Using Government
approved community-based water filtration technology, their water filtration plants in
Manikganj, Satkhira, Meherpur, Kushtia, Jhenidah, Tangail, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and
Chuadanga districts provide approximately 95,000 litres of pure drinking water for 47,000
people every day. So far, the Probaho initiative has installed 34 plants to remove arsenic and
toxic elements from groundwater. To celebrate World Water Day, an internal interactive
campaign was held at BAT Bangladesh carrying alarming messages about Arsenic contaminated
water to create maximum awareness among all employees.
The 2012 MDG report sheds light on one of the most world’s deadly issues across the world
‘Lack of safe drinking water’. In the rural areas most of the people uses groundwater as their
primary drinking source. Probaho has launched in Bangladesh to provide safe drinking water to
the millions of people in rural Bangladesh who are suffered from lack of clean water. As the
project has scaled up, its beneficiary size has grown and so have the number of plants, enabling
Probaho to reach out to more and more people from underserved communities.
AFFORESTATION
British American Tobacco Bangladesh started their afforestation program when they joined
hands with the Forest Department in 1980 to conserve the forests and combat the negative
impacts of climate change. Till now, they have contributed around 67.5 million saplings
throughout Bangladesh. This probably makes their imitative the largest private sector driven
afforestation programmed in the country. Today, after more than two decades, BATB have
contributed more than 4 crore 60 lac saplings to the country’s afforestation initiative. The
survival rate of these saplings stands at 90%. Most of these plants are in Kushtia, Rangpur,
Manikganj and Chittagong regions including the hill tracts. The trees have mostly been planted
along roadsides, canal banks and farmers’ landholdings. Their endeavours have received
several awards both at the National and Local Government levels.

BATB is working towards achieving a balance between native and exotic species in terms of fast
growing, fruit bearing, timber producing and medicinal characteristics in our afforestation
program. In 2004, approximately 40 lac saplings in the ratio of 85:15 of exotic versus native
species were raised countrywide for distribution. The afforestation program extended its realms
to the Dhaka city dwellers from 1993, when the company started distributing saplings in Dhaka.
As a mark of national recognition, the company received the Prime Minister’s 3rd prize in 1993
and 1st prize both in 1999 and 2003 for tree plantation.

The Project has also won international recognition for the company recently when BAT
Bangladesh was awarded Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Award in 2014 under Green
Leadership by Enterprise Asia, a non-governmental organization striving for the pursuit of
entrepreneurship development in Asia Region. As a national recognition for special contribution
in tree plantation, BAT Bangladesh has received National Award for five times in the year 1992,
1999, 2002, 2005 and 2007. The programme is designed to focus on the socio-economic needs of
the human society as well as overall environmental perspectives.
DEEPTO
One remarkable activity of BAT Bangladesh is a project to install Solar Home Systems in remote
areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts without any cost. The meaning of ‘Deepto’ is ‘Lighted’. Under
this project BAT Bangladesh has already installed 576 units of Solar Home Systems in four
remote villages in Bandarban and Khagrachari districts through BAT Bangladesh is giving rural
families their first access to electricity at home. British American Tobacco Bangladesh strongly
believes that the business highlight responsibility in everything it does. In Bangladesh, around
50% of total people do not have access to the electricity. Bangladesh government has an agenda
to bring the entire country under electricity services by the year 2020. Bangladesh has set a target
to generate 5% of total electricity demand from renewable sources by 2015 and 10% by 2020.
Renewable energy is such energy which comes from natural resources like sunlight, wind, rain,
tides and geothermal heat, which are renewable. British American Tobacco Bangladesh is
contributing a lot in this target mission through providing free Solar Home Systems across the
country.
ALTERNATE FUEL
Since 1980, BAT Bangladesh is exploring the alternate source of wood fuel needed to cure
tobacco production in Bangladesh. Over the period, the company successfully replaced almost
100% of Flue Cured Variety (FCV) curing at Kustia by alternates such as jute stick, dhaincha
sticks, paddy straw, industrial waste, sugarcane bagasse, rice husk etc. It is important to mention
that 70% of FCV tobacco in Bangladesh is grown at Kustia. Through our concerted effort and
with the growing interest of the farming community, alternate fuel is increasingly becoming
popular in Chittagong leaf growing region as well. At present, alternate sources are being used as
wood fuel substitute. To meet the demand for wood fuel, every year we distribute 25 lac saplings
free of cost in Chittagong.

BIODIVERSITY
British American Tobacco Bangladesh is following Biodiversity corners and providing training
to the farmers on biodiversity. BAT Bangladesh acknowledges that they have both an impact and
dependence on biodiversity through their business operations and use of ecosystem services such
as forest products, soil and water. For that, BATB has established 26 biodiversity corners on 25
acres of land with the help of their registered farmers in order to acknowledge their farming
communities about the importance of different elements in nature and their contribution in the
ecosystem. It exhibits the extinct species and their inputs for conserving nature.

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT CLUB

BAT Bangladesh established the first Integrated Pest Management Club in 2005 to support the
farmers for better crop management in Checua Leaf Area, Kustia. BAT Bangladesh has
established several IPM clubs at its different leaf growing locations in the purpose of making the
farmers aware about the non-chemical alternatives to pest management and safe use of
Agrochemicals. The objective of IPM clubs is to reinforce government initiatives to reduce use
of agrochemicals. To improve the concept of IPM among the farmers, BAT Bangladesh has been
running Farmers Field School (FFS) in partnership with Department of Agricultural Extension
(DAE). Moreover, IPM clubs are now contributing to create trained resources for IPM education
and training.
GREEN MANURING WITH DHAINCHA

BATB provides the know-how and provide free seeds for ploughing and green manuring by the
targeted farmers. These seeds are sowed in the fields and after these plants known as Sun Hemp
(Dhoincha) reaches a certain height, they are ploughed and mixed with the soil. The cultivation
of sun hemp increases soil ‘s organic composition and is a eco-friendly sustainable method of
soil enrichment. The company’s field experience suggests that 50% of the farmers manage to
successfully conduct seed multiplication from which they can internally source seeds for the
following years. It has been reported through a study funded by BATB and undertaken by
Bangladesh Agricultural University that the organic matter content of the soil is less than 1%.
Success will be measured against the positive shift in organic matter content in the reporting
areas. Hopefully this initiative will make positive biodiversity contribution from eco-system
rehabilitation and sustainable use perspectives.

COMPOST PITS

Compost pits are a source of natural fertilizers for the farmers. As a part of bio-friendly
agricultural practices, they provide the know-how and bear full costs to install compost pits in
the homesteads of the targeted farmers. This assistance is also supported by an ongoing
awareness campaign. This contributes in significantly reducing dependence on the use of
chemical fertilizers for agricultural productions while enabling to decrease the cost of
production. Every year BAT Bangladesh targets to establish 80 compost pits in leaf growing
areas.
Recommendation
 Packaging: Sustainable packaging offers the same functional aspects as regular
packaging but attempts to reduce any environmental impact. Traditionally, when
speaking about sustainable packaging, we are referring to the use of materials to create
biodegradable packaging or even compostable packaging options. However, sustainable
packaging can also apply to other options like flexible packaging which greatly reduces
the amount of waste packaging destined for landfills. BATB should try to move towards
recyclable packaging whatsoever.

 Smoke free cigarettes:

Cigarette smoking causes serious disease. By replacing cigarettes with less harmful
alternatives BATB can significantly reduce the negative impact of their products on
individuals and society. Eventually they could cover the no 3 SDG by ensuring good
health and wellbeing.
 Decent work environment:
BATB should ensure good working conditions for all their employees and expect their
suppliers to do the same for the benefit of over one million workers throughout our value
chain. They could ensure the health issues of workers that they wouldn’t be affected by
the manufacturing process of tobacco.
 Responsible consumption and production:
BATB should improve the lifecycle impacts of their products –from reducing the
environmental impacts of tobacco growing, to efficient low-carbon manufacturing, litter
prevention and recycling programs.
 Climate action:
BATB’s energy-efficiency programs in their operations and their alternative curing fuels
program in their tobacco leaf supply chain contribute to mitigating the risk of climate
change.
 Life below water:
Their Environmental Commitment should govern their management approach to waste
and water to ensure that all effluents released are within, or better than, levels required by
regulations in the countries where they operate.
 Protecting Biodiversity:
BATB should be committed to protecting biodiversity, especially forested areas affected
by their operations, particularly in the supply chain of tobacco leaf and paper-based
packaging.
 Increase investment in the health sector:
Health sector is a very important sector for a country. For a developing country like
Bangladesh, it is obviously more important sector. In these sector stakeholders expects a
company to invest more. Through the social reporting process and the dialogue sessions
BATB has come to know that its stakeholders expect the company to invest a lot in the
health sector. One issue is that as BATB is operating in the market that sells a risky
product the company should increase its CSR investment in health sector. At present
BATB is providing health assistance to its growers and has recently planning to bring the
farmer’s family under a regular clinical service.

 Increase reach of the education assistance provided by BATB:

British American Tobacco Bangladesh has little contribution toward Education. Recently
they shut down an educational project ‘Dishari’ for last two years. Though BATB is still
providing educational assistance but to a very limited number of students. To gain
effectiveness and visibility the company should widen the reach of its educational
assistance.

 BATB should invest more in acid/dowry prevention/ drug prevention:

We always see that the people of Bangladesh react more to emotional issues like
rehabilitation of acid burnt women, drug addicts and so on. This goes to explain strong
presence in these fields. BATB has no presence in these fields at present. Thus, it is
recommended that when BATB moves to different areas for their CSR projects, these are
the areas where the stakeholders expect BATB’s existence.

 BATB should strengthen the afforestation program outside its growing region:
As a part of CSR activity British American Tobacco Bangladesh is doing a praiseworthy
job in the afforestation of the country. But British American Tobacco Bangladesh can
 expand the afforestation program to other areas apart from the growing region. This is
advised as engaging in afforestation only in the growing regions might give the general
people an idea that BATB is doing it only for their business need (woods was a major
source of fuel used in tobacco curing, though BATB is now encouraging the use of other
alternatives). If the afforestation is done beyond the growing region, the effort will gain
visibility as a social contribution. Therefore, BATB will be able to achieve its goal in vast
by being recognized as a responsible company.

Conclusion

In an industry traditionally prohibited in socially constrained portfolios, BAT now holds a place.
The release of the Social Report by BAT must have improved their score sufficiently to warrant
inclusion.

BATB’s overall approach to productivity is about using their global resources to increase profits
and generate funds for reinvesting in their business in the global arena. To remain competitive,
it’s important to reduce the complexity and costs across their entire supply chain, while also
improving our service to retailers and ensuring product freshness and integrity. They have
programmes in place to find reductions in their waste management and how they can become
more sustainable. Sustainability is a key strategic focus area. It underpins how BATB are
transforming tobacco. So, it’s crucial to the delivery of our BATB’s strategy and integrated
across all areas of our business.