BR Exclusive | BAT Romania, commited for A Better Tomorrow

BAT Romania marked June 5th – World Environment Day – by launching a new campaign aimed at raising awareness on the significant impact that the simple individual gestures can have on the environment. It is developed under the company’s platform, Choose Responsibly for a Clean City.

By Anda Sebesi

The new campaign draws awareness to tourists to adopt an eco-responsible behavior during their holidays and keep the waters and beaches clean, with messages such as: “This summer, leave only memories at the seaside, not waste” or “This summer, leave only footprints on the sand, not packaging,” located on the highway to the Romanian seaside, but also through media and online communication channels.

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June 5: World Environment Day 2024 starts a responsible summer

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Hundreds of thousands of tourists spend their summer holidays on the Romanian coast every year, with a significant amount of waste remaining behind – several tens of tons, according to the data of the authorities centralized by a specialized organization*. According to the most recent official data**, the most common types of waste monitored on Romanian beaches are those from artificial polymers (over 85%), followed by metal, glass/ceramics, rubber, paper/cardboard, textiles and processed wood waste. At the same time, floating or under the sea waste, such as metal, mesh, textiles, wood or glass, can be found on the Romanian sea coast.

In 2019, BAT Romania launched the Choose Responsibly for a Clean City campaign, an awareness campaign on responsible waste management, by encouraging smokers to use street ashtrays specially designed for storing cigarette butts. The campaign gradually expanded towards an integrated approach to the environment and eco-responsible behavior, through complex awareness initiatives regarding the future of Romania’s cities and communities.

Choose Responsibly for a Clean City campaign reaches its 6th edition this year, with BAT also being recognized by the Financial Times as a climate leader in 2024, for the 4th consecutive year. In this context, this year’s BAT Romania campaign aligns with the company’s sustainability goals, by promoting eco-responsible behavior at an individual level, in real – life everyday situations and which, through multiplication, contribute to building A Better Tomorrow™.

“The sea coast is one of the areas most affected by the waste left behind at the end of summer, and this is why this year we draw attention to each of us` responsibility in keeping Romania’s waters and beaches clean. Caring for the environment and the community means individual responsibility and translates into small, consistent and multiplied gestures on a large, social scale. At BAT, we are committed to building A Better Tomorrow™ for our consumers, but also for the society we live in and we hope that more and more people will understand the responsibility of individual choices and the relevance of simple, repetitive gestures and their impact for the future,” says Ileana Dumitru, External Affairs Director for the South Eastern Europe Area at BAT.

Every year, as part of Choose Responsibly for a Clean City platform, BAT Romania runs social responsibility campaigns for environment protection, as well as for raising awareness on the importance of correct and responsible commercial policies and the prevention of minors’ access to tobacco and nicotine products.

The more than 3,000 employees of BAT in Romania contribute every year to the multiplication of awareness messages about the importance of simple individual gestures holding major impact for the environment and society. Every year, BAT Romania entities develop internal initiatives such as blood donation campaigns, selective waste collection, textile donations for reuse and recycling or planting and afforestation actions. This year, BAT Romania employees planted over 5,000 trees, thus contributing to the regeneration of the ecosystem in Calarasi County. At the same time, plastic or cardboard beverage containers used at BAT Romania offices were replaced this year with ceramic cups, to encourage reuse and waste elimination, thus reducing over 2 tons of waste annually***.

Sustainability, front and center of BAT business

With a circular vision on sustainability, which covers the entire life cycle of its products, BAT Romania has launched in 2021 a national take-back scheme for recycling the previous versions of glo, its heating device for tobacco and herbal consumables. In 2022, the program was extended to BAT’s vaping devices. Currently, more than 360 collection points are active across Romania, and so far more than 155 thousand devices were collected.BAT started its journey in sustainability more than 20 years ago, with results recognized by prestigious international institutions, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Financial Times, which included BAT in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, on its climate leaders list, for outstanding results in the field of combating climate change, highlighting the company’s achievements in reducing carbon emissions.

The company has recently published its annual combined business and sustainability performance report for the year 2023, which highlights the progress achieved in meeting its sustainability goals****.

* Romanian Sea coast waste analysis 

** Environment Ministry Report 

*** According to internal estimates 

**** BAT annual combined Report _ Building a Smokeless World, 2023, https://www.bat.com/attachments/BAT_Annual_Report_Form_20-F_2023.pdf