Efforts by Swedish Match to limit its environmental impact by reducing the amount of energy, waste, and water per unit of output, can have positive direct benefits on the sustainability and profitability of the Group.
During 2010, stakeholders were asked to provide input into environmental areas that they believed to be the most important for Swedish Match. Responses to this stakeholder engagement confirmed an alignment between the environmental focus aspects for Swedish Match and important areas for stakeholders. With input from this stakeholder dialogue, Swedish Match has prioritized to report and follow up on a number of environmental indicators, such as energy consumption, emissions to air and water, waste management, and water consumption.
Although the production processes and raw materials used in the tobacco industry generally have limited environmental impact, improvements and savings from more efficient uses of resources help to reduce costs per unit and improve the Group’s environmental footprint. Approximately 80 percent of the raw materials used within the Group are renewable, and environmentally harmful substances are only handled to a limited extent during production. Swedish Match is of the view that energy consumption, business travel and freight transport, waste management, and water consumption have the greatest environmental impacts for the Group. With regard to energy consumption, sources of energy must be taken into account, as well as logistics, in order to reduce the Group’s environmental footprint.
Page updated Apr 7, 2011