For Swedish Match, social responsibility implies working conscientiously and responsibly towards stakeholders within the supply chain – from suppliers to customers and consumers – as well as towards stakeholders surrounding the Company, such as regulators, scientists, and local communities.
The Company has a long record of social investments and community involvement. Swedish Match’s approach is to conduct community projects that are relevant to local business environments and to make investments in other independent projects. For example, Swedish Match has in Sweden supported the Solstickan Foundation for 75 years through its sales of certain lights products. For every product sold under the Solstickan brand, a portion of sales goes to the Solstickan Foundation. The Foundation works primarily towards the benefit of children and the elderly who are chronically ill or disabled. In Brazil, Swedish Match continues its community involvement by supporting the “Bom Menino” (Young Boy) project, a skill building program that enables youths, ages 14 to 18, from low income families to develop educational, employment, and social skills. For more examples, see the annual report.
The Code complies with international conventions and guidelines on human rights and labor conditions. The international conventions and guidelines referred to here are the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the central International Labor Organization conventions (ILO), and the OECD’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
The Code is reviewed and updated once a year by the Senior Vice President Corporate Communications and Sustainability, Emmett Harrison.
- Social responsibility:
- Human rights
- Child labor
- Supplier contracts
- Topics specific to tobacco products
- Workplace practices:
- Health and safety
- Recruitment
- Remuneration
- Business ethics:
- Conflict of interest
- Honest and ethical conduct
- Compliance with laws, rules and regulations
- Fraud response
- Gifts and loans
- Related party transactions
- Communication:
- Designated spokespersons
- Public reporting and communication
- Internal reporting on critical information
- Environment:
- Continuous environmental improvement
- Prevention of pollution in activities, products and services
You will find our policies relating to Sustainability issues at the link below: http://www.swedishmatch.com/en/Sustainability/Code-of-Conduct-and-policies/
7. How can you be sure that your employees know and adhere to your Code of Conduct?
The Code of Conduct is applicable to all employees in the organization and the implementation phase covers communication to all employees. Swedish Match has an internal process where the Code of Conduct, along with all other Group policies, is distributed to managers in the countries where we operate. The managers have to confirm that they have read, understood, and implemented the policies.
The Code of Conduct is monitored and reviewed in the business units every other year. The reviews are intended to ensure that employees and other stakeholders affected by the Code of Conduct are aware of, understand, and work in accordance with its content. Swedish Match has engaged AON, an international risk management company, to conduct these external audits. Based on the results, the external partner presents recommendations if needed. Areas for improvement are re-evaluated the following year.
8. How do you make sure that your suppliers adhere to your Code of Conduct?
All our suppliers are informed about our Code of Conduct and have to sign and return the contract – “Social commitment for suppliers to Swedish Match”. In addition, Swedish Match chooses to buy tobacco from a few suppliers (for example Alliance One and Universal Leaf), that are major international players with their own regulatory framework and control of social and environmental issues. These groups have strict policies with regard to farming practices including the use of child labor. The purchased tobacco is from many parts of the world from countries such as the US, Indonesia, Brazil, India, and the Dominican Republic.
Swedish Match is a very small actor on the buying market (less than one percent of world production of tobacco) and does not make social audits. However, we believe that it is important to show the dealers and growers that social commitment is an important issue. Therefore, we visit our tobacco suppliers every year and on each visit have special meetings regarding local social activities.
9. What does Swedish Match do when it finds that its policies are not adhered to?
Should a supplier fail to comply with the Company’s recommendations, Swedish Match shall strive to resolve the situation through cooperation and information or by terminating the relationship.
10. Child labor on the tobacco farms still exist. What are Swedish Match’s views on child labor and what actions have been taken by the company to stop this?
Child labor is indeed a difficult issue to tackle, but one that needs to be addressed.
Swedish Match does not tolerate child labor and our view on this issue follows the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 32.1.This article defines child labor as economic exploitation of children and states that children should not perform work that is likely to be hazardous or harmful to the child’s health as well as physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development or interferes with the child’s education (Code of Conduct, section 7.1.2).
Furthermore, Swedish Match is on the Board of the ECLT Foundation, Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-growing, www.eclt.org. We believe that eliminating child labor in tobacco is an issue that is better handled in a joint effort between trade unions, the corporate sector (manufacturing industry), and the tobacco growers (ITGA, International Tobacco Growers’ Association). Most of the other larger tobacco companies are also members of the organization. Swedish Match buys nearly all of its tobacco through large tobacco buying groups, who are also members of the ECLT Foundation, and who have in many cases programs of their own to help enable young people to receive education.
11. Does everyone at Swedish Match use tobacco products?
Just like for adults working in all companies, some of our employees choose to use snus or smoke cigarettes. The use of tobacco by adults is a personal choice.
12. How can you be sure that your products are of consistently high quality for your customers?
The Swedish Match quality standard, GothiaTek®, provides a guarantee assuring the consumer that all Swedish Match snus products undergo controls and maintain the highest quality throughout all the stages from tobacco plant to consumer. This includes for instance requirements on maximum permitted levels of suspected harmful elements that occur naturally in tobacco or requirements on raw material used.
GothiaTek® shall for consumers not only be a standard but also a symbol for trust in our ambition to always use production methods that are based on the best available knowledge regarding selection of raw materials and manufacturing practices.
13. Do Swedish Match use genetically modified tobacco in your products?
No, we do not use any kind of genetically modified tobacco in our products.
14. How do you communicate the risks of using your snus products?
We do not claim that our smokeless products could not have any adverse health effects. We recognize that tobacco use raises valid questions about nicotine dependence, and the role of nicotine in special populations such as during pregnancy and among patients with cardiovascular conditions.
We believe however that adult consumers have the right to enjoy tobacco products with the common knowledge of the health risks associated with them. On our website, under the Snus and health section, we publish information about our tobacco-products. We also discuss nicotine and nicotine addiction.
15. Can you explain the concept of harm reduction in more detail?
The health risks associated with cigarette smoking are well known and the associated costs are enormous. The harmful effects of cigarette smoking arise mainly through the burning of tobacco. Based on observations from the "Swedish experience", it has commonly been accepted among researchers that the use of snus is less harmful than smoking. The harm reduction approach is therefore based on the recognition that the health hazards of cigarette smoking can largely be avoided by switching to smokefree sources of nicotine. This could be accomplished through either smokefree tobacco-based products (such as snus) or through nicotine-replacement products (such as patches or chewing gum). There is some evidence that smokers may be more likely to accept alternative tobacco products, and thus have greater success in quitting smoking, than with the nicotine-replacement products.
16. What do you think of the fact that youths use your products?
Swedish Match has a “Under 18 No Tobacco” policy and believes that all tobacco-products are for adults only and should therefore not be sold to or used by a person under the age of 18.
Marketing, advertising, or promotion of tobacco products directed at young people under the age of 18 years is prohibited within Swedish Match. We believe that responsible tobacco retail education and information are the most effective means of preventing the underage sale of tobacco. The Group will continue to provide support and leadership to our retail partners in any efforts they make to demonstrate their endorsement of the “Under 18 No Tobacco” policy. We are as a Group prepared to continue partnering with retailers, distributors, and public officials throughout the world to prevent underage use of tobacco while protecting the rights of adult consumers who are fully aware of the health risks connected to the use of tobacco, to make a decision about whether or not to use tobacco.
17. How does Swedish Match work to reduce its negative impact on the environment?
Although Swedish Match has a relatively low effect on the environment, we continuously strive to limit our negative impact on the environment. We consider environmental issues very important and integrate our environmental work into our everyday business. This includes many things, for example introducing organic coffee in the staff canteens, replacing old energy-intensive electric equipment with new, choosing less environmentally harmful business trips or replacing them with video, telephone or web-meetings. We furthermore work on how to deal with and reduce waste in the factories and to minimize our transports through careful logistics planning. We also strive to use environmentally friendly materials in our packaging.
We have a Group Environmental Council which is responsible for environmental issues and for reporting environmental results. Please read our Group Environmental Policy here. You will find more information about our environmental efforts on our website under the page Environment.
18. What kind of packaging does Swedish Match have for its snuff and snus cans and can you recycle them?
We always strive to use environmentally friendly materials in our packaging. For both Swedish snus and US moist snuff, the plastic cans are made from polypropylene (PP) which you can also find in ketchup bottles, yogurt containers, and tubs for margarine to give a few examples. Rolls of cans are mostly shrink-wrapped in polyethylene. At complete combustion, only carbon dioxide and water remain from these plastics. All coloring agents in the plastic are approved for food packaging or both plastic cans and plastic lids are recyclable, #5.
19. Is Swedish Match certified according to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001?
The majority of Swedish Match production facilities are certified according to the environmental management standards of ISO 14001 as well as the quality management systems standards of ISO 9001. Of 12 production facilities, 10 have ISO 9001 certification and 9 have ISO 14001 certification. In December 2011 Swedish Match’s match factories in Tidaholm and Vetlanda were certified according to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
20. Swedish Match is a major supplier of matches. What can you say about sustainable forestry practices and biodiversity? What about FSC certification?
Swedish Swedish Match has significant match operations in Sweden and Brazil, with local sourcing of timber, as described below.
Sweden: Aspen forestry and the Forestry Stewardship Council
Swedish Match Industries AB (SMIAB) use aspen wood for the manufacturing of matches. The wood is mainly sourced from the southern part of Sweden (Götaland and Svealand, excluding the northwest of Dalarna). The largest volumes are bought from bigger wood companies like “Södra” and “Mellanskog”. Lower volumes of wood are sourced directly from individual forest owners. SMIAB uses approximately 25,000 m3 of aspen wood per year. Aspen is growing naturally together with other kinds of wood and the cutting is often done where spruce is planted. All cutting of wood must be performed according to the Swedish forestry law and all final cutting of wood above an area of 0.5 Ha must be reported to the Swedish Forest Agency.
SMIAB is since 2009 certified according to the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) chain of custody standard and the standard for controlled wood. Post consumer recycled fibers in the cardboard for inner and outer match boxes together with FSC certified wood can be used for the production of match boxes with FSC claims. The supply of FSC certified wood is increasing since several big forest companies are certifying their forest. Right now, we are introducing a multi-site chain of custody system, including 10 sales companies and agents in our certificate. The main advantage of a multisite chain of custody certificate is that the sales companies and agents will be allowed to promote FSC. Read more about FSC Certification.
Brazil: meets or exceeds Brazilian regulations
More than 95 percent of Swedish Match’s wood consumption in Brazil comes from the Company’s own plantations. The remaining small volume is bought from well reputed companies in Brazil. The wood species that are planted are pine and poplar. The Company complies with all Brazilian regulations and legislations, which are extensive and rigorous. The Company plants close to 500 Ha’s annually, representing more than 300,000 seedlings planted every year. In the combined area of all the plantations, 20 percent of the area remains untouched for the preservation of native forest. This is in accordance with Brazilian legislation. In addition, areas adjacent to rivers are protected in accordance with the Permanent Protection law of Brazil.
Here are examples of environmental control in Brazil:
- For all pest and disease controls, only materials approved by Brazilian authorities are used. Furthermore, the Company has along the years constantly thrived to replace traditional pesticides in favor of more environmentally friendly natural biological means of control.
- Birdlife as well as variety of mammals is constantly monitored. A rich variety of different species can be found on the plantations.
- Water quality in rivers inside and adjacent to plantations is monitored, upstream as well as downstream. Until now, no toxic residuals have been identified which confirms that there is no water contamination.
- In the control of weeds, the use of herbicides has been replaced by winter intercropping (Lolium multiflorum) as natural weed control.
Swedish Match Brazil is currently entering into a process of obtaining an Environmental Operational License to be issued by the State of Santa Catarina, where parts of the Company’s plantations are located. Swedish Match is one of the first companies to work towards obtaining this license. The Company expects to obtain this license, which initially will be valid for a period of four years, during 2012.
21. Does Swedish Match report on its sustainability according to any global standard?
Successful sustainability activities require a methodical approach to reporting. Therefore, in addition to reporting Swedish Match’s carbon use for many years under the Carbon Disclosure Project, the Company in 2010 decided to work towards reporting our sustainability performance according to the standards set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 guidelines in order to reach measurable, transparent, clear, and comparable results. Starting with the 2010 annual report and the GRI-reporting document for 2010, Swedish Match annually reports the sustainability performance using the GRI methodology at the self declared level C.