BAT Bangladesh earns the distinction of being the first company in the country to receive the prestigious Social Caring Pledge (SCP) Awards 2021 in the categories of “Green Excellence” and “ESG Investment Excellence”. The company has received these prestigious awards in honor of its exceptional commitment towards Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices.
The Social Enterprise Research Academy (SERA) presents the SCP Awards to those business leaders and organizations that have demonstrated exceptional performance and perseverance in promoting the UN Global Compact’s six core principles through their social caring attitudes.
In a statement, the Managing Director of BAT Bangladesh Mr. ShehzadMunim said, “We’re pleased to have won the SCP Awards in two categories this year. In all our actions, we keep ESG at the front and centre. Such widespread acknowledgment of our work constantly motivates us to collaborate with communities and stakeholders to build a better tomorrow.”
BAT Bangladesh has been in operation for 110 years, and the company has taken several initiatives to educate its farming community about environment friendly and sustainable agricultural practices for boosting soil fertility, conserving water, and decreasing pollution. BATB’s flagship ESG initiative, the country’s largest private-sector-led afforestation program, has given approximately 115 million seedlings to beneficiaries free of cost. A project aimed at providing safe drinking water free of arsenic and other impurities to over 270,000 beneficiaries from rural communities is also part of the Company’s ESG initiative portfolio and so is a renewable energy project that provides solar electricity to the households of over 15,000 people in off-grid remote villages in the Chattogram hill tracts.
The Company’s ambitious vision for minimizing its operational impact on the environment includes the elimination of unnecessary single-use plastic from its operational sites, zero waste to landfill initiatives, water recycling, and a drive towards achieving carbon neutrality. BAT Bangladesh is confident in its continuous commitment to ESG, which will aid in the creation of a safe and productive environment for communities, which is imperative to build a better tomorrow.