Annual report 2010 - Imperial Tobacco Group

Corporate Responsibility and our StrategyWe understand that stakeholder issues impact thecommercial success of our business therefore we havealigned our responsible approach within our strategy.In leveraging our assets of our brands, our unique totaltobacco portfolio, our extensive market footprint and ourpeople to drive sales, we have three particular areas offocus: consumer centric, execution excellence and futurefoundations. Our CR activities in each of these areasunderpin our sustainable sales growth agenda.Measuring and Monitoring our CR PerformanceWe use our CR Framework with performance indicators tomonitor our CR performance, set objectives and structureour CR reporting. The CR framework details social andenvironmental issues that are important to our stakeholdersand to the success and sustainability of our business.During the year we reviewed and subsequently amendedour CR Framework to better reflect consumer interests,risk management, water management and societal andregulatory issues. Our revised framework incorporates ourown internal reviews and feedback from our stakeholders,including our Stakeholder Panel, external benchmarkingand wider economic and business developments.Undertaking these periodic reviews enables us to considergaps which are then addressed in our objectives andimproved non-financial performance indicators.We have progressed the implementation of new indicatorsin a number of areas including in employment practices,product stewardship, international marketing practices,social responsibility in tobacco production and communityinvestment. We are aiming to report our new fully revised setof non-financial performance indicators in our 2011 report.CR Performance 2010 HighlightsWe delivered another strong performance this year, furtherdemonstrating our continued commitment to responsiblebusiness behaviour.Our highlights this year include:––Further increasing our focus on anti-illicit trade activitieswith a new Commercial Integrity team and completionof Market Risk Management roll-out.––Signing a co-operation agreement with the EuropeanCommission and the Member States of the EuropeanUnion to jointly combat illicit trade in tobacco.––Further embedding high standards of conduct andbehaviour with our Code of Conduct revised in 2010 andtraining being progressively rolled out across the Group.––Inclusion of all tobacco suppliers in the SocialResponsibility in Tobacco Production Programme,with 100 per cent compliance.––Commencing negotiations to form a single EuropeanWorks Council to represent our employee interests.––Gold award rating in Business in the Community’s 2009Corporate Responsibility Index with a score of 93.8 percent (2008: silver rating and a score of 84.5 per cent).––Achieving a score of 74 per cent for 2010 (2009: 73per cent) in SAM Research on behalf of the Dow JonesSustainability Index.Our 2011 CR FocusConsumer Centric––Further address and respond to consumer preferencesin terms of products, quality and regulation.Execution Excellence––Continue to improve OHSE management and performance.––Further develop environmental performance managementand our commitment to carbon reduction.––Further develop our people capabilities to support oursales growth strategy.Future Foundations––Continue our Code of Conduct training.––Extending membership of our Stakeholder Panel.––Enhance our non-financial reporting and CRperformance indicators.––Strengthen our responsible sales approach focusing onanti-illicit trade activities and youth smoking prevention.––Further align our community investment partnershipsto our business interests.––Enhance our level of proactive regulatory engagement,supporting our business, consumers and customers.––Target supply chain improvements by increasing dialoguewith our suppliers.Performance Highlights: CRWe further increased our focuson anti-illicit trade activities witha new Commercial Integrity team.43