KUALA LUMPUR: British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT Malaysia) has unveiled its four-pillar sustainability agenda strategy as part of the journey towards its "A Better Tomorrow" initiatives.

       Director of legal and external affairs at BAT Malaysia Nick Booth said the main focus of the strategy is harm reduction, which is to reduce the health impact of its business and offering less risky products to its consumers.

       "BAT Malaysia would support the establishment of appropriate regulations for tobacco harm-reduced products such as nicotine vapour. In Malaysia, there is already a large footprint on the use of nicotine vapour, albeit in an unregulated manner, so we would support the government to create regulations for those products," he told a media briefing today.

       Booth also noted that BAT Malaysia is increasing the use of renewable energy and pushing towards carbon neutrality in its operations.

       "This includes solar energy deployment at our factory in Johor Bahru, warehouse and distribution offices nationwide, and deployment of hybrid vehicles under the environment pillar (of its strategy),” he said.

       "BAT Malaysia is also accelerating our diversity and inclusion agenda under the social pillar by creating a workplace for everyone where they feel equally involved and supported, as well as efforts to ensure fair and equal representation of women and different nationalities in the management and leadership roles within the company."

       He said BAT Malaysia has aligned its strategy with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and key elements of the 12th Malaysia Plan.

       "We want to be the leading consumer product and services company when benchmarked against the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) rating and recognised for sustainability initiatives locally and internationally," said Booth. - Bernama