British American Tobacco 2008 Sustainability Report

1.4 Delimitations

Qualitative research could have been conducted specifically towards BAT and perhaps show how their sustainability report directly affected their business performance. Moreover, a qualitative examination of their stakeholder perception of the ethical issues of BAT’s sustainability report would give a more detailed picture of how BAT’s CSR involvement is perceived. Even though this is discussed in the thesis and a feasible answer is provided, the use of BAT’s sustainability report 2008 should merely be seen as an example of a corporation with controversial consumer goods and a corporation that faces ethical issues given the nature of its products. Moreover, the whole concept of CSR is not covered in the thesis because the field of CSR covers a large set of areas, from health issues and environmental impacts to societal matters (Tench & Yeomans, 2006). Discussing CSR from these perspectives may result in a different conclusion which either supports this thesis or counter-argues it. Moreover, it would have been possible to use another stakeholder to explain the ethical issues, but WHO provides the sharp contrast and substantiates the discussion. Moreover, the restricted amount of space in the thesis justifies the exclusion of the above-mentioned delimitations. In addition, the accessible theory and number of articles on ethics within the field of CSR and the tobacco industry were limited. Hence, a very narrow discussion is kept on the field of ethics of CSR and sustainability in the thesis.

2 Stakeholders and Publics

The stakeholder theory is briefly introduced, merely to give an understanding of the problematic nature BAT faces and to support the problem statement. Stakeholder theory is fundamental to PR, in that an organisation must know its stakeholders and publics in order to produce the right communication through its PR. Moreover, understanding stakeholders gives an important insight to the production of CSR and sustainability reports as these are targeted at stakeholders.
To be able to understand the influence of BAT’s stakeholders and how they possibly influence the ethics of business, it is necessary to give a definition of stakeholders.
Tench and Yeomans define stakeholders as, “…stakeholders are those who influence or can influence the organisation as well as those affected by it. … employees and their trade unions, financial investors, customers, suppliers, distributors, the local community, local and central government, industry groups and the media” (Tench & Yeomans, 2006, p.241).
In this thesis the main focus is on WHO as one that is able to influence BAT both directly and indirectly. WHO directly affects BAT’s business in that they question BAT’s CSR initiatives directly in their reports. E.g. the WHO report; “Seeing Beneath the Surface: The Thruth About the Tobacco Industry’s Youth Smoking Prevention Programme” (App. 4). In this report WHO directly questions BAT’s work and claims that their programmes do not have the intended effect on the youth. Moreover, BAT is indirectly affected by WHO’s governmental work. WHO has created “…the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control…” (WHO FCTC) (App. 1, p.9). The framework has been adopted, by multiple governments and it is a step backwards for BAT and perhaps its business because it promotes anti-smoking campaigns and bans on smoking in public places. Moreover it sets standards for the marketing efforts of the tobacco industry, and therefore BAT. In the BAT Sustainability Report 2008 BAT states, “However, engagement with stakeholders who are the most critical of the tobacco industry remains a challenge… Many of these stakeholders either will not, or feel they cannot, engage with us. Similar views are also reflected… by government parties to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control…” (App. 2, p.5). This statement provides an understanding of the challenge which BAT faces in its sustainability practices. Moreover, the statement underlines the fact that stakeholders of BAT do not wish to engage with them because of the business they practice. Hence, an implicit reference may be applied to the ethical concern which some of BAT’s stakeholders have towards BAT’s tobacco products. Moreover, WHO questions BAT’s sustainability report in the statement, “… tobacco industry programs that seek to contribute to a greater social good urge the question: how can tobacco companies reconcile their main aim, to gain maximum profit by producing and selling a deadly product, with the goals of CSR: business norms, based on ethical values and respect for employees, consumers, communities and the environment?” (App. 1, pp. 6-7). BAT’s response to a stakeholder statement like this is given in its report, “We are actively pursuing innovative methods to work with stakeholders on our key issues. We remain committed to constructive engagement with any stakeholder on tobacco-related sustainability issues.” (App. 2, p.5). The reason that these two statements are presented is that they portray the contradiction that often occurs between a corporation and a sceptical stakeholder. The thesis discussion relies on the understanding of this contradiction. Hence, it opens for a discussion on the ethical issues that CSR and sustainability reports contain.

3 The Semiotics of CSR and Sustainability

Defining corporate social responsibility is a challenge in that the concept covers so many areas of business and it is conducted by so many different businesses in a vast variety of sectors. Hence, the transparency of the concept CSR is somewhat blurred. In this thesis the primary focus, and an important part of the concept, will be on sustainability. The idea of building a sustainable business has different denotations. The literal meaning of a sustainable business is: a business that will continue to exist and operate into the foreseeable future (Aras and Crowther, 2009) or it can denote a business, which practices cause an absolute zero amount of waste and loss to the environment and hence, will not affect or limit the circumstances of world’s future citizens. This last idea of sustainable development is commonly known as the Brundtland Commission’s definition of sustainability (Kallio, 2007), whose idea of sustainable development is reflected in the notion of sustainable development. However, as I shall be discussing later, this idea meets inherent contradictions.
Hence, applying theory of CSR and particularly when referring to the word sustainability it is important to keep these two denotations in mind. It may seem obvious that there are two different meanings and it is often easy to see when companies are talking about either a sustainable business in the future or a business that operates with sustainability in its business practices. But the problem in many cases is that corporations use the word interchangeably, making it hard for stakeholders to identify when the corporation is talking about one or the other. E.g. when BAT states, “We see sustainability as being about helping to build long-term commercial sustainability by delivering on sustainable development objectives.” (App. 2, p.4) and “… building a sustainable business that meets stakeholder expectations…” (Ibid.). In each case it is clear what the denotation of sustainability is, but what might be more interesting is which connotations follow from using the word sustainability. In each case, the connotations of sustainability will depend on the stakeholders. From a shareholder’s point of view these two claims have positive connotations, by justifying that investing in BAT was profitable. Contrary, a stakeholder such as WHO or anti-smoking groups would, given their negative view on tobacco, react negatively towards such claims.
Thus, a general understanding of the denotations and connotations of sustainability and the concept CSR is fundamental for the discussion because it clarifies the lack of a specific standard and meaning to the concept of sustainability. The lack of a specific meaning and interpretation of CSR and sustainability is a key point in this thesis’ discussions.