Altria Group has been awarded a double ‘A’ rating for tackling climate change and protecting water security by CDP, a nonprofit that runs a global disclosure system on managing environmental impact. Altria ranks among the 1 percent of companies that achieved a double ‘A’ out of 5,800-plus businesses scored by CDP in 2020.
“We recognize the critical importance of addressing environmental challenges and have set a high bar for ourselves,” said Jennifer Hunter, senior vice president of corporate citizenship, in a statement. “In pursuit of our 10-year vision, we established ambitious goals to address climate change and water security, like achieving 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030, 100 percent water neutrality annually and aligning our business with the most ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”
Earlier this year, Altria announced that its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets were approved for the first time by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The Scope 1 and Scope 2 target covering greenhouse gas emissions from Altria’s operations is consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal that the latest climate science says is needed to prevent the most damaging effects of climate change. The Scope 3 target meets the criteria for ambitious value chain goals and current best practice.
CDP’s annual environmental disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate environmental transparency. A detailed and independent methodology is used, allocating a score of A to D- based on the comprehensiveness of disclosure, awareness and management of environmental risks and demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets. Those that don’t disclose or provided insufficient information are marked with an F.
CDP also recognized Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Brands for their environmental commitments.