Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an important part of how we do business. As part of our journey towards measuring, reporting and improving our efforts in sustainability initiatives, we honor the best projects from around our Company at our global CSR awards.

Our annual awards began by focusing primarily on Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) initiatives. Our EHS Excellence Awards began in 2005, and more than 900 entries were submitted in those ten years.

But as the scope of our sustainability work widened, the EHS Excellence awards evolved into something much bigger.

Rewarding the best

Today, our sustainability work covers a wide range of areas. The CSR awards honor projects that have achieved important results in improving our workplaces, the environment and the quality of life of people in the communities where we do business. Teams from all over the world submit projects for consideration, and the winners are awarded at a special celebration at JTI’s global headquarters in Geneva.

Around 140 projects are submitted, with a judging panel of external CSR experts choosing four winners.

In order to select our fifth winning project, we also invite the views of the people whose opinions matter: our 26,000 employees.

Our colleagues in Taiwan nominated the Dreams Never Get Old project. By 2050, Taiwan’s elderly will account for 37% of the overall population and senior Welfare programs will only cover the basic physical needs. Dreams Never Get Old provides a platform for society’s elders to fulfill their dreams and goals – from riding a motorbike to producing a film. JTI’s partnership in the project is now in its fifth year.

In Jordan, where our Amman factory manufactures products for the entire Middle East region, the team undertook an ambitious project to cut packaging waste on material coming in to the factory. The result? A reduction in waste, a reduction in energy and a reduction in cost – making the manufacturing process more efficient.

They faced tough competition from South Africa, where the JTI team developed an employee volunteering program based on the wisdom of Nelson Mandela: Simply do good every day. Building on the country’s rich history of giving back to the under-privileged, the team encouraged and inspired employees to give their time. Over the course of a year, 137 employees gave a total of 2243 hours to help the needy.

And the winner is...

The winner of the Employees’ Choice award captured the imaginations of our people, securing more than one third of all the votes cast by JTI employees around the world. The winning project was the Water Supply Project, an initiative by JTI in the Caucasus region, which provides access to clean and safe drinking water for a population of about 1,800 people living in a village central Azerbaijan.

Villagers from Qarasaqqa, in Azerbaijan’s Kurdamir district, had no access to drinkable water. Cases of infectious diseases were regularly reported, and many villagers were forced to relocate to neighboring towns to access a cleaner supply. JTI partnered with local authorities to design and build a water supply facility which will provide safe drinking water for many future generations.

"Our Water Supply Project has really changed the lives of the people we wanted to help by providing them with a basic necessity that so many of us take for granted: clean drinking water."

Ali Verdiyev, JTI Azerbaijan community relations team

Ali Verdiyev works in JTI’s Azerbaijan community relations team. He said: “Our Water Supply Project has really changed the lives of the people we wanted to help by providing them with a basic necessity that so many of us take for granted: clean drinking water. This was a very ambitious project but we partnered with the right agencies to make it a success.”

Roberts Inapss, JTI’s Country Manger in Azerbaijan added: “It was an honor to be chosen for a CSR award among so many brilliant entries. Our team is so proud of the Water Supply Project and it is a privilege to have it recognized by our colleagues around the world.”

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