British American Tobacco manufactures and sells cigarettes, vaping devices, and tobacco products globally from its London headquarters.
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BAT reports comprehensive operational emissions data with third-party assurance, yet Scope 3 lags by a year and remains massive at 5.5Mt. A $5M lawsuit alleges greenwashing over carbon-neutral vape claims using worthless offsets. Trade association memberships contradict stated climate positions. The business structure—249 billion cigarettes annually, 5% of global deforestation from tobacco farming, 4–5 trillion butts littered yearly—represents a fundamental circular economy failure that disclosure sophistication cannot offset.
British American Tobacco scores 41/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Fees pay for the review, never the result. Last verified October 2026.
That places British American Tobacco joint 343rd of 847 companies scored, and joint 17th of 45 in FMCG / Consumer Goods.
Where British American Tobacco sits among fmcg / consumer goods peers.
Among the 45 major fmcg / consumer goods brands we've scored, British American Tobacco is tied =17th of 45, with 4 others.
Its three lowest-scoring questions, and what the evidence didn't show.
Net-positive nature outcome unverified; 249 billion cigarettes annually produced.
Biomass is significant but not independently verified for sustainability additionality.
84.72% of offsets from four forestry projects with no genuine additional reductions.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Evidence that isn't public can count through an evidence review.
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Get in touch →Strongest on Carbon Footprint — Operations and Emissions Trajectory (8/10, 7/10). Weakest on Nature & Biodiversity Impact and Energy Source (3/10, 5/10).
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above British American Tobacco.
LEGO reports comprehensive Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions with third-party verification, but total emissions have risen 56% since its 2019 SBTi baseline despite a stated 37% reduction target.
See the breakdown →Chanel reports comprehensive emissions data and secured SBTi-validated net-zero 2040 targets, but Scope 3 purchased goods emissions surged 70% from 2021–2023, contradicting overall reduction claims.
See the breakdown →General Mills reports comprehensively on Scope 1 and 2 emissions with third-party verification and has nearly reached 100% renewable electricity.
See the breakdown →British American Tobacco's score has moved from 34 to 41 across 2 recorded reviews, up 7 points.
Aggregator-citation sweep: broker citations replaced with the primary disclosures they mirror, re-scored through the guarded pipeline under pinned code 9196601.
Initial public score 34 (publish-draft)
The formula and all 12 sources.
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × Scale12 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
“Total Scope 1 CO2e emissions (thousand tonnes) 237 … Total Scope 2 CO2e emissions (market-based) (thousand tonnes) 74”
“independently assured by KPMG using the ISAE (UK) 3000 and ISAE 3410”
“covers 26,000 direct and indirect suppliers … emissions account for around 50% of our Scope 3 inventory”
“Energy reduction initiatives and increasing the use of renewable fuels resulted in a 42.6% reduction in these emissions vs our 2020 baseline”
“SBTi has verified BAT's net-zero science-based target by 2050 and approved its near and long-term science-based emission reduction targets”
“BAT has signed up to the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) to be an Early Adopter”
“In one year we lose 22 billion tonnes of water to the tobacco industry”
“Estimates show that tobacco farming causes up to five per cent of global deforestation, with 200,000 hectares of natural wood biomass loss each year”
“Total waste generated: 110.58 thousand tonnes … Waste recycled: 97.3 thousand tonnes … Waste to landfill: 1.40 thousand tonnes”
“Total water withdrawn (mn m³) 3.16 3.50 3.76 Y”
“achieving a 47.4% reduction in 2024 (versus our 2017 baseline)”
“BAT continued to market Vuse products as carbon-neutral even after being made aware of the sham credits”
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British American Tobacco manufactures and sells cigarettes, vaping devices, and tobacco products globally from its London headquarters. With 55,000 employees and £25.8B revenue (FY2020), BAT is the world's second-largest listed tobacco company. It has diversified into e-vapour and non-combustible products but remains primarily dependent on cigarette sales.
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