Tobacco Free Portfolios Foundation

Our flagship initiative – The Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge – with 180+ Signatories from 21 countries, with US$12.2 trillion combined AUM, is accelerating tobacco-free finance, yet there is much more work to do.

Our goal is to ensure at least 50% of global AUM (~$50 trillion) commits to tobacco-free finance in the next 5 years.
In 5 years, we aim to sign up 50 leading US financial institutions to the Pledge.

Major advances in tobacco control policy are required for achievement of 14 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. By creating a tobacco-free world, we will be much closer to achieving these goals.

Our strategy involved working collaboratively with the finance sector – with boards, trustees, executive teams and individuals to advise them on the risks facing the tobacco industry, tobacco consumption facts and trends, and developments in global tobacco control. We take organizations on a step-by- step process helping implement tobacco-free policies across business, sharing lessons learned from our worldwide experience.

The rationale is that by excluding tobacco company stocks and bonds, this serves to challenge and change the current status quo - where most workers worldwide are unwitting owners of tobacco companies via their pension plans. The collective impact of many financial organizations ceasing commercial relationships with the tobacco industry helps to ‘denormalize’ tobacco companies. ‘Denormalization’ is a key goal of both global government and public health tobacco control efforts.

Application of an exclusion can send a strong signal from investors and affect share prices.

Our work has helped mainstream tobacco-free finance globally. Using our focused approach and working closely with trusted partners such as WHO, WWF and UN agencies, we have helped hundreds of financial organizations understand the impact of investment decisions on global health and guided them to a more sustainable future. We have made great progress in more than 21 countries, with nearly 200 Signatories with a total AUM of over US$16 trillion already behind the Pledge since its launch in September 2018.

Organizations report that their tobacco-free decisions are well received by staff and other stakeholders, and their tobacco-free policies have helped to bolster financial performances.

We implore our Signatories to champion tobacco-free finance, share insights and best practices to empower their peers to follow suit. When signing The Pledge, they commit to:

• Collaborate to raise awareness of the issue of lending to, investing in, and insuring tobacco companies;
• Encourage the adoption of tobacco-free finance policies across lending, investment and insurance;
• Encourage the alignment of lending, investment and insurance policies with the aims of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control;
• Consider forming or supporting partnerships within or across sectors to promote tobacco control initiatives;
• Help guide a widespread transition towards tobacco-free finance by supporting activities that build knowledge and understanding of tobacco-free finance;
• Encourage more organizations to become signatories to or supporters of the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge; and or
• Gather at key events with an expanded global network committed to the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge.

We have worked with hundreds of financial organizations across the world to help them implement more sustainable practices.

Since launching our flagship initiative – The Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge – at the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly at UNHQ in September 2018, there are nearly 200 Signatories with a total AUM of over US$16 trillion behind The Pledge.

Our Global Advisory Council includes:
• Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan;
• Keith Ambachtsheer, Director Emeritus International Centre for Pension Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto;
• Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, CEO BNP Paribas;
• Denis Duverne, Chairman AXA;
• Ian Silk, CEO AustralianSuper;
• José Luis Castro, President and CEO Vital Strategies;
• Mats Andersson, Former CEO AP4;
• Olivier Rousseau, CEO Fonds de réserve pour les retraites;
• Pavan Sukhdev, President World Wildlife Fund; and many more found www.tobaccofreeportfolios.org.

For a small but mighty team, we have made significant progress. Our work has helped mainstream tobacco-free finance globally, yet there is much more work to do.

We are now firmly focused on impact in North America, home to many of the world’s largest financial institutions, and we need your support to progress our work across the region.

For every dollar invested into Tobacco Free Portfolios, we estimate we have helped move $2 million away from tobacco, demonstrating extremely cost-efficient operations.

Our supporters will have the opportunity to have an impactful global reach and help create a tobacco-free future for generations to come.