Back in 2015, in his powerful Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si” or “Praise Be to You”, Pope Francis made a powerful statement, unifying both the spiritual and scientific dimensions of life, on one of humanity’s greatest challenges in the 21st Century: environmental destruction and climate change.

There exists much skepticism about the tobacco industry’s claim that it wants to “unsmoke the world”.[1]  Tobacco control proponents question how much the tobacco industry’s “transition narrative” should be trusted. [2] The history of the tobacco industry provides ample evidence for skepticism, if not outright rejection. While scientific studies demonstrated the negative harms of tobacco use, the tobacco industry…

Tobacco Free Portfolios was pleased to participate in the CAMRADATA Sustainable Investing roundtable to discuss advancing sustainable finance and ensuring products labelled ESG, SDG-aligned or ‘net-zero’ are explicitly tobacco-free. Read more in the CAMRADATA Sustainable Investing Whitepaper.

Tobacco presents an array of health, ethical and social risks that are well-known and long- studied. This report, drawing on new academic analysis from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics demonstrates that declining returns and growing business threats present a clear and present financial risk for investors in tobacco.

Tobacco Free Portfolios was pleased to host a webinar in March, 2021, alongside global thought leaders from American Cancer Society, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Truth Initiative, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and The Center for Black Health & Equity to showcase the broad cross section of major tobacco control initiatives. The panel of speakers…

Tobacco Free Portfolios, together with the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF), were pleased to co-host the webinar ‘Aligning portfolios with international treaties – where does tobacco fit in?’. In this video, hear from finance leaders who have gone tobacco-free, including Ian Silk, CEO AustralianSuper, Oliver Rousseau, Executive Director Fonds de Reserve Pour Les…

Hear from some of Australia’s leading CEOs on why they went tobacco-free, why tobacco-free finance is an important step on the sustainable journey, what they would say to super funds that haven’t gone tobacco-free and how they feel leading a super fund that is tobacco-free.  

Tobacco Free Portfolios CEO Dr Bronwyn King AO was pleased to participate in the global webinar ‘Smoke & Mirrors: Healthcare company retirement plans are addicted to tobacco’, alongside As You Sow, the USA’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy, on Wednesday, October 28, 2020.  

In 2020, tobacco will kill five times more people than COVID-19—and is on track to kill one billion people this century. Furthermore, cigarette butts are the largest single type of litter by count, and have become the number one form of plastic pollution in the ocean, surpassing plastic straws. As the world moves to protect…

For World No Tobacco Day 2020, Tobacco Free Portfolios together with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and Principles for Responsible Investment co-hosted a high-level webinar to showcase progress in attracting new signatories to the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge.

On World No Tobacco Day – 31 May 2022 – we were thrilled to learn that Tobacco Free Portfolios had received a WHO Director-General Special Award for accomplishments in tobacco control. On behalf of the whole TFP team, I’m delighted to accept this award and extremely proud of the efforts of our small but mighty…

There are now 178 Signatories of the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge from 21 countries representing over US$12.2 trillion in assets under management. COP26 and Net Zero commitments have dominated the sustainable finance landscape of late. Given the profoundly negative impact of tobacco on the environment – in terms of ocean plastic, deforestation, biodiversity loss and carbon footprint (as large as…

We were thrilled to see our Global Ambassador, Her Royal Highness Princess Dina Mired of Jordan accept the prestigious ‘World No Tobacco Day’ award from Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. We’d like to formally thank Princess Dina for her tireless commitment to tobacco control and send our hearty congratulations on this…

As the year draws to a close it’s a good time to reflect on how much has changed and how we’ve adapted to the new reality. Never before has health and economics been discussed so much – in the one conversation! The work of Tobacco Free Portfolios has always sat between the world of finance…

COVID-19 has presented many challenges to communities across the globe and we send our support to all those who have been and continue to be impacted. Many have emphasised how important Tobacco Free Portfolios’ work is right now, including finance leaders who continue to prioritise global health through new tobacco-free decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic….

In six months, Tobacco Free Portfolios welcomed 19 new Signatories to the Tobacco-Free Finance Pledge bringing the total number of Signatories to 129. These Signatories represent US$8.25 Trillion Assets Under Management and US$2.08 Trillion Corporate Loan Books with Gross Insurance Premiums amounting to US$186 Billion. This newsletter also  acknowledges IDLC Finance Limited of Bangladesh –…