RLX Technology presented its “Corporate Social Responsibility Report.” The report outlines the firm’s annual progress in fulfilling various corporate social responsibilities, including rural revitalization, product-related responsibility, corporate governance, environmental responsibility and employee responsibility.
According to the report, as of 2023, RLX has invested a total of CNY44.3 million ($6.2 million) in areas such as biodiversity conservation and rural revitalization. By the end of April 2023, RLX had effectively generated approximately 120,000 employment opportunities along the supply chain and accumulated research and development investments totaling CNY800 million.
Navigating the delicate balance between compliance and innovation is the most crucial challenge for RLX, according to a company press release. In pursuit of a first-class user experience, the company says it not only strictly adheres to regulatory requirements by developing products in line with national standards to ensure quality and safety but is also comprehensively upgrading its research and development system. This involves establishing eight major laboratory matrices and rigorous factory quality control to enhance product innovation. The report reveals that as of April 2023, RLX has applied for nearly 900 patents globally.
From child-proof locks to anti-dry burn functions, each of the eight laboratories plays a specific role in developing products that meet both regulatory requirements and user-experience expectations. The Innovation Lab, for example, focuses on material purification and flavor perception, significantly reducing the risk of alterations to product taste and flavor. The Quality and Safety Lab conducts tests such as drop and negative pressure tests to ensure product stability in extreme environments. This lab has received accreditation from China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment.
Since outlining its “1+4” scientific research path in 2020, RLX has initiated nearly 50 research projects to fill the gaps in the field of vape science. The report highlights several breakthrough achievements from the past year. In November 2022, the first domestic clinical study on electronic cigarettes initiated by RLX was published in the medical SCI journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. By the end of April 2023, RLX had conducted 17 collaborative research projects, publishing 11 research papers in authoritative journals.
“From 2022 to 2023, whether in the Chinese e-cigarette industry or at RLX Technology, it has been an extremely important period. We wholeheartedly respond to policies and actively address various changes, not only fulfilling strict compliance and providing reassuring products as ‘required actions’ but also contributing our modest efforts in ‘voluntary actions’ such as wildlife protection and rural revitalization to enhance social well-being,” said Kate Wang, founder and CEO of RLX.
PMI made the index for the third year running, achieving an overall score of 80.6 percent.
“Achieving gender balance at all levels of the company is one of our top priorities, and I am delighted that our efforts are recognized again in this year’s index,” said Silke Muenster, chief diversity officer at PMI. “While we are making significant progress, we know we need to keep our foot on the acceleration pedal. An inclusive workplace that leverages the full talents of both women and men is crucial to our smoke-free vision, making our organization more innovative, resourceful and engaged.”
In 2022, PMI achieved its target of ensuring at least 40 percent female representation in managerial roles and announced a new target to achieve 35 percent of women in senior roles by the end of 2025, among other targets.
BAT, which participated in the index for the first time, received a score of 75 percent. BAT was recognized for creating an inclusive culture for women via its recruiting initiatives, adoption of family-friendly policies, sponsoring programs dedicated to educating women, and support of community programs. Inclusion in the index follows BAT being named as a Global Top Employer for a sixth successive year.
“Recognition in this year’s Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index demonstrates our commitment to addressing gender diversity and highlights our concerted global efforts to provide transparent reporting,” said Hae In Kim, BAT’s director of talent, culture and inclusion. “With more than 50,000 employees worldwide, our diversity and inclusion strategy is truly global, and I continue to be incredibly proud of the collective efforts made by all our employees.”
The GEI measures gender equality performance globally across five pillars as set by Bloomberg: leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand. The 2023 Bloomberg GEI comprises 485 companies from 45 countries and regions.
The Vuse e-cigarette brand has won the Sustainable Product Award in the 2021 SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement and Leadership) Business Sustainability Awards. The award recognizes innovative and impactful products that are “purpose-built for a sustainable future.”
The SEAL Awards celebrate leadership through business sustainability and environmental journalism awards.
“We are honored to receive this SEAL Sustainable Product Award for our Vuse vapor brand,” said Kingsley Wheaton, BAT’s chief marketing officer, in statement.
“At BAT, we are creating the brands of the future with sustainability at their core. In 2021, Vuse was certified as the first global carbon neutral vape brand. This is part of Vuse’s broader sustainability program, which aims to eliminate single-use plastics and have all packaging recyclable by 2025.
“We are proud that Vuse has set the sustainability standard within the vaping category.”
RELX International recently launched its initiative to boost efforts to prevent youth use of vaping products. The initiative, RELX Pledge, is guided by three key pillars: Guardian program, Golden Shield and Green Shoots, according to a release.
The Guardian program is an initiative that stretches from product development to sales, preventing and discouraging the use of vape products by minors through joint efforts with retailers to step up on-site identification, according to RELX’s head of marketing, Leina Chedid.
“Since our inception, youth prevention has been an integral part of RELX International’s core company values. Our Guardian program applies across all our sales and marketing and supports effective legislation and regulation to prevent the purchase and use of our products by minors,” she said.
The Golden Shield program aims to end the sale of counterfeit products by working closely with investigation firms, e-commerce platforms and local authorities to weed out such products from the market, according to RELX’s global head of external affairs Jonathan Ng. He said that through Golden Shield RELX has assisted in 28 successful cases, removing over 550,000 fake products from the market and over 77,000 websites since 2019.
Green Shoots program is an initiative created to give back to the community, using the brand’s experience to help aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners get their businesses on the track to growth and success, according to NG
“Startups and small businesses are the economic backbone of societies around the world. As a company that grew from a startup ourselves, we understand the numerous challenges that small businesses encounter daily. Through the Green Shoots program, we hope to share our experience and knowledge to help them get on the right track towards growth and success,” he said. “Protecting minors is an issue we take very seriously, as our pledge commitment shows. We sincerely hope that others in the industry take this lead and also commit to this new era of responsibility.”
Components of the RELX Pledge will be rolled-out globally (excluding Mainland China and the United States) throughout 2021, and will be further enhanced in 2022, according to the release. The RELX Pledge will be localized in countries in which RELX International holds a market presence to account for applicable local customs, cultures and traditions.
Through its CARE initiative, Vaporesso continues to give back to the communities it serves. On Christmas Eve last month, the China-based vapor company teamed with 17 participating vape shops around France to distribute relief supplies of food to their local communities. With more to come in the New Year, the supplies are intended to help support needy people affected by the fallout of Covid-19.
Credit: Vaporesso
“As Vaporesso grows in size and influence as an international brand, its capacity to influence positive change around the world expands. This growing ability contrasted with the Covid-19 outbreak resulted in the company ramping up corporate social responsibility initiatives throughout 2020,” a press release states. “Through a global network of international partners, Vaporesso has been donating time, money, and energy to giving.”
In France, Vaporesso CARE specifically chose the Christmas holiday as a time to give back. With Covid-19 still raging throughout the country and much of the rest of the world, many people were unable to spend time with their loved ones during the festive season. This, coupled with financial pressures meant that many people were in desperate need of support, according to the release.
Understanding this, Vaporesso CARE connected with local vape shops to give away free supplies, helping needy people throughout the holiday season. The food supplies have also been donated to a number of charity organizations with the intention of giving to an even wider range of people.
Vaporesso’s Global Marketing Director, Niki Zhang, said “At Vaporesso, we take being a positive corporate citizen very seriously. Doing what we can to give back to the community is part of our global mission to make the world a better place.”
The Vaporesso CARE program is dedicated to charity and positive action projects. Initially put together to help international partners cope with the pandemic, it has since grown to represent much more than the fight against Covid-19. Vaporesso CARE is now dedicated to supporting communities around the world through working together with local vape shops and institutions and is set to continue to grow into the future, according to the release.
Several vapor companies have stepped up during the Covid-19 crisis to help the communities they serve.
By Timothy S. Donahue
The vapor industry has produced millions of bottles of hand sanitizer during the Covid-19 pandemic. Several e-liquid manufacturing companies redesigned their production lines to help replenish one of the most-needed products since safety protocols to help slow the virus began in March. Manufacturers and retailers then donated much of the product to frontline organizations in need such as hospitals, police departments and nursing homes across the U.S.
Turning Point Brands (TPB) was one of the first companies to start producing hand sanitizer. The company said it expected to produce 6,600 liters of hand sanitizer for hospitals and retirement communities. TPB repurposed select manufacturing infrastructure to produce the free hand sanitizer for communities in California, Kentucky and Tennessee, according to the company.
“Our company takes very seriously our role in providing support to the communities where we operate. We hope that through this action we can both help those impacted by the Covid-19 situation and inspire others to act,” said Larry Wexler, president and CEO of TPB.
E-Liquitech was another company that repurposed infrastructure to produce hand sanitizer. George Cassels-Smith, president of E-Liquitech, said that his company teamed up with bottling partner C&C Bottling, which also manufactures several over-the-counter drugs. “We are producing about 11,000 gallons of hand sanitizer a day, six days a week,” said Cassels-Smith. “We had some extra equipment as well that we are using strictly for sanitizer production.”
Maryland-based E-Liquitech donates several hundred gallons of hand sanitizer to local hospitals in Maryland every week. The company plans on continuing to produce hand sanitizer and has now teamed up with several major distribution companies in order to resupply depleted store shelves. Cassells-Smith says it was just the right thing to do.
“There was a need and we had the ability to help out, so we put a plan in place and acted on it,” he says. “You are going to see people cleaning their hands with hand sanitizer for a long time. It’s going to be the new normal.”
In Virginia, Avail Vapor donated more than 5,000 masks to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to help medical professionals on the frontlines of the coronavirus battle protect themselves.
James Xu, CEO and chairman of Avail, said that the idea came to light early in the pandemic when Avail employees heard about the shortage of masks in China when Covid-19 initially struck. Avail works closely with many Chinese suppliers, and Avail employees wanted to support these suppliers in their time of need. When the virus began impacting the United States, those same Chinese colleagues returned the generosity and shipped thousands of masks to Avail head-quarters for employees and healthcare workers.
“To be successful, our business has always been highly collaborative with global partners,” said Xu. “To see our employees proactively answer a need for their Chinese counterparts was special. Now we are so grateful to our Chinese friends for helping us defend our citizens in this pandemic.”
LCF Labs, a Southern California-based e-liquid manufacturer, also began producing sanitizer. The company donated 100,000 bottles and is co-packing up to 20 million bottles with a distributor for Costco, Walgreens and other large retailers. River Supply Company has produced 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to date for local hospitals and nursing homes in California. Mr. Salt-E donated 10,000 bottles to e-liquid manufacturers that are producing hand sanitizer.
In Ohio, James Jarvis, who owns three vape shops, donated several hundred bottles of hand sanitizer to local police departments. Jarvis said that recipients of the sanitizer were genuinely pleased and excited. Tony Abboud, executive director for the Vapor Technology Association (VTA), a vapor industry advocacy group, says that his organization was informed of numerous examples of the vapor industry joining together to combat the coronavirus.
“[The] VTA has been working to support our member companies, which have stepped up to manufacture, bottle and distribute much needed hand sanitizer throughout our communities. [The] VTA is working with its members to source additional materials to further expand the great work already being done,” said Abboud in an email. “We are all in this together, and we are so proud of the way our community has rallied together to help get our nation through this public health crisis.”
Several China-based manufacturers also donated supplies to those in need. Relx Technology announced the extension of the Relx “For You With Care” project to support its inter-national partners during the Covid-19 crisis. Relx initially sent 78,200 masks and over 515 gallons of hand sanitizer to its global distributors, partners and store owners.
Credit: Praveen Kumar
“Relx is wholly committed to supporting the well-being of our employees, partners and store owners during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a global startup, we are doing what we can to help our global community. We hope our modest donation will help them during these trying times,” said Relx founder and CEO Kate Wang.
Abboud says he isn’t surprised by the generosity of the vapor industry. After all, the industry is founded on the principle of harm reduction and ending the 400,000 deaths caused every year by combustible cigarettes.
“We are incredibly proud of the vapor industry for stepping up, even as their own businesses continue to confront the economic fallout of this crisis,” said Abboud. “Vapor companies haven’t hesitated to take a leading role in their communities, making a difference in innovative and impactful ways. Their commitment to service is no surprise given that these business owners have made it their mission to support smokers and former smokers as they transition away from deadly cigarettes.” V
The companies mentioned in the article aren’t the only ones practicing good corporate social responsibility. The list of vapor companies helping their communities is long. While we can’t possibly name them all, here are just a few more examples, courtesy of the Vapor Technology Association:
• Lakes Vape and Rec Supply donated 363 bottles of hand sanitizer to fire departments, nursing homes and businesses in their Minnesota community, including UPS and FedEx. • Madwell Collective has produced 6,340 gallons of hand sanitizer to date.• Ripe Vapes has produced 500,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to date, donating one of every two bottles sold VapeRite has produced 12,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to date for first responders and food delivery workers in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Mech Sauce produced 1,500 bottles of hand sanitizer for the local U.S. Postal Service and seniors in Virginia.
• Chubby Gorilla donates empty bottles to be filled with hand sanitizer for distribution. • Midnight Manufacturing produces 300,000 bottles weekly to support hand sanitizer distribution efforts. • Mob Liquid is committed to producing 10,000 bottles of hand sanitizer weekly. • EjuiceBLVD is producing 6,000 to 7,000 bottles of hand sanitizer weekly. • Euless Vapor donated 150 bottles to their local fire and police departments in Texas. • USA Vape Labs has produced 5,000 gallons of hand sanitizer for local nursing homes, local medical facilities and government employees. • Boosted Juice donated 600 bottles to local police departments in Colorado.
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has teamed up with Trading Standards to prevent the underage sales of vapor products across the country.
With the support of Buckinghamshire & Surrey Trading Standards, the association has published the Preventing Underage Sales Guide—the first of its kind published by the U.K. vapor industry.
John Dunne
The guide covers current vaping age legislation in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; use and best practice enforcement of the Challenge 25 rule; and dealing with the issue of proxy purchasing where an adult buys on behalf of someone under 18. It also advises on different forms of ID that can be accepted and methods of deception to be aware of as well as points to consider with digital age verification.
“The legal age to buy vaping products is 18, and we want to keep it that way by making it as hard as possible for minors to get their hands on vaping devices and e-liquids,” said John Dunne, director at the UKVIA. “This guide is designed to ensure consistency and high-level standards across the industry when it comes to age verification.”
In an effort to help front-line workers quit combustible cigarettes, VPZ is donating £100,000 worth of products. VPZ, the UK’s largest vape retailer, said the initiative was started in order to show appreciation for these workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Key workers including police officers, NHS staff and blue light card holders will all be able to benefit from free products as the company says thank you to the frontline people that were tackling the virus head on, according to a press note.
“It has been a long and difficult fight against this pandemic, and it is has been in large part the work of front line staff that we are beginning to see parts of the country reopen and a sense of normality return, said Doug Mutter, director for VPZ. “Now that we have been open for nearly a month, we had a discussion with the all our staff to see how we could give back to the people that have been supporting us, now just as a business but also in keeping us safe during the lockdown. So, we all agreed to offer free products to the front-line staff.”
Mutter says that there is no catch, and the initiative is just a simple thank you. Customers only need to visit VPZ’s website, register with their photo ID card. Customers will then be emailed a voucher that can redeem in any VPZ store.
There is a wide range of devices available from beginner devices to advanced mods.
“We have tried to cater for as many different types of vapers as we can. We know many front-line workers have wanted to quit smoking but not had the time or opportunity to test out devices to find the right one for them,” said Mutter. “”Our customers and each of their unique requirements are always top of mind, with that we’ve made sure that even on a free giveaway, customers can choose from a range of devices that will suit their specific needs.”
Mutter says the greatest challenge for many smokers is finding the right advice and guidance with vape stores being closed during lockdown. Many customers have turned back to smoking so it is critical for VPZ to offer as many options as possible to help them quit tobacco for good, said Mutter.
“Stop smoking services have also been slashed across the country and with us now re-open we have a lot of smokers who are looking to quit but are stuck without proper guidance,” he said. “We know that a lot of smokers have used the lockdown as a time to finally quit smoking, but front line workers have been very busy so we hope that our donation can go some way to helping any who do smoke an opportunity to use this offer for them to quit and our way of saying thank you.”
Women make up roughly half of the population, yet they remain underrepresented in many industries, especially among the senior echelons. In the tobacco industry, for example, women account for only 30 percent of the workforce, 21 percent of management and 20 percent of boards.
That represents a missed opportunity, not only for the individuals involved, but also at the corporate level. Research carried out by the FP Analytics Division of the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Group reveals that companies with more women in executive management and on boards outperform those with fewer women in such positions.
Companies with higher shares of women in senior management are not only more profitable, they also are more transparent and have significantly higher environmental, social and governance ratings. According to a 2019 report by the International Labour Organization, enterprises that promote gender diversity are 59 percent more likely to achieve greater creativity, innovation and openness than their more homogenous counterparts.
In the tobacco industry, women are helping drive the much-needed transformation to a more sustainable and inclusive future. Among other things, they are pushing their companies to focus on harm reduction, promoting greener farming practices among tobacco growers and advocating for equal pay.
During TMA’s 2020 virtual conference, an expert panel moderated by Regulation Strategy’s Patricia Kovacevic examined the barriers facing women throughout the employment pipeline and explored possible solutions. Drawing on research and personal experiences, the panelists agreed that the goal should not be to ‘fix’ women but rather to change the way people think about the workforce and leadership.
They also stressed the importance of mentorship, gender pay gap reporting and accountability. And they called on industry leaders to signal that gender equality and inclusivity matters to them—not just because it is ethical but also because it is good for business.
Youth use is a major concern for the vapor industry. RELX Technology today published its first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, outlining the concrete steps the company is taking to advance its vision to provide vaping solutions, “while driving operational excellence, managing its social impact and preventing underage use of its products,” according to a press release.
The report provides a comprehensive picture of its CSR activities. Key 2019 highlights, which span a wide range of activities from environmental protection to economic empowerment, include:
RELX opened over 2,500 RELX points of sale and entered over 100,000 retail stores, serving adult consumers in over 40 countries and regions.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company established a support fund of RMB 20 million and provided other support mechanisms, including sending hand sanitizer and masks to RELX stores and partners all over the world.
RELX has installed ID and facial recognition technology in 80% of stores. The pre-purchase age verification process led RELX to refuse to sell products to 2% of store visitors, after they were found to be under-age.
RELX launched 16 anti-counterfeit cases in 2019, leading to the seizure of over 65,000 counterfeit products.
RELX initiated the “Lighten the Burden on Earth” campaign and recovered over 20,000 empty pods in one month.
The company terminated partnerships with close to 1,800 retail stores, which were located too close to schools.
RELX is on course with its business and sustainability ambitions, delivering on its goal to develop viable alternatives to cigarettes, supporting its local communities in times of crises, all while ensuring its products do not fall in the wrong hands.
RLX Technology presented its “Corporate Social Responsibility Report.” The report outlines the firm’s annual progress in fulfilling various corporate social responsibilities, including rural revitalization, product-related responsibility, corporate governance, environmental responsibility and employee responsibility.
